Posts Tagged ‘electronic arts’

True Games snags yet another Top EA exec, moves to Lone Star State

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

(Formerly) Irvine, CA based True Games has recently announced that they’ve appointed former EA, Turbine, and SOE veteran Mick Giles as their new Chief Technology Officer. Giles brings 13 years of industry experience to the table, having most recently served as Senior Director of Online Operation for North America and Asia and Senior Director of Technology for Worldwide Studios at Electronic Arts. Pardon me…what? That actually bears repeating – EA’s chief of Online Ops and director of global Tech – just joined a relative startup, with a business model based on free-to-play titles supported by microtransactions. To say this is big might be selling the concept short.

If Giles’ most recent position didn’t warrant enough street cred, he also served as Execvutive Director of Technology at Turbine, where he oversaw core development projects, operations, IT, and Biz Dev efforts for Asheron’s Call, DDO, and LotRO. And rounding out the ‘Wow, this guy’s been a major player in a lot of stuff’ category, from 2003-2006, Giles filled the role of Director of Platform Technology at Sony Online Entertainment, meaning he was deeply involved in development and technology efforts in titles including EverQuest, EverQuest2, Star Wars Galaxies, The Matrix Online, and Planetside.

“Mick brings to the team an extensive background in technology, operations, platform management and more, and we look forward to adding his expertise to our management team,” said Jeff Lujan, Founder and CEO of True Games Interactive. “With one live game in Warrior Epic and one game about to go into beta in Mytheon, as well as multiple games in development, his expertise and experience is a welcome addition to the team.”

This announcement follows True Games’ rather recent appointment of 15 year industry vet Frank Lucero. And lest we forget, K2, Namco, and Vivendi vet Peter Cesario is now with True Games, as well as former NCSoft and EA exec Peter Jarvis. It looks as through True Games has truly managed to attract some very powerful people all under one roof.

And it looks like that roof in the Golden State isn’t going to be big enough.

Bundled with the announcement of Giles joining the True Games team, they’ve also announced that they’re officially moving their HQ from Irvine, CA to Austin, TX. Not exactly a surprise move, as only this past October, the company announced that they’ve opened a development studio in Austin. Slated for an official closure in March 2010, many of True Games employees will soon be relocating to Texas. The company cites continued growth, stronger internal communication, and a heavier focus on game development, as well as the excellent talent pool in Austin as primary motivators to move.

“Once we were doing our planning for the next several years, it just made more sense for us to combine offices in Austin, as opposed to moving everybody here to Irvine,” Cesario said.

It’s also fair to say that economic conditions are a factor in True Games’ decision. Cesario relates, “Last week, a company official was in town looking at potential office locations. An agent quoted the monthly rent on one of the spaces.”

Confused, the company rep. replied, “No, not square footage, what’s the rent?”

“That’s the best quote I’ve heard,” said Ceario. “It kind of sums it all up.”

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EA chief Riccitiello – “Digital market will be bigger than consoles next year”

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

In a recent interview with Reuters news service, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello managed to put a positive spin on the relatively dreary Thanksgiving and Christmas season games sales thus far, and managed to drop a relative industry bombshell…all within the same interview.

RiccitielloWhat makes the statement remarkable, is that Riccitiello sits as the man in charge of the world’s largest video game developer – a firm that’s traditionally focused on pricey, glossy boxed, console focused games. However, Riccitiello took the interview time to point out that projects have been afoot at EA for a while now, almost predicting the coming tide.

“A couple of years ago EA embarked on a plan to really build itself up in this new frontier. In the last quarter alone we did $138 million in revenue and if EA’s digital business were a stand alone company it would be the darling of Wall Street,” Riccitiello said.

He also went on to tell Reuters that consumers often forget about online browser based games including social games often found on Facebook, as well as MMO’s such as Warhammer Online, subscription and microtransaction based games, and claimed that this sector is now, “almost half the industry now. It’s about 40-45 percent. Next year it’s likely to have a larger share in the entire industry, bigger than all the console games put together.”

And as we’ve previously speculated – EA’s recent acquisition of social gaming company Playfish is just a further move towards dominating the digital front, as it has done successfully with the brick and mortar storefront. “It’s an on-purpose transformation,” Riccitiello says. “We’re trying to become a company that looks more like a direct-to-consumer business.”

With this announcement, it might be easy to say, ‘but wait…what about console gamers – are they being abandoned?’ Not at all according to Riccitiello. He notes that his optimism towards new models should not be seen as pessimism towards existing models. “We intend to be the number one packaged goods publisher in the world,” he says.

