Seamus Blackley is one of the co-creators of Microsoft's original Xbox console, and he put together a really interesting team of old-school Atari game developers recently to make mobile games. Blackley's new company is called Innovative Leisure, and while the website isn't anything more than a groovy logo, the devs he's got on board make for a pretty impressive list: Ed Rotberg (who made Battlezone), Owen Rubin (Space Duel), Rich Adam (who worked on Missile Command), Ed Logg (the creator of Astroids and Centipede), Dennis Koble (who programmed Shooting Gallery), Bruce Merrit (creator of Black Widow) and Tim Skelly (who is also an old school game dev, though not with Atari).

The company is completely separate from Atari (which already has a pretty significant presence on the App Store), but the team has some money already and is reportedly working on prototypes and ideas for a first game.

It should be interesting. The mobile gaming market is filling up fast, but there's no question that these guys know how to make solid and interesting arcade games. We'll have to see what they can do with iOS and other mobile platforms.

Atari team rejoins to make mobile titles originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.