Report: Brash Entertainment Co-Founder Leaves Company

According to online reports from Hollywood trade paper Variety, Brash Entertainment co-founder Nicholas Longano has left the company following a management shake-up at the firm. Brash was co-founded by Mitch Davis and Nicholas Longano, both veterans of in-game advertising company Massive Incorporated, as well as 300 executive producer Thomas Tull and media and technology industry entrepreneur Bert Ellis. The company’s focus has been in overseeing movie, music and TV tie-ins developed by external studios. The company quickly secured a $400 million financing deal and claims to have secured the use of more than forty film licenses through partnerships with five major film studios. The first two games produced by Brash have been the critically lambasted Alvin and the Chipmunks and Jumper: Griffin’s Story. The company’s future titles include Space Chimps and Saw. The company has also signed deals with Folklore dev Game Republic to work on an unannounced game based on a film, and a multi-game deal with California-based studio Factor 5 (Lair, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron), with the first of those titles to be released in 2010. According to the Variety report Longano is said to have “exited” the company, with no further details currently available. Variety also quotes NPD data suggesting that Alvin and the Chipmunks sold a respectable 281,000 units in the U.S., while Jumper: Griffin’s Story has sold a more disappointing 16,000 units since February.