Oxygen unveils new Wii and DS studio

Another studio has pledged its allegiance to Nintendo, Develop has discovered: UK games firm Oxygen has founded a new development studio in London that will be committed to making games for just the Wii and DS.

Publishing director Kevin Hassall explained to us that Oxygen Studios’ Nintendo-only focus was spurred by the machine’s fast growing installed base of casual users.

"Oxygen’s objective has always been to cater for mainstream audiences. So, if we had set up Oxygen Studios a couple of years ago they would probably have started with a PS2 title," he said.

"But today the DS is the ascendant mainstream format, and it looks like the Wii will repeat that awesome success.

So inevitably Oxygen Studios is starting with the Nintendo platforms – it’s simply a reflection of the success that Nintendo have had with the mainstream market."

He added: "In future the studio may well extend its technology beyond Nintendo’s formats. It is absolutely a question of which platforms the mainstream consumers are playing on."

It’s a mood catching on with other studios as well – Gusto Games has recently established new studio in Derby that will also be Wii and DS exclusive, and Develop understands at least two other studios in the UK are getting ready to confirm their status as exclusively focused on Wii and DS, with official comments due soon.