Posts Tagged ‘Owen Mahoney’

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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Outspark appoints (another) EA veteran to Chief of Game Operations

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

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.”

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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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