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Outspark adds former Nexon CEO San Won Chung to executive board

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

San Francisco based Outspark is quickly on the path to becoming the darling of the North American free-to-play industry. A quick look at their recent staff and/or advisory board additions clearly points to the making of the perfect storm. Today’s announcement adds just another perfect element to this storm, as Outspark has just added San Won Chung to their advisory board. Chung, the former CEO of Nexon, the gold standard in free-to-play gaming in the Korean/Asian free-to-play market, as well as his most recent position of EVP with Neowiz, will now sit on Outspark’s advisory board.

With an industry career spanning over a decade, Chung recently filled the shoes of Executive Vice President with Neowiz, one of Korea’s largest online gaming publishers, where he successfully brought the FIFA Online title to the Korean market. This project was in collaboration with Electronic Arts. If you’re starting to notice the heavy EA influence in Outspark, you’re on the right track.

“We are delighted to add another outstanding business leader with broad and relevant experience to our Advisory Board,” said Owen Mahoney, CEO of Outspark. “Sang Won Chung is a veteran executive in the online gaming industry with considerable experience that will help foster our long-term growth and success as we expand our ever increasing base of loyal game players.”

Having served as CEO of Nexon from 2001-2004, Mr. Chung was in the drivers’ seat when some of Nexon’s top products were launched including (the one that started it all) Maple Story, Kart Rider, and Shattered Galaxy. Arguably, these titles singlehandedly ignited the free-to-play/microtransactions supported online gaming business model.

“This is an exciting and transformative time in the online gaming industry and Outspark is clearly one of the most innovative game companies in the world today,” said Mr. Chung. “With North America and Europe poised to be the next great markets for free-to-play games, I feel privileged to join a dynamic team of renowned industry leaders. I look forward to participating in the growth of Outspark as it helps guide the future of the freemium game industry.”

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EA’s Need for Speed franchise tops 100 million, date set for online free-to-play version

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

EA has officially sold more than 100 million copies of it’s popular racing/driving series Need for Speed. Since the first release in 1994, the NFS titles have generated over $2.7 billion in revenue for the Redwood, California based Electronic Arts. The games’ newest iteration, Need for Speed: Shift sales have topped the franchise over this milestone, placing it in the number four all time best selling games. Also included in the over 100 million units sold club are the best selling game of all time, The Sims, as well as the Mario Brother franchise, Pokemon, and Grand Theft Auto.

need-for-speed_shift_03“Few videogame franchises ever reach the 100M units mark, so this is a huge honor. We have millions of fans to thank for driving us to this milestone,” said Frank Gibeau, president, EA Games Label. “With the launch of Need for Speed SHIFT and the upcoming release of Need for Speed NITRO, we hope to continue to deliver the most entertaining, action-packed racing experiences.”

While the game has been through 15 different versions, and produced for 14 different platforms, it wasn’t until the 2003 version, Need for Speed: Underground version was released that the franchise really started to take off. Previous versions focused on supercar racing off in a mythical European countryside. The underground version made a dramatic shift to more “accessible” cars, those that we actually obtainable by racing/gaming fans around the world. And while the good times were on a roll for EA for the following two years, in 2007 with Need for Speed Pro Street, the title had sunk back to levels of mediocrity. Recognizing the potential within the franchise, but perhaps more importantly, that there were three distinct groups that played the game, EA wisely broke up the then current studio developing the titles, and brought in a fresh set of hands and eyes, and has now developed three unique product offerings. What once was one, is now in fact three: one group focuses on an action based game for mass market fans, another on pure simulation for die hard fans, and still another, arcade style play for casual racers.

Need for Speed Shift, released this past September falls into the simulation category, while the upcoming release of Need for Speed Nitro, specifically developed for the Nintendo Wii and DS, will fill the arcade pillar, falling perfectly in line with Nintendo’s top racing game of the year 2008, Mario Kart.

The third, and perhaps most interesting continuation of the Need for Speed franchise should arrive on North American shores around this time one year from now. Titled Need for Speed World Online, this version will be an online only, free-to-play title, yet again signaling EA’s firm commitment to the free-to-play, microtransactions supported gaming business model. No word yet on where the microtransactions will come into play, but based on the game play style, it’s safe to assume that car cosmetic upgrades will be available for purchase, as well as temporary performance enhancements, alla Battlefield Heroes. Closed beta testing is expected to commence in Taiwan this winter, with an official global release in Fall 2010.

