Angry Birds 2 lead programmer Jonas Johansson has opened a new VR studio in Sweden called Neuston, which will focus on developing social-focused action games. Neuston was founded back in 2016, but its existence was kept under wraps until now. The developer's first game will be announced in the coming weeks.

Johansson was lead programmer at Rovio for three years before leaving in September 2016. He has also held roles at Crytek and Avalanche Studios working on PC and console titles such as Just Cause 2 and Crysis.

Social By Nature

"Humans are social by nature, and shared experiences create bonds like nothing else. Virtual reality allows us to augment our lives with experiences that would otherwise not be possible," he stated on Neuston's website. "Players can see their hands and look around freely in these new worlds. Hand–eye coordination has been a staple ingredient of action games for decades, and now it’s more intuitive than ever."

Rovio continues to see success with its games business having doubled its revenues year-on-year in Q1 FY17 to $61.7 million. Its overall revenues rose to $72.3 million for the quarter.