MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
In MCV’s round-up of the latest personnel news and hottest job opportunities, Liongsate appoints a new head of its video games division and Apple is hiring a technical support advisor.
Lionsgate appoints Levin as head of video games division
The Hollywood studio has hired Peter Levin as president of interactive ventures and games.
In the role, Levin will oversee the firm’s move into the gaming space with its popular film IPs including Twilight, Hunger Games and Divergent.
He will report to Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer and CFO Jimmy Barge.
Levin is a veteran in video games having consulted for Rovio, MAG Interactive and Japanese media giant Yoshimoto Kogyo. Most recently he headed digital media firm Nerdist Industries.
Peter is a perfect fit for our entrepreneurial culture, and he is ideally qualified to lead the continued growth of our content business into the video game space and other interactive digital ventures,” said Feltheimer in a statement.
Gaming has become one of the most explosive growth areas of the content business, and Peter’s mandate will be to build a portfolio of premium digital properties as we expand our leadership in films and television programming into digital content as well.”
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PERSONNEL NEWS
Naughty Dog hires Cooper to work on Uncharted PS4
Former Assassin’s Creed III director Jonathan Cooper has joined Naughty Dog to work on Uncharted on PS4.
Cooper made the move in February but details of the switch only recently surfaced.
Prior to his role as animation director on Assassin’s Creed III at Ubisoft Montreal, Cooper worked at BioWare on Jade Empire and Mass Effect. He also had a stint at Eidos Montreal working on Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
When working at an art-centric studio such as Ubisoft Montreal I had been hard-pressed to find anywhere that takes video game animation as seriously as there, but I’ve long held Naughty Dog up as a titan in video game animation, ultimately being won over by their game-changing work on The Last of Us,” Cooper said on his website.
It’s no understatement to say, in my opinion, that game has set a new standard for tone and characterisation in video games.
It’s quite a change from the rigid structure a multi-studio collaboration like Assassin’s Creed requires, but after over a month here I am certain this project is going to be another milestone in game animation. As ever, I really look forward to sharing what we’re working on in the future.”
Pro-gamer Burton joins Bungie to work on Destiny
The publisher has hired former pro gamer Bonnie Burton to work on its upcoming shooter Destiny.
Burton was the first female professional gamer at Major League Gaming, joining the firm when she was 12 years old.
She made a name for herself through Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 tournaments and has also recently worked for G4TV and Astro Gaming.
Announcing the move via Twitter, Burton’s role is yet to be confirmed but is likely to be based on Destiny’s multiplayer mode.
