Colony Studios has joined the list of new MMO developer studios with one significant advantage – the team members have contributed significantly to the successes of the most popular MMOs including World of Warcraft, EVE Online, City of Heroes, Dark Age of Camelot, Lord of the Rings Online, Everquest, and Ultima Online.

Veteran MMO developer Michael Wallis, CEO of Colony Studios, believes his team has more per capita experience working on hit MMO titles than any team of its size ever assembled.

"Our collective contributions to a significant number of hit MMOs give us a strong advantage," says Wallis. "Most dev teams – including Colony's – have gone through the process of learning what doesn't work in game development, but our team members have also been intimately involved with creating what does work in several successful MMOs and that combination will serve us well. Our challenge is, of course, to use our experience and talent correctly to create an MMO that players will enjoy."

Colony Studios' MMO is based on its own IP and focuses on a dynamic, living world which won't be developed as a "safe" MMO, meaning it won't be a World of Warcraft clone with a new IP skin. Colony Studio's goal is not to be afraid to take chances outside the normal MMO design and to breathe new life into what is often described as a somewhat stagnant increasingly generic genre.

"Our MMO, which will offer far more than a linear storyline, will provide a ton of history and backstory, but the players will consistently influence the content," says Wallis. "The bottom line is we've launched MMOs before, and our experience lets us anticipate bumps in the road and steer clear of them. The fact that we've been through it before means things are much less likely to fall through the cracks."

Colony Studios' first MMO is currently scheduled for a late 2009 release.