Former Blizzard developers Chris Kaleiki and Doug Frazer have joined forces to established Notorious Studios.
Kaleiki spent 13 years at Blizzard on the World of Warcraft team as a systems and class designer, while Frazer worked on the MMO as a senior gameplay engineer.
The pair said they founded Notorious to create fantasy RPGs that “unite players within deep worlds,” and have been joined at the company by a number of Blizzard veterans keen to deliver on that vision.
“Starting a new company is hard. Making a new game from scratch is very hard. Building out a new game world is daunting work. We are truly jumping into the ‘inferno mode’ of game development,” said Kaleiki on Twitter.
“But what drives us is the opportunity to bring new experiences and build new worlds for players. It’s going to be an epic journey for sure, but my hope is that the players and the community will be the wind for which we sail.”
Notorious has already received backing from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riot Games, and 1Up Fund. The studio’s debut project is currently in development, and will feature a “new core RPG world” alongside multiplayer gameplay and combat.