D3, Ziff Davis, Namco Bandai Fill New Executive Roles

Officials from D3Publisher of America have announced the hiring of former THQ and Electronic Arts executive Peter Andrew as the company's new vice president of product development. In his new role, Andrew will oversee D3's global product management and planning, as well as manage the company's internal production team and relationships with development studios outside the company. The hiring follows D3's appointment of former Activision acquisitions VP Bill Anker as its new VP of business development. Andrew began with the video game industry in 1989 as a software engineer before joining THQ as a technical director, and eventually, he moved on to join Electronic Arts Canada as the studio's central technology manager. Commented D3 executive VP and COO Yoji Takenaka, "We're very pleased to welcome an industry veteran of Peter's caliber to D3PA. Peter's 18 years of experience in managing, developing and publishing top-quality interactive entertainment make him the ideal choice to lead D3PA's product development." In similar news, Media group Ziff Davis, owner of consumer press outlets 1up.com and Electronic Gaming Monthly, has announced that six year company veteran Simon Cox has been named the as the group's vice president of content, while EGM editor-in-chief Dan "Shoe" Hsu has been promoted to editorial director. Ziff Davis officials add that former the organization's senior VP and editorial director John Davison has stepped down to be co-founder of a new company. "The appointment of Simon and 'Shoe' into these newly established positions marks an exciting, era for the 1UP Network, which has already increased its audience size 57 percent over the past year," states Jason Young, CEO, Ziff Davis Media. "Both are respected luminaries not only with their Game Group peers, but among their industry peers as well." Young adds: "Their strong vision, which will set the direction for the Group, will help drive the 1UP Network into areas never thought possible before. I look forward to all properties continuing to grow under their leadership." Finally, Namco Bandai games has announced that it has appointed Roger Hector as its new VP of product development, where he will "assume the responsibility of overseeing all facets of the company’s internal and external game development activities." Hector has previously worked at a number of game studios, including early stints at Atari and Electronic Arts, before leading consumer software publishing initiatives at Walt Disney. Hector then went on to assume a role as Sega's VP and general manager, and then Universal Studios as its president of Digital Arts. Hector joins Namco Bandai from Enterprise Broadcasting Corporation, where he served as COO, and as a consultant to a number of game and entertainment companies. Said Namco Bandai's American president and CEO Genichi Ito, “With more than 30 years of development and management experience, Roger provides the NAMCO BANDAI Games executive team with a proven history of creating outstanding video games and the valuable perspective we need to meet our short and long term development goals. Roger will play an instrumental role as we continue to build our industry-leading lineup of hit franchises, original properties and licensed titles.”