GameDaily has revealed that Insomniac Games, the developers behind the Ratchet and Clank series as well as Resistance: Fall of Man and its upcoming sequel, will be opening a new development studio in North Carolina, marking the first time they have expanded outside of their current Burbank, California location in their 14-year history. They currently plan to have it up and running by early 2009.

The studio will be built in the Raleigh-Durham area, which is known as the "Research Triangle" and is home to a wealth of game companies, including development studios owned by EA, Ubisoft, and Epic in addition to various other independent developers and publishers. Insomniac chose the area for the new studio because they found it to have a "great combination of talent, great quality of life, and great cost of living."

To head up the studio, Insomniac plans to send Chad Dezern, their art director, and Shaun McCabe, their lead gameplay programmer, to the new location as studio director and production director, respectively. The two are currently working on Resistance 2, but they will leave for North Carolina once the game is completed to hire 25-30 new developers and prepare the studio to begin work on new and existing intellectual properties.

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"This is a fantastic opportunity for us to start a new group with the same philosophy that we've built up over the last 14 years at Insomniac, which is to have a team focused on top craftsmanship and attention to detail," said Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac. "What's great about this team is that it's an opportunity for Insomniac to expand without increasing our number in Burbank. It's great to have a team that has that start-up mentality with a small group of people who are very focused on creating AAA games, but on the other side of the country. It gives us a great opportunity to bring on folks who may not have the ability to make it to the West Coast or who prefer the East Coast to the West Coast."

Price also added that the team in Burbank will be shrinking once Resistance 2 is finished and that the new team, while consisting of only around 30 people, will be able to create full PS3 games. He wouldn't, however, reveal what the studio's first game would be, saying that he doesn't want to "make big promises or big statements without being able to back them up" and that he wants "to be absolutely sure our team is up, operational and going before we announce what project we're working on."

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