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Insomniac opens North Carolina studio

Ratchet & Clank developer ventures into Tar Heel country with first expansion; offshoot expected to start up by January.

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Insomniac Games can prepare for a few more sleepless nights. The Ratchet & Clank developer announced today that it will be birthing the first offshoot studio in the company's 14-year history.

By January, Insomniac expects to go bicoastal, opening up a North Carolina shop to complement its current California-based operation. The new studio will put down roots in the Raleigh-Durham area, and "will focus both on developing current and new intellectual properties."

According to Insomniac founder and CEO Ted Price, "Our goal with the North Carolina studio is to blend our experience and proven track record with the tenacity of a start-up venture. Expanding to Raleigh-Durham also allows us to maintain an ideal size in Burbank while offering an attractive alternative for developers wishing to live on the East Coast."

The new Insomniac studio will feed into an existing talent pool in the area. North Carolina is already home to a number of developers, including Epic Games, Vicious Cycle, Red Storm Entertainment, Merscom, and the US branch of Funcom.

At the North Carolina studio, an expected team of 25-30 developers will answer to Insomniac's current art director Chris Dezern and gameplay lead Shaun McCabe. Dezern will serve as studio director, and McCabe will assume the role of production director. Both developers will finish up work on Resistance 2 before the new studio opens.

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DoomtheGrav

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Insomniac ftw.

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Rafinator

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Insomniac is my favorite developer. they never put out a bad game

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R-Force

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Fantastic! These guys truly are the one of the best independent studios ever. I'm positive we'll see some great games from this new studio in time.

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dewey1991

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Sweet...one of my favorite developers and would love to work for them. rather live in NC now

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LURCH87

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nice i live in NC.

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BigBoss712

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Great! they are one of my favorite developers, love resistance. :)

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-Raiden-

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yeaa, more ratcet games!

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ninjasam

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I didn't like resistance. I would rather they stick to platformers, not because they shouldn't branch out, but because they are pretty much the only remaining force in good platformers

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jmdude

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Go insomniac!!! After resistance 2, go for Resistance 3 and a new ratchet and clank game(maybe make a jak and ratchet game together with naughty dog)!!!!

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Viral-venom13

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AHHH DARN!!, ......now why oh why couldn't i not have already have my degree in Game Design, with an opportunity like this i could have acquired a cool job here!! Curses to the darker side of ambition!!

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SonicTheMonkey

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Sounds good, I just hope this doesn't pull talent from the Burbank location. Love Insomniac by the way--my fav independent developer.

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tootergray34

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I wonder if I can get a job there, and do nothing...but still get paid a lot of money.

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KamuiFei

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You can almost bet that once the new studio opens, first thing they'll be working on is Resistance 3 ;) , among others.

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dukerav

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Boo at the mere mention of the word "Tar Heel" but thats another matter altogether. :P Anyway, this is good news for this state and area in general. Having both Epic and with Insomniac opening a new studio here it could potentially lure more developers out this way. Awesome news indeed. :)

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Avatar image for deactivated-57d90c9edb9a1
deactivated-57d90c9edb9a1

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Go Insomniac!!

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ctg867

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Sounds to me like they want a Resistance studio and a Ratchet studio. Could be very good news for Insomniac to give each dev team more work. Hopefully this means more East Coast talent on board, along with better quality in future Resistance and Ratchet games.

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Pete5506

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This should be good, maybe some more good games

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agentzero23

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Now they can make twice as many games!

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ddashboy242

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Insomniac games are sweet, R2 even sweeter

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lanmanna

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Insomniac(along with Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog) are my favorite companies under Sony. Insomniac has made great games like Spyro and Ratchet and Clank. With the second studio opening, that means even more Insomniac goodness! :D

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peeweeshift

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I have high hopes for this studio. More studios means more games. You can get quality even with few devs. starcraft and nfs:mw did it

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peacenutman

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The bigger the studio the faster the games pumps out!

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balanekk

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god Insomniac is amazing. cant wait for Resistance 2. Its good to know now that they are expanding finally.

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osmifura

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Good job!

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lamprey263

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lamprey263  Online

new IPs sound good, I'm looking forward to seeing what they come out with

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PSdual_wielder

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Nice, it also represents that insomniac is now an even more strong-standing studio than it it was before.

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masterchief375

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Gah i wanna work for Epic or Insomniac :)

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Rhen_Var

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As long as they dare not delay Resistance 2, I'm okay with the movement, not that it makes a difference to me...

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Theempire30

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Sweet thats only a couple of hours from me.

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Serbine

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Wow, that's really cool I live in North Carolina:D.

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shadyelf

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Ooh I live pretty near there! Maybe I'll be able to visit sometime :P

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09231991

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Idk, I still like Insomniac because of the R&C series but the series has been kinda going down a little. Hopefully they'll rejuvenate it with their next R&C game, hopefully. And Resistance, never really been a fan of it, looked like somewhat of a decent shooter, hopefully the sequel will be good because the first really didn't do any justice for the company, in my viewpoint at least.

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tyrant2004

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Nice to hear, Insomniac is probably the only studio I really like, nowadays. Ratchet and clank is my favorite series on any system, and Resistance had good promise, and Resistance 2 will be awesome.

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Drkr_Zen

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Sounds great. I'm glad to see one of my favorite developers doing so well. As for this affecting their development times and quality of their games.. I don't really see the need to change any of it. Any faster and they'll be putting out games bi-yearly, any more quality and they'll be damn near perfect. They're fine as is.. especially when you take into account that they're about to have out 3 PS3 games in the 2 years the system has been out.. all receiving very high marks and a few awards here and there. Aside from that, I'd kind of like to see this new studio take on side projects.. maybe something along the lines of backing up all Insomniac HQ main stay series (R&C, Resistance) with a lot of DLC, or something.

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icym

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I've read some people saying that area could be the next "Austin" for studios to start from. Who knows, but its certainly headed in the right direction apparently...

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Calmed_Fury

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excellent

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BigSmitts07

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sweet..maybe they will finally make some games for the 360....not...i wish though

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kos1085

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Maybe with more man power, they can develop games faster and use more time to polish their games.

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War-Tex

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@ nate1222 Same here. Just love R&C. Can't wait for the next. But Insomniac is probably concentrating on Resistance 2 for now...

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Sagacious_Tien

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Good luck to them and to the new studio.

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ADJ209

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Insomniac are awesome Time spliiters is a classic

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nate1222

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I love Insomniac for the Ratchet & Clank series. That's what made me a fan.

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dmish82

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Insomniac is a solid studio and a role model to developers! Rock On!

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flavort

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hell yeah, east coast rules, Insomniac rules

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Esteban011487

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Great! Go Insomniac!

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killzone_gamer

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This can only be good news for Playstation fans. Oh, and Das, i hope that Naughty Dog do as well, some more exclusive new IP's would always be nice :D

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mier2003

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yay only 20 minutes away from where I live.

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das_Ausmerzer

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Sweet, i wonder if Naughty Dog will follow suit, the two companies were (not sure if they still are) in the same building, wonder if this means they are going different ways now...

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NWA_31

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Awesome. :D Go Insomniac !

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Neo1O1

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@ Dilan120 When I think of Naughty Dog, I think of Insomniac & vice-versa! This is simply great news for PS3 owners.

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