Upon hearing the news that Oz animation studio Animal Logic had opened a gaming studio, Animal Logic Interactive, in Los Angeles, I couldn't help but be sad. To me it seemed the government's lack of support for developers had finally manifested itself in a way we could all appreciate.

Jason Hill of Screenplay managed to get in contact with AL's CEO Zareh Nalbandian to find out exactly what motivated the company to go with LA over Melbourne or Brisbane:

"We felt that there was a rich pool of talent ... that we have more options in Los Angeles at this point of time than we have elsewhere."

Options and talent? Sure, those are important factors, but I find it hard to believe that tax breaks had nothing to do with it.

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Unless you've seen Happy Feet, you probably haven't heard of Animal Logic. The company is a digital animation studio based in Fox Studios in Sydney. It's also worked on 300, 28 Weeks Later and the Oz flick The Black Balloon. Excluding the hunk of aborted crap that was 28 Weeks, it's a excellent portfolio.

Now AL wants to do games. Games! Here's what CEO Zareh Nalbandian had to say:

"As production values for games increase exponentially, so do the opportunities at the convergence of high end digital film making and game creation. ALI is uniquely poised to lead this convergence with its commitment to visual innovation, quality, talent and great ideas".

Hey, if Ninja Theory reckons it can do decent, realistic 3D movies on the cheap, then there's nothing stopping Animal Logic from doing the same for games.

My only question: Why open the damn thing up over in LA? Oh, that's right, the government still sucks at supporting developers in Australia.

Press release after the jump.

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