When EA Chicago shut down last year, savvy gamers were disappointed that they wouldn't be seeing any more games out of the respected Fight Night team (not to mention that they were working on a now-canned Marvel fighting game).

But what most didn't know was that when EA shut down its Chicago studio, the publisher held a large job fair for the employees who were laid off. And it was EA rival Activision that swooped in almost immediately and picked up the 27 founders of Robomodo, which officially announced its existence on Tuesday.

"Activision came in faster than anyone else and got us up and running ... It was a very quick move on their part," said Robomodo director Joshua Tsui (pictured) in a phone interview with Edge.

"They saw a group of 30 guys all ready to go, and Activision freaked out. ... We had almost a complete team right off the bat. ... It was a turn-key operation."

According to Tsui, the Fight Night team at EA Chicago consisted of about 40-50 people, meaning Robomodo's founding team consisted of the majority of that group. The studio came together in mid-January this year.

Today, Robomodo has grown to 45 employees and resides in a new location overlooking downtown Chicago, an area that Tsui says has "a rich history in game development." Eventually, Tsui expects the studio to grow to around 50.

Many of the founding members of Robomodo were all senior employees of EA Chicago, with disciplines that run the gamut of game production. The new studio now lays claim to EA Chicago's former Fight Night lead character modeler, lead environmental artist, lead animation engineer and lead programming architect, among others.

The five partners that actually founded the company include Tsui, David Michicich (CEO and creative director), Nick Ehrlich (COO and director of project management), Peter Sauerbrei (CTO) and Richard Ho (motion director).

All founders except for Sauerbrei first worked together on the Mortal Kombat series during the early 90s while at fellow Chicago-based developer Midway Games.

Mystery Game

The studio has a very intriguing background, but for now, the firm is keeping an airtight lid on its upcoming game, to be published by Activision Publishing.

What Robomodo did reveal is that it plans to expand in order to develop for "established series," and then move onto its own IP. The company will develop for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC and handhelds.

Open job positions on the Robomodo website seek an environment artist that can create Xbox 360 and PS3 game assets and a level designer capable of creating "character-based gameplay scenarios."

Asked if the project would be part of a franchise that gamers would instantly recognize, Tsui would only say, "Yeah, it's a pretty high-profile project for sure. We're pretty fortunate that Activision is entrusting a new studio like ours with something like this."

And with the studio's strong background in fighting games and Activision's ongoing relationship with Marvel, could we expect a comic fighter?

Maybe not. The studio's website describes the game as an "extreme sports" title.

Michicich added, "We love comic books and have a big love for fighting games. Obviously, that's a really easy conclusion to make [to work on a comic fighter]. But Robomodo is not just about fighting games. We're really interested in stretching our legs."