Tantalus Interactive, which was recently responsible for the Xbox version of Unreal II: The Awakening, announced the establishment of Tantalus Asia. The new development studio, which is based in Kuala Lumpur, is a joint venture between Tantalus and the Malaysian media company eTouch Globiz.

　　Tantalus Asia has contracts in place to provide content to Malaysia's three leading telecommunications companies. It started work on its first games for wireless devices in October of last year. The studio currently employs 10 people, and it hopes to expand with an additional 20 local programmers and artists by the end of the year.

　　"We'd wanted to get into wireless development for some time, and with the approach from eTouch, who were already well established in the Malaysian market, we finally had our chance," said Tom Crago, CEO of Tantalus Interactive. "We've been very impressed by the talent pool in Malaysia, and of course it remains a very cost-effective base for game development."

　　"After assessing the market, we handpicked Tantalus to partner with us in Malaysia," added Adeline Tang, chairman at eTouch Globiz. "We felt their handheld technology was among the best around, and we were convinced this would translate well into the wireless space. We've been very impressed so far."

　　Tantalus Asia's plans for the future include developing five or six games for release during 2004, along with another 30 or so that have been aggregated from developers in North America and Europe. The studio also plans to develop content for Interactive Television and for the N-Gage.