Gazillion Entertainment has brought on board a new CEO, John Needham, who formerly was head at Cryptic Studios. San Mateo-based Gazillion is reinforcing the company’s strengths in massively multiplayer online game development. Gazillion is one of the most prominent online game developers, raising a round of $60 million in funding just last November. Needham plans to continue to adjust the business model behind the games Gazillion will develop, in light of major changes in the game development and consumer trends recently.
Needham has stated that he is going to ensure that the games Gazillion creates follow the increasingly popular free-to-play business model, wherein gamers can play the basic game experience for free but pay for additional content, perks, and amenities at a cost per item.
Needham has a long history at leading companies in the online games business. In 2001, he became VP of business development at Sony Online Entertainment. In 2008, he left SOE to become CEO of Cryptic Studios, the MMOG developer behind Champions Online. Champions Online improved its business performance once it adopted a free-to-play business model. Needham led the sale of the company to Atari and subsequently oversaw the launch of the MMOGÂ Star Trek Online.
Running Gazillion may be the biggest challenge Needham has yet faced. Gazillion has more than 200 employees and three studios under its flag. Gazillion has undergone shifts of its own before Needham’s arrival, including the shuttering of John Romero’s Slipgate Ironworks and the company’s MMOG in development and the addition of David Brevik as the company’s COO. Rob Hutter, who was formerly the CEO and now the chairman after the hiring of Needham, has overseen most of Gazillion’s acquisitions and transitions.
Gazillion currently has Louisville, Colorado-based NetDevil, which is working on the online real-time strategy game Fortune Online; Seattle-based Amazing Society, which is working on the youth-oriented online game Marvel Super Hero Squad; and Secret Identity Studios, which is working on an MMOG based on the Marvel Comics world.
[Source: VentureBeat]
