Former Atari VP John Burns Moves To Trion

Former Atari vice president John Burns has been hired by Trion Worlds Europe as its new SVP and general manager. Burns has been consulting for Trion since the beginning of the year, and has now moved to the Rift developer from his position at Atari, which he had held since last year. Before working at Atari, Burns was also a senior director and marketing director at Electronic Arts, where he worked for six years. He has also held positions at Activision, Bandai and Sega. Trion SVP David Reid noted, "John joins Trion with almost two decades of gaming experience with him, and will be essential in our continued success throughout Europe." "With the launch of Rift earlier this year, we began laying the groundwork for a strong presence in Europe, which will grow as we bring premium, connected games to gamers around the world." On the subject of Rift's success, Trion CEO Lars Buttler spoke to Gamasutra earlier in the year, called the game "the most social game in the history of gaming."