Former Capcom USA Execs Open O~3 Entertainment

May 3, 2004, 9:50 pm EDT
Total comments: 4

O~3 plans to hunt out quality games from small developers and give them the attention they deserve.

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.

Talkback

gallyMay 03, 2004

Sounds good, but I could really do without these cheesy publisher names. Ankle Biters especially. ANKLE BITERS??

I'm an adult who plays plenty of E- and T- rated games. I enjoy plenty of games supposedly made for children, provided I don't feel condescended to or insulted. I'd buy games published by "Ankle Biters" anyway, but I really wish they'd come up with a less condescending name.

(Edit) As a side note, I hated being condescended to even when I was a kid. For their sake as well, I really wish they'd drop the name "Ankle Biters" and come up with something that kids might think of as "cool", or at least not insulting.

Ian SaneMay 03, 2004

They had me until "Macaroni Media". This is overall a great idea and I have no problem with any plan to get innovative games on store shelves. But those names f*cking suck. It can be the most innovative amazing game ever but once you put "Ankle Biters" on the package it's hitting the bargain bins faster than you can "what a sh!tty name". If those are the brand names these guys come up with I question their ability to get people interested in independent games. Even "Total Chaos" sounds kind of cheesy.