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SGN splurges on hiring binge – bags more than a few industry heavy hitters

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

If the question of the rise and dominance of social games has ever come into question, a perusal through the past years headlines, and the associated talent defecting to smaller, up-and-coming social games firms should give a pretty clear picture as to what’s going on. Chalk up another major shift in the social gaming industry, as SGN has recently announced that they’ve been on a bit of a hiring binge as of late, and have netted some serious talent.

Randy BreenFormer Electronic Arts and LucasArts executive Randy Breen will now be reporting to SGN’s CEO Shervin Pishevar, in his new role as Chief Operating Officer. Breen, a long time and founding executive at EA, was responsible for the Road Rash series of games, one that’s sold million of copies and spawned a number of sequels and off shoots. Likewise, at LucasArts Breen was the man in charge of overseeing product developments within the Star Wars and Indiana Jones license lines.

Serving as new Director of Game design at SGN is Randy Angle, another industry veteran, who’s worked on a number of projects, most notably the Lord of the Rings. Another EA vet, Margaret Foley-Mauvais has been hired to serve as Art Director, while Dan Brazelton joins the SGN team in the role of Executive Producer. Brazelton brings to the table 17 years of gaming and film industry experience. And rounding out the new netting at SGN is Adriana Gasoigne, formerly of Hi5, who will be serving as the company’s Director of Global Communications.

“We’ve experienced tremendous growth over the past year, and I’m thrilled we have attracted a leader like Randy Breen to SGN and assembled a world class team to capitalize on our position within the booming social gaming industry,” said Shervin Pishevar, CEO of SGN, in a statement.

Based in Palo Alto, California, SGN has now topped over 100 hires, and has been in operation since 2007. Owing their success to the rise of social gaming, SGN has also served as a primary influencer in and producer of such titles in the social gaming space. Their first success can be attributed to a Facebook app, Warbook, and SGN quickly followed up this success with a number of additional titles. Quickly spreading their reach to Myspace and Bebo applications, SGN started focusing on iPhone games over the past year.

While they may have had a decent following and interest in their work with social network based games, this expansion into iPhone games is what truly put the company on the map. SGN has sold over 400,000 copies of it’s F.A.S.T. jet fighter game, and approximately 24 percent of all iPhone and iPod touch users have a copy of the firms successful iBowl app on their device. And lest we forget that it was SGN that was the very first to bring the successful Mafia games genre to market.

Again, it’s quite clear to see what’s going on here. A number of execs and non-execs alike are either fed up with, or see greater opportunities in social gaming then the traditional stalwarts of the industry. Granted, a number of larger games development firms are now interested in, and/or beginning their own exploration of social gaming, but is it already too late?

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Outspark appoints EA vet Owen Mahoney to Chief Executive Officer

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Outspark, who recently signed a deal to operate a free-to-play/microtransactions supported dance based title in conjunction with Electronic Arts, just announced that they’ve appointed long time EA veteran Owen Mahoney to the position of Chief Executive Officer. Needless to say, it looks like there was more than just the operating of the game going on behind the scenes, and yet another indication that EA isn’t taking the casual/free-to-play/microtransactions market lightly.

outsparkCurrent (or should we say, now former) CEO and founder Susan Choe will continue her involvement with Outspark, serving as the Chairman of the Board, and will work with game developers on partnering deals with Outspark, i.e. unofficially, Business Development.

“Since founding Outspark in early 2007, the Freemium MMOG market has evolved dramatically. Outspark`s team has built a leading game publishing company, executing solid growth while bringing together a unique MMOG publishing platform with social community elements,” said Susan Choe. “With Owen`s leadership and business experience in the global gaming industry, Outspark will evolve as a leading global game industry player.”

Mahoney comes to Outspark from Electronic Arts Inc., where he’s filled a number of senior executive management roles, as well as his previous experience in online media. Most recently, he served as EA’s Senior VP of corporate and business development. With EA since 2000, Mahoney has led a number of the company’s global corporate development activities including acquisitions, equity investments and strategic partnerships. Prior to joining the EA team, Mahoney held executive positions with PointCast, Claris Japan, and Radius.

The plan is for Mahoney to add his expertise to the Outspark team and accelerate the company’s continued expansion into the North American market. While North America constitutes Outspark’s largest market, they are also developing traction in Europe and the Pacific Rim. Globally, Outspark counts 4.7 million users, and since their launch in 2007, have attracted around 5.4 million unique visitors per month.

“Having the opportunity to build on Susan`s success is a great privilege and I’m honored by the board’s endorsement,” said Owen Mahoney. “Outspark appeals to a vast global user base and to everyone who wants to establish a connection with gamers around the world in real time. Outspark`s game publishing platform and portal also offer fantastic opportunities to both content developers and game publishers, and I look forward to providing value for Outspark, our loyal user base, investors and our great staff.”

