Majesco Entertainment Co. announced today that it is establishing an internal development facility in the Los Angeles area. Dubbed Majestic Studios, the shop will be specifically focused on creating properties for the casual games market. Industry veteran Bill Petro has been appointed to the newly created post of VP of internal development, responsible for building and overseeing studio operations. He will report directly to Gui Karyo, exec VP of operations.
‘Creative and technical talent is at the heart of all great games and enduring intellectual properties,’ says Karyo. ‘Majesco Studios provides a means for us to leverage our resources and add the best players to our team for both the projects that we develop internally and the majority for which we utilize third party development.’
‘We’re excited about the opportunities that will result from this initiative and believe this move will allow us to build the same or better product as we do externally with similar or reduced costs,’ adds Jesse Sutton, Majesco’s Interim CEO. ‘We also firmly believe that the creation and ownership of intellectual property increases long-term shareholder value.’
Petro comes to Majesco with more than 20 years of experience in the video game industry, rising to executive positions from the ranks of technical programming. He previously served as senior VP of development for Sega of America, where he oversaw the company’s entire development efforts throughout North America. Prior to that, he was VP of development at Atari, managing a staff of 80 employees and heading direction and development on award-winning brands including Backyard Sports. Petro also held a variety of product development positions for Konami of America and Electronic Arts.
