GAME PUBLISHER O~3 ENTERTAINMENT LAUNCHES TO BRING INDEPENDENT DEVELOPER PROJECTS TO MARKET
Former Capcom USA Executives Open Unique Business to Bridge Gap between Development and Retail
April 29, 2004, Santa Clara, CA – Today game industry veteran Bill Gardner revealed the formation of his new publishing and distribution company, O~3 Entertainment. The company intends to bring high caliber independently developed games to a variety of gaming platforms, including PC, Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube and WiFi/mobile through a unique game publishing model.
O~3 Entertainment will seek out titles from small and mid-size developers and will provide complete publishing functions to get them to market – including sales and distribution, marketing and public relations, and more operational elements like replication, warehousing and shipping. O~3 intends to create a reputation for innovative, fun games and make its own brands easily identifiable to consumers and retailers alike.
“There are a lot of high quality games being left on the table because they aren’t the next installment of last year’s licensed blockbuster,” remarked Gardner, CEO and President of the new O~3 Entertainment. “O~3 Entertainment ’s approach to publishing will lead to more diverse and creative choices for gamers at retail.
O~3 Entertainment has been founded by Gardner and two former Capcom associates, Chris Jelinek, who is the new company’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing, and Hanako Watanabe, O~3’s CFO. Gardner has more than 20 years experience in the consumer business, overseeing more than $250 million in international annual sales. He was previously responsible for start-up operations of Panasonic in the U.S. and Capcom in Europe. Together the founding managers of O~3 Entertainment have experience in all areas of video game development, retailing, publishing and distribution.
O~3’s management plans to use their knowledge, key relationships and contacts to provide a new and distinct method for small and medium-sized developers to publish and distribute fresh game content in three easily identifiable brands: Macaroni Media for children’s educational and entertainment titles, Ankle Biters for “E” and “T” audiences and Total Chaos for more challenging “T” and “M” rated games with intense graphics.
