Smilegate is opening up a new studio that sole purpose is to focus on AAA games, with their first project being an open world title for consoles. The new studio, dubbed Smilegate Barcelona is located in Barcelona, Spain and is currently looking to expand their current workforce, which is a little over 20 members as of today. Smilegate is most known for its publishing of the first-person shooter, Crossfire, and is currently working on the Xbox One release version, CrossfireX.

“As open-world games will continue to dominate the video game industry, we are well-positioned to build upon our team’s experience with talent from around the world, and are ready to create a AAA experience from our new studio in Barcelona,” said Yongil Kim, the CEO of Smilegate Barcelona, Smilegate. “Barcelona’s vibrant and lively youth culture set to the backdrop of gorgeous old world history is a powerful and inspiring combination. The city welcomes creativity and supports technology industries such as ours with a strong infrastructure and high quality of life.”

The press release states that Barcelona was chosen for the new studio due to how important the city has become to Europe in terms of technological advances, amongst other things. This announcement comes with a number of new job openings that are now live on their official website. No further details were given as to what this open world game may pertain be, though we do know in the very least that the studio will focus on making console games. Chances are we won’t hear about this project for some time, leaving us to assume that it will most likely release sometime during the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X life cycles. We’ll be sure to update you if any more details are provided.