Endemol to open casual games studio

A job posting on the web has further fleshed out TV firm Endemol’s plans for casual games development, revealing it is to create a dedicated team to focus on making massmarket-oriented titles in-house.

The news comes after the firm appointed casual games veteran Eric LaVanchy as director of gaming two weeks ago.

Endemol is now looking to build the team that will report to LaVanchy, previously founder and vice president of creative development for New York-based Bottle Rocket. The new studio will be based in Los Angeles.

"Endemol Digital Media is creating a dedicated team to focus on casual game development," says the posting.

The firm previously announced that its team would work on devising new casual games based on its Deal or No Deal and 1 vs 100 US quiz shows, but the posting reveals that the team will also be charged with making "new original content purpose-built for casual play on new media platforms".

It seems the strategy isn’t just focused on Endemol USA, either – the posting adds that as well as being charged with "establishing reusable software, support systems and technical infrastructures" the team will also be required to "establish a creative and technical casual game knowledge and resource center to be leveraged by the company worldwide".