Today's round up includes news of The9 Limited's exclusive license to operate
Hellgate: London in China, Vince Broady leaving CNET Networks for Yahoo!, and Electronic Arts' director Robert Pittman not standing for re-election, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, Serious Games Source news, and Gamasutra job postings.
- China-based game operator The9 Limited announced that it has, through its subsidiary, entered into an agreement with online game company HanbitSoft, Inc. for an exclusive license to operate the Flagship Studios' upcoming PC action RPG
Hellgate: London. The term of the license is three years from the date of commercial launch of
Hellgate: London in mainland China. Under the agreement, The9 has agreed to, among other things, pay a total of US$5 million in license fees as well as guaranteed royalties equal to the greater of 21 percent of the retail value of the prepaid game cards produced for use or a total of US$30 million over the 3-year license period.
- Yahoo Inc. has hired Vince Broady from CNET Networks Inc. to oversee its Santa Monica-based Media Group, which focuses on entertainment, game and youth-focused web properties. Broady, who served as CNET's senior vice president of entertainment, is also recognized as one of the founding members of popular consumer-oriented video game website GameSpot, which incidentally was later acquired by CNET. "We are thrilled that Vince will be joining us at Yahoo!," commented Yahoo Media Group head Lloyd Braun. "Vince is an online innovator, whose vast Internet experience and media expertise will be of enormous value to us as we continue to build our media business."
- According to Reuters, Electronic Arts has confirmed that director Robert Pittman will not stand for reelection due to scheduling and workload commitments. Pittman served as an EA director since 2003, and is a member of Pilot Group Manager LLC, as well as an investor in private equity firm Pilot Group LP. He held various executive positions at AOL Time Warner, including his last post of chief operating officer. He is currently on the board of Cendant Corp.
- The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog
GameSetWatch include a look at
games in the office by online webzine The Escapist,
some amusing game-related promotional videos for Jack Black's Nacho Libre, and an
anti-American war game created by Iranian students.
- Also updated today:
Serious Games Source news on an
anti-smoking game created for Finland, and a
call for submissions for Serious Games Source, as well as Gamasutra product news on
A2M's licensing of the Kynapse AI solution, plus the latest
Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from Disney Buena Vista Games, Quantic Dream, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Vicious Cycle Software, Vivendi Games, and Zono, Inc.
