NCsoft has just formally announced Carbine Studios as the latest member of their successful game development company.

Located in the Orange County area of Southern California it’s apparently proven a great spot within hours from the Blizzard studio where they’ve managed to poach 17 former Blizzard employees, in addition to the lead programmer/designer on Fallout, the Turbine Inc. Co-founder responsible for Asheron’s Call, and a few of their own NCsoft City of Heroes team.

Robert Garriott, CEO for NCsoft’s North American business and brother of Richard Garriott had the following to say:

This is a dev team made in heaven, this group is as experienced as they come in the area of computer role playing and multiplayer game design. Making successful games is second nature to them. They are a very welcome addition to the NCsoft family. The gaming community should be excited to see what great things come out of Carbine Studios in the coming years.

The studio is currently working on a unannounced MMO game which their website promises to release more info on in the “coming month’s”.

Include below are several backgrounds available in their download section that may be concept art for their new MMO.

There’s also several job openings available at the new studio for various programming and design positions.