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EA reports (almost) positive cash earnings – sees dramatic rise in digital distribution and virtual goods sales

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Electronic Arts seems to have outwitted their critics and come very close to a break even, and almost, dare I say it, a positive cash flow. Posted yesterday, EA’s Q1 financial results demonstrate a dramatic improvement in the coffers, reporting a net loss of only $6 million. Granted, 6 million clams is nothing to jump for joy over, especially when it’s $6 million in the red, but when compared to year-over-year results, it’s more than enough to get excited about. Last years Q1 results showed EA with a $135 million loss. Keeping $129 million in the bank account is a tremendous success for the Redwood, California firm.

ea_logoEA’s first fiscal quarter revenues peaked at $816 million, a dramatic 34 percent increase of 2008’s $609 million. Industry analysts had projected a meager take of only $729.5 million. EA’s digital distribution and virtual goods sales are a major contributor to the over projected earnings take, bringing in approximately $124 million, a noteable 38 percent increase year-over-year.

Putting some wind in EA’s sales (literally) are a string of successful titles and their surrounding executions. Compared to the quarter ending in June 2008, in 2009 EA was the number one publisher in both North America and Europe, with four out of the top ten games. Four of EA’s titles won Best of E3 awards: Mass Effect 2 won best RPG, Fight Night Round 4 took the Best Sports Game award, Star Wars: The Old Republic snagged Best PC Game, and Left 4 Dead won Best Online Mulitplayer. Additionally, while a perennial favorite, and old standby, the Sims franchise was a major factor in EA’s revenue streams this year. Holding the top selling retail sales title in Europe and North America for this past quarter, the Sims 3 moved 3.7 million copies out the door. And last but certainly not least, EA Sports Active helped the company garner a 21 percent market share of the wii market in North America and 13 percent in Europe. Having sold over 1.8 million copies, EA Sports Active is now the company’s best selling wii title to date.

“Good execution delivered better-than-expected financial results in the first quarter,” said John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer. “We are very pleased with the success of both The Sims 3 and EA SPORTS Active.”

Looking ahead, briefly discussed the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour title which seeks to drive revenues from the sale of game subscriptions and virtual goods sales, as opposed to the one-time-only-buy-it-in-a-box method. With that said, and keeping EA’s open experimentations with the free-to-play/microtransactions supported model (think Battlefield Heroes) in mind, company president John Riccitiello commented in an earnings call yesterday that EA’s not 100 percent onboard. “A lot of people believe that microtransactions is going to be the lead business model in the US. I’m not so sure about that. We are seeing good microtransaction results on Pogo, but I do think there is a difference between the way that consumers buy and consume content in Asia.”

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Stand and be counted Soldier – Battlefield Heroes goes open beta

Friday, June 26th, 2009

It’s been a long, and I do mean long, time coming, but it’s now official: No more beta keys needed to get in on the cartoonish Battlefield Heroes fun.  While EA chose to ignore the traditional press release route, the announcement was confirmed on the Battlefield Heroes forum, stating that the Security Layer is gone, no need for a beta key, and the NDA has been lifted.  W00t!

Battlefield Heroes Play NowEA’s quietly been letting more and more players in on the browser based, free-to-play fun for over a year now, and the lack of press release may suggest that EA learned a lesson or two from the Quake Live mad dash, people locked out, potential customer lost fiasco that occurred when the other popular free-to-play online title went live.

While we’ve covered the ongoing trials and tribulations of actually making it to public launch day, a quick refresher.  Battlefield Heroes is one of the growing number of free-to-play titles that NoCal gaming giant Electronic Arts has been slowly adding to their offerings.  Loosely based on DICE’s highly successful Battlefield series, this cartoonish fighter pits two opposing sides against each other, with a wide variety of fighting options.  Tanks, planes, heck, riding on plane wings, it’s all available.

The game is supported through in-game advertising and character customization microtransactions.  The ads appear only in pre-roll format, and the microtransactions are both reasonably priced and feature enough customizations to make even the staunchest of ‘I’m not paying for it’ microtransaction haters have a smile, and perhaps a click through to purchase.  Initially, EA and DICE reported that microtransaction items would only take the form of cosmetic upgrades, but it appears as though “convenience” items have now been added to the list of available goodies.  While I didn’t see anything that would provide an overwhelming boost in performance, it’s entirely possible that these items are there to help speed those along that either do not or can not play as long as other Battlefield Heroes players.

