Zoe Mode opens US office with former Sony staff

Zoe Mode has found space in San Francisco and is expected to open the new office next month with former Sony staff comprised of Mark Danks and Sarah Stocker.

The arm of Kuju's social games studio, Zoe Mode plans to act as a liaison for North America, and is set to hire an additional 20 staff members by the end of the year.

The firm plans to become a full-time development studio and work on music-based games as well as other genres.

"In addition to the increasingly crowded singing and dancing, peripheral-based music games, we are interested in exploring some new territory," Zoe's general manager Ed Daly told GI.biz.

"We have various IPs in development, new IPs that we're working on at the studio which we're talking to publishers about and getting into production. They're still games aimed at a mainstream audience or new type of gamer, but they're not the in-the-room party games which are becoming more commonplace."

"Having been in the games industry for so long we have a really good network of people that we've always wanted to bring in and work together with," added Stocker.

"It's going to be a full-on development studio with its own development staff but one of the things that will work is that we'll be able to have a real presence for Zoe Mode in San Francisco and on the West Coast to meet with publishing partners as well."

Former Sony staffer Danks previously held senior positions at Electronic Arts and Stormfront Studios, and while at Sony, Stocker was responsible for bringing SingStar to the US.

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