Following on from what it called a "significant investment" in November 2011, UK mobile publisher Thumbstar Games has opened a new studio in Newcastle.

It will be headed by Martin Oliver, who previously worked on the Driver series at Ubisoft's Newcastle-based studio Reflections.

Reflections co-founders Martin and Gareth Edmondson, are now CCO and CEO at Thumbstar, respectively.

The new outfit has already assembled a full complement of staff, and game announcements are expected "in the not too distant future".

Driving success

"We have worked with Martin for over 10 years at Reflections and his contribution, in particular to the success of Driver San Francisco, puts us in no doubt that he is the right man for the job," said Gareth Edmondson.

Oliver went on to add, "Joining Martin and Gareth at Thumbstar is a hugely exciting prospect ... We already feel we have a strong team in place to continue this tradition in the mobile space."

Thumbstar is a mobile games service provider representing over 100 developers, and providing more than 2,000 games and apps across iOS, Android, and Java through channels into 128 markets.