THE BRIT LIST: PUBLISHING PUBLISHING HEROES JURGEN POST, SEGA
KEITH RAMSDALE, ELECTRONIC ARTS
“A great number of people have influenced me over the years but David Gardner stands out who, along with Mark Lewis, brought EA to Europe,” explains Keith Ramsdale, the Northern European boss of Electronic Arts. “He recruited me into EA with
Paul Jackson all those years ago. Gardner had that fantastic mix of being a visionary, business leader and genuinely nice bloke.” Ramsdale today leads EA not just in the UK but across Northern Europe and is a globally respected video games boss. But, like many of the old guard on the list, he didn’t start his career in games. He began in toys before making the step into accessories, finally joining EA in 1996.
POST, like many in the games industry, puts his career down to the influential former Sony president Chris Deering. The Sega Europe boss began life in the industry working for Columbia Tristar Home Video in 1992, when the division (now named Sony Pictures Entertainment) picked up the distribution rights for Sega in the Netherlands.
“Then in 1994, I was asked by Chris Deering to become European sales and marketing director for SCEE to help launch the PlayStation,” recalls Post.
ED RUMLEY, CHILLINGO
RUMLEY is now the man in charge of EA’s unique mobile publishing division and has helped launch a number of hit mobile titles, such as Fight Backand FeedMe Oil 2. Rumley says that over the last year, Chillingo has helped grow sales for fledgling indie studios and has seen more developers than ever approach the firm. He is currently reinventing Chillingo to focus on fewer games that use the free-to-play business model.
08 March 28th 2014
Post was an instrumental player in the success and launch of the first PlayStation, but he says his biggest achievement over the last two years has been re- directing Sega to become a digital-focused business. “I believe the future for games is that they will become ubiquitous; available in all sorts of different business models and hopefully cross-playable on many platforms,” he says.
“My own personal aspiration is to make Sega a financially healthy company and continue being a great place to work.”
FERGAL GARA, PLAYSTATION UK
FRESH from transforming Asda’s entertainment business, Irish-born Fergal Gara soon made the full transition to video games. He joined PlayStation in 2011, and at the time the platform holder was being well beaten by Xbox. Over the following two and a half years Gara restructured the UK team, improved the sales of PS3, launched Vita and then turned the tables on Xbox with the launch of PS4, which already has a big lead over its rival.
In his time he has seen EA remain – year-in, year-out – the UK’s most successful games publisher. And has an active role in promoting and pushing the games industry in the UK as a whole. He’s also seen plenty of change down the years, not just at EA but in the wider games industry. Yet he says this is the nature of the beast. “What makes this industry great and such a sustainable place to work in is the absolute constant change,” he concludes. “One can’t stand still and the new platforms and ways to play will ever evolve. No-one can truly predict exactly where it is headed.”
Selling and promoting video games is an art in of itself, and these 23 top execs are masters of that art
ANDY PAYNE, OBE, MASTERTRONIC
WE were not entirely sure where to put Andy Payne in this Brit List. He’s a publisher at Mastertronic, sure. But he’s also an investor in retail, a support of developers, the chairman of UKIE and an active fundraiser. He could pretty much appear in any section of this list, and with 30-years working in games, he’s had a hugely varied career. “In 1984 I worked at William
Collins the book publishers and they bought an educational ‘games’ publisher called Hill McGibbon,” says Payne, recalling the time he entered the games space. “I was the only person at the company remotely interested in games and had to figure out how to get the games made, distributed and sold. A year later I was helping people like Tim Langdell. That was a baptism of fire for sure.” Heavily influenced by talented, independent developers, Payne says his proudest achievement is running an indie developer, publisher and service company for 26 years. Today, he’s reshaping
Mastertronic whilst also doing the same across the UK, taking an active role at UKIE, BAFTA and in various other British businesses. “I want the UK to continue to punch above its weight and embrace skills, education, new methods of financing and make games as our key creative industry, while delivering jobs, growth, happiness and world peace. I’d like to help as many devs get their games made as possible.”
www.mcvuk.com
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