By opening the game slowly and fine-tuning this, that and the other firmly signals EA’s commitment to this project.  All too often in today’s free-to-play market, we see a title brought to market that may be fraught with bugs and serious design flaws, with developers intentions to address them and fix them as soon as possible.  EA/DICE have done this to some extent, by delaying the public opening by over a year, but at the same time, more or less letting anyone who wanted to play in the door with a wink, a nod, and a not-so-hard-to-obtain beta key.

Now that the doors are wide open, it’s time for the rest of us to sit back and see just how much appeal Battlefield Heroes has to the general populace.  That, and head shot a few n00bs in the process.  See ya on the Battlefield!

http://www.battlefieldheroes.com/

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Double Fusion turns up the IGA heat with Jana Friedman

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Following Massive’s year end push to get the deals inked, in-game advertising competitor Double Fusion is turning up the heat with promotion of Media and Advertising veteran Jana Friedman to Senior VP of Worldwide Advertising Sales.

Prior to her new position, Friedman served as Double Fusion’s VP or Sales for the Casual Games Group, and replaces Julie Shumaker.  Shumaker was responsible for building the company’s sales force, and aiding in making Double Fusion into what it is today: a leading provider of in-game advertising to the marketing and advertising community.  Double Vision CEO and President, Jonathan Epstein made the announcement yesterday, also citing Double Vision’s double digit growth over the past year have put the company in a prime position to continue accelerated growth in the multimillion dollar in-game industry.

Friedman comes to Double Fusion via Conde Nast and Electronic Arts, where she served key sales and development roles.  She served as the Associate Publisher of Brides.com, Conde Nast’s premier bridal site, where her team created unique programs that allowed advertisers to reach this highly targeted audience.  Friedman successfully executed campaigns for a wide variety of clients including Discover Card, JC Penney, and Macy’s.

Prior to the Conde Nast gig, Friedman served as Senior Director of Online Ad Sales at EA where she oversaw a team that was responsible for generating advertising revenue on EA’s online platforms, including EA.com, Pogo.com, and The Sims Online Communities.  Jana Friedman is responsible for pioneering some of the ad industry’s first video game deals, and has been a driving force behind the recent uprising of advertising in the casual games environment.

As Senior VP of Worldwide Advertising Sales, Friedman is now in charge of leading the company’s representation of in-game advertising opportunities with over 30 of the world’s best known publishers and platforms, including but not limited to, PS3, THQ, SEGA, Eidos, and Midway Games.

“I am thrilled that we have a talent like Jana Friedman to build upon the successful foundation Julie Shumaker created here at Double Fusion,” said CEO Jonathan Epstein. “Jana has been instrumental in developing our successful North American media business, and we’re excited at the prospects 2009 will bring as we further our commitment to provide free and ad-supported games for everyone.”

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GamersFirst inks deal with A2M, Canada’s largest independent game developer

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

K2’s service, GamersFirst announced yesterday that they’ve signed a joint development deal with A2M, Canada’s largest independent game developer.

GamersFirst and A2M say that they’ll be partnering on a yet to be announced social gaming title.  The new game has a projected launch date of late 2009, and continues GamersFirst’s pledge to expand it’s industry presence into the development of unique and original titles.

K2’s GamersFirst is a free-to-play gaming portal that provides gamers with engaging and compelling titles.  Their mission is simple: to become the leading publisher of free-to-play games and provider of the largest and most active network of communities in the global online games market.  No small feat given today’s increasingly competitive market.  Partnering with Canada’s largest independent and highly respected game developer is certainly a step in the right direction for K2.

“GamersFirst is continuing its growth with the development of our own IP,”stated Joshua Hong, CEO and Founder, K2 Network/GamersFirst. “Being able to develop these new games assures that our gamers will have input as to what they like to see and allows us to put GamersFirst.”

A2M has been developing game content since 1992, has developed over 40 titles across every gaming genre, and has partnered with heavy hitters including Activision Blizzard, Disney, Electronic Arts, LucasArt, Sony, Vivendi Universal, and Warner Bros.

“This new partnership allows us to express our gameplay know-how to social online gaming,” said Remi Racine, President and Executive Producer, A2M. “As an independent game developer, we have the freedom to create highly imaginary concepts and, working with our partners, put it in the hands of game fans. Our creativity, combined with our ability to answer the needs of expanding markets, will make the upcoming MMO projects key milestones.”

GamersFirst currently provides services for 23 million registered users in more than 160 coutries around the world.

Free on tap at GamersFirst?

For more info on K2 visit them at: http://www.k2network.net
For more info on GamersFirst visit them at: http://www.GamersFirst.com
For more info on A2M visit them at: http://www.a2m.com

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