Dave Ranyard is Game Director at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in London is responsible for Sony’s hugely successful, 20+ million selling SingStar franchise. Dave met with David Smith of Interactive Selection and Game Careers at the recent Develop conference. He has been in the games industry since the mid nineties, starting out as an AI programmer at Psygnosis, and later moving to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s London Studio where he has held a number of roles over the past 10 years, ranging from audio manager to running the internal creative services group. He has worked on titles including Wip3out, The Getaway & The Getaway: Black Monday, The Eyetoy: Play series and, more recently, Singstar. Prior to the games industry he lectured in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Leeds where he also gained a Ph.D. in the subject. Dave is a keen musician and he has written and produced many records over the past 15 years. His advice to those looking for a job with Sony? : “We have a website, Playstation.co.uk, it’s a good idea to go there and see exactly what we are looking for. If you have a portfolio, then make sure you get you get it right, programmers do tests at the interview. Really we are looking for people who are good team players, communicate well, like social games, and who are really looking to fit into our culture, which I would is a really nice culture to work in. That is it really for Sony Jobs.”
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Ben Board is half of Xbox’s European Developer Account Management team – dev relations, in other words, roaming the continent with a laptop full of facts to share with Xbox and Games for Windows LIVE developers keen to understand the latest platform initiatives, technical details, best practices and policies. Since joining this amazing industry in 1997 his programming and production experience has included Bullfrog, EA and Lionhead, on games totalling 6m sales. He started and ran the Guildford IGDA chapter, judges at the BAFTAs, and has written for books and magazines including Develop, for which he writes a monthly column. Speaking to Game Careers, his advice for getting a job with Microsoft Games: “It is such a huge and varied operation in Europe. I would first start by recommending it. There are so many different roles it very much depends on what you are looking for. In my own experience I have worked as a project manager/producer with relatively long experience in development which is something that has helped me get my current job. If you want to work for example with the Live team in London, then they are interested in people with online coding and production experience and even with other forms of media experience. If you want to work on the publishing side they are fairly straight publishing jobs. If you want to work at at one of the MG Studios (Microsoft Game Studios) such as Lionhead or Rare, they interested in the usual video game development roles such as artist, programmers, producers, QA and such. There is a range of jobs available, you should definitely get a hold of us if you desire to work for a large company like Microsoft.” Melanie Mroz has served as president, chief executive officer and director of SouthPeak Games since May 2008. In 2005, she assumed responsibility for SouthPeaks day-to-day operations. She joined SouthPeak in 1996 from Philips Sales, Inc., one of the largest manufacturer representative agencies in the videogame industry, to head its representation of Sony Computer Entertainment America and represented some of the most successful videogame titles in the industry to major retailers, including titles such as Metal Gear Solid from Konami America and Grand Theft Auto from Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. SouthPeak Interactive Corporation develops and publishes interactive entertainment software for all current hardware platforms. More interviews at Women in Games Jobs. Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that it has acquired Playfish, a leading creator of . The acquisition accelerates EA’s position in social entertainment and strengthens its focus on the transition to digital and social gaming. Playfish will operate within EA Interactive, a division of EA focused on the web and on wireless. EA has acquired Playfish for approximately US$275 million in cash and approximately US$25 million in equity retention arrangements. In addition, the sellers are entitled to additional variable cash consideration, up to a maximum of US$100 million, contingent upon the achievement of certain performance milestones through December 31, 2011. Midway Games Ltd., formerly a subsidiary of Midway Games Inc., today announced that Spiess Media Holding UG, a company owned by Martin Spiess, Executive Vice President – International of Midway Games Ltd., has purchased the UK and French offices of Midway Games Inc., formerly a developer and publisher of computer and video games with a rich tradition, as part of a management buyout. F&F Publishing GmbH, a company owned by Uwe Fürstenberg, General Manager of Midway Games GmbH, and Hans Meyer, Finance Director of Midway Games GmbH, has purchased the German office of the Midway group. Through the transactions, the European publishing and distribution branches of Midway are secured in all three key European markets. Both Spiess and Fürstenberg will be leading their newly acquired companies as interactive entertainment distribution and publishing service providers. Plans are also underway to form a strategic alliance and use the combined forces of the European organisations as an efficient European network. From Square Enix’s acquisition of Eidos emerges a new European arm for the Japanese publisher, currently known as Square Enix Europe, to be headed by Eidos boss Phil Rogers. The Eidos name will still be used to brand its own developed games, but the move represents the elimination of the Eidos organization as publishing label. “Square Enix Europe will include Eidos’ global network of studios and combine the Square Enix and Eidos European sales and marketing businesses to create one efficient and powerful structure for game publishing” said a spokesperson. Namco Bandai Games Europe says it has wrapped up the purchase of Atari’s European distribution business, re-naming the new entity Namco Bandai Partners. Last week, Midway held an auction for its various assets; a few weeks beforehand, Time Warner was expected to make off with the lion’s share of property for roughly $33 million. This turned out to be the case, as a Delaware bankruptcy judge approved the deal and Time Warner wound up acquiring most of the publisher’s properties and studios. However, noticeably absent from this acquisition were two of Midway’s prominent studios: Midway Newcastle and Midway San Diego, the offices responsible for games like Wheelman and TNA, respectively. Empire Interactive has gone into administration, becoming the games industry’s latest victim of the recession. All staff at the firm’s London offices were sent home this week, and the company is in the process of making all employees redundant. Russian distributor and publisher Noviy Disk seemed a likely White Knight last month, but the two firms could not finalise terms. Administrator KPMG was subsequently called in two weeks ago to find a buyer. KPMG is expected to release an official announcement on Monday. Empire published titles in the UK incuding Jackass and FlatOut. French publisher Infogrames (Alone In The Dark) has officially completed its acquisition of U.S. based Atari, Inc. Although Infogrames was previously the majority shareholder, Atari now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary. Infogrames will pay $1.68 per share for all outstanding shares of Atari common stock not already owned by Infogrames or its affiliates. This gives the merger an approximate value of $11 million, which Infogrames will pay for from existing cash resources. The merger simplifies the relationship between the two companies, with a new global structure intended to reduce general and administrative expenses (including those related to being a U.S. public company) and generate economies of scale. |
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