Former EA Exec Patrick Söderlund New Studio Acquired By Nexon

Almost three months after leaving his job at EA as chief design officer in August 2018, former DICE CEO and EA executive Patrick Söderlund is ready to announce his next venture in the gaming industry.Patrick Soderlund's is teaming up with MapleStory publisher Nexon to found a new developer called Embark Studios.

Söderlund announced the news during a Nexon earnings call in Tokyo.Embark is a collaboration of sorts, with Nexon serving as both a publisher and investor in the fledgling studio. Söderlund and his team had nothing to show at the time of the announcement,but the former EA executive has big plans for the future. “We have a mass-market, large-scale ambition with what we’re going to do,” he says.

"Nexon was already working with Embark and had invested in it, but now Nexon owns 66.1 percent of Embark's outstanding shares, increasing its investment from 32.8 percent. As such, Embark is now the majority shareholder", as per The Verge.

Söderlund said in a release that the studio wants to build games with multiple “abstract layers of simulation and will make use of emerging technologies to build new kinds of online interactive experiences.” Here is his full statement."What if you could have 10 abstraction layers of simulation in a game where you could choose to become a farmer, or go into politics, or join the military, or be a professional athlete, inside of that world? These are some of the questions that are in my head."