Ex-members of EA Australia and EA Melbourne have announced the formation of a new racing game-focussed studio based in Melbourne, to be known as The Three Thousands.
According to the team, the new Australian studio has set its sights on developing “genre-defining racing titles that will resonate with global audiences.” Though the studio may only be newly formed, there’s certainly plenty of racing game pedigree that’s powering it, with decades of combined experience shared between several of its senior team members who have previously worked on popular tarmac-tearing franchises like Real Racing and Need for Speed.
“Our goal with The Three Thousands is to become the ultimate digital automotive brand, blending racing, culture, and entertainment in a way that no one has done before,” said Joseph Donoghue, CEO of The Three Thousands.
“We’ve assembled a core team that are truly best in class at what they do to help deliver against the vision and we couldn’t be happier with the results.”
That team includes chief product officer Nikhil Kurian, who was previously the racing general manager at EA Melbourne, and chief creative officer Benjamin Dawe, who once served as EA Melbourne’s studio creative director. Along with Donoghue, the three senior members of The Three Thousands have had a hand in delivering over 750 million downloads of racing games. Which begs the question, why didn’t they call their new studio The Seven Hundred and Fifty Millions?
At any rate, work is already well underway on a yet to be named racing game set to launch in 2025, with other projects and partnerships to apparently be announced in the coming months. At this point it’s not clear if The Three Thousands team is going to be focussed soley on the mobile gaming space given their experience with the Real Racing series, or if they’ll be bringing their upcoming projects to PC and consoles too. The team certainly seems to have bold ambitions for whichever platform the studio’s games end up on, with Dawe claiming that the nascent studio’s aim is “to create next-gen experiences that challenge what’s possible in gaming and entertainment.”
Tristan Ogilvie is Senior Video Editor at IGN’s Australian office. He only wrote this article because regular IGN revhead Luke Reilly is on holiday this week.
