MARKET MOVES
SPOSORED BY
APPOINTMENTS HMV BACK IN GAMES WITH BERKLEY Berkley returns to the High Street Smith leaves Square Enix MLG snaps up dev veteran
HMV| The High Street retailer says it’s ramping back up its video game activity with the
appointment of GERRY BERKLEY Berkley has re-joined the High
Street retailer as head of games. He previously worked HMV as computer games manager between 1992 and 1998. Berkley has experience working for a number of retailers. As well as HMV, he has held positions at Blockbuster, Virgin, Shop Direct and Woolworths. He also worked for CentreSoft as consumer fulfillment sales manger between January 2010 and May 2012. “I am pleased to let you know
that we will be strengthening our presence in games by adding a
focussed head of games role to our management team,” said IAN TOPPING, HMV chief executive. “Gerry has extensive experience
in the games industry and was the original manager responsible for HMV’s initial move into the games market in the early 90s. “This wealth of experience
will be particularly useful as we embark on a much more active push into the games market over the next few months.”
SQUARE ENIX | PR exec RORY SMITH has left the publisher. “I’ve had a fantastic time working
at Square Enix for the last three years, but have decided it is time for me to move on,” Smith said. “I’ve learnt a lot here, met some brilliantly talented people and will
take away some great memories.” SOPHIE COLLEY replaces Smith as contact for Square Enix.
MAJOR LEAGUE GAMING | JARED GERRITZEN has joined the eSports league as vice
president of publisher and developer relations. In the role he will work with companies to help them use MLG’s cross platform tournament system, MLG: Play. “Throughout my career I have been closely monitoring
the evolution of MLG as it’s grown to become the leader in eSports and I understand how firms can benefit from competitive gaming and the
solutions that MLG offers,” said Gerritzen.
PLAN OF ATTACK | AIDAN MINTER has joined PR firm Plan of Attack as senior account manager.
Minter brings a wealth of experience, having worked in video publishing, brand marketing and PR. He has had stints at JVC, Atari, Midway Games and Meteor Entertainment. In the latter post he was PR manager for free-to- play mech title Hawken. Aidan said: “It’s an exciting
time in the industry to be joining the Plan of Attack team and I’m looking forward to helping them continue to bring the best PR opportunities for their client roster.”
AROUND THE INDUSTRY
HARMONIX | The music-video game studio has laid off 37 members of staff as a part of an organizational restructure. A spokesperson for the company said: “Harmonix is in the process of restructuring our organization to bring it into alignment with our current and future product development plans. Unfortunately, this means making the difficult decision to reduce the number of full-time staff.”
EA | The publisher has closed down Mythic Entertainment. Over its 20-year career, the
studio worked on the likes of Tempest, Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online and Ultima Forever. For the past eight years it has been under the ownership of EA. In a statement, EA said:
“We are closing the EA Mythic location as we concentrate
June 13th 2014 12
mobile development in our other studio locations.”
GENOTAUR | Former Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Jack Tretton has joined artificial intelligence start-up Genotaur. “This is a very exciting time for us at Genotaur as we develop new products and scale our business, focusing initially on implementation within the computer entertainment business,” said Genotaur CEO Tony Simpson. “Jack’s experience in building and operating consumer products and interactive entertainment companies will help us grow our capabilities at Genotaur. We are fortunate to have an executive of Jack’s knowledge and experience.” Tretton left Sony earlier this year after 19 years at the firm.
www.mcvuk.com
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