Unable to overcome the high barriers to entry involved with console games, Eastern European studios have instead embraced the opportunities of casual gaming.

Moscow-based outfit Nival is one such example; one that is expanding quickly. 

It's just set up its fourth development studio, called Nival Red, and designated with a mobile focus, in Kiev, Ukraine.

Running with Red

"Nival strives to create the best and most innovative projects and the new studio, specialising in cross-platform development, allows us to expand into new markets and extend the unique Prime World universe with exciting, new games," said president and founder Sergey Orlovskiy.

"This new studio also shows our company's remarkable growth as a global leader developing fun, high-quality games designed for shared, coordinated experiences."

The formation of Nival Red – which will focus on 'social strategy' titles – comes after the publisher opened up an office in Los Angeles in May. Global expansion is key, and that's a goal new studio head Artem Mironovskiy is happy to help achieve.

"We've already assembled a core team of highly-experienced developers at Nival Red and can’t wait to expand our team further," added Mironovsky.

"Pairing our efforts and Nival's experience allows us to create an exceptional studio that will set a new quality level for mobile games."

With 250 developers, Nival also has operations in St. Petersburg, Russia and Minsk, Belarus.

[source: Nival]