With the influx of EA talent now floating around free-to-play games publisher and producer Outspark, it’s easy to wonder why EA didn’t just purchase the company outright. One week prior, Outspark announced that former EA senior exec Owen Mahoney would be taking over the reins as CEO, and only one week prior to that, they’d announced an exclusive publishing deal with EA’s new dance based title Dance Groove Online.
New up at Outspark is Niranjan Nagar. Mr. Nagar brings over 15 years of experience to the table, particularly via his role as VP of The Sims Internet Group at EA. In this role, he was the man responsible for growing online revenue and player community worldwide for both The Sims 2, and perhaps more importantly, in respect to Outspark’s business model (microtransactions as revenue generators), The Sims 3. Prior to EA Nagar was co-founder of SingShot Media, a song sharing platform acquired by EA in 2007.
In his new position, Mr. Nagar will head up the development of Outspark’s product lineup, as well as building infrastructure programs for massively-connected game play. He’s also planning on expanding Outspark’s market share by building on their growing reputation as an industry innovator in freemium games publishing. As noted in the Owen Mahoney report, Outspark counts 1.8 million unique users, and since their launch date in 2007, have seen traffic spike to 6.8 million unique visitors a month.
“The game market continues to see tremendous growth, especially as players around the world transition to online and free-to-play models,” said Mr. Nagar. “Outspark is a key player in pioneering this exciting area and the combination of great products and great execution are what enables us to deliver hits in the North American and European markets and capitalize on future market opportunities.”
When he took the reigns just only one week ago (officially), CEO Owen Mahoney stated that one of his primary objectives was to expand Outspark’s presence in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. With the quick addition of a proven mover and shaker, he looks to be getting off on the right foot.
“Niranjan’s deep technology and management expertise as well as his track record with high-growth companies make him an excellent fit for Outspark as we focus on quickly expanding our global footprint,” said Owen Mahoney, CEO of Outspark. “His proven ability to build fast-moving teams is invaluable and accelerates our efforts to further establish Outspark as the premium publisher of free-to-play online games in North America and Europe.”
