Disney making moves and hiring Bungie Founder

Disney is not done making big moves, today CNBC reported that Disney has hired Alex Seropian, the founder of Bungie Software and co-creator of the “Halo” franchise to oversee creative development across Disney’s in-house video game development teams. “We’re really trying to be a magnet in this industry for talent, as we are in so many other parts of the entertainment world,” says Graham Hopper, executive vice president and general manager of Disney Interactive Studios. “Having someone of Alex’s caliber join us is a tribute to the great people we have here already.” Disney looks to expand it’s base past the family friendly games which is it’s core audience. “We want to be bigger than what we are today – a lot bigger than what we are today,” says Hopper. “We don’t have the ambition of trying to unseat the top players in the industry, because we don’t have the

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Survey Says Employers Lose Productivity to Facebook

Research notes released today by Nucleus Research conclude that companies that allow access to Facebook lose an average of 1.5 percent in total employee productivity. Key findings of the study of 237 employees concluded: Nearly half of employees in the study and 77 percent of those with an account use Facebook during work hours Some employees use Facebook as much as 2 hours per day while at work One in 33 employees use Facebook exclusively while at work “If your company is facing tight margins and low profitability, as many are now, then how can you accept any work distractions that drain your overall productivity?,” said Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research for Nucleus Research. “While it won’t make you popular, restricting Facebook can reclaim lost productivity. If your profitability is say two percent, this could be the difference between staying open or closing shop.” Of those using Facebook at

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Atari is Cancelling Projects

What is happening over at Atari? It is appears that a number of its game projects are being cancelled in order to “improve the cash position”. What Atari is planning on doing is restructuring the business and focus on what it considered “more cost-effective” mass-market and online games. What the company has done is canceled games there were seen as not making a return on the investment, also know as, games that were not going to turn a profit on what the company had already invested in it.  This all comes on the heels of an announcement that Atari’s parent company Infogames has had a lost of €226.1 million for FY 2008-2009 which is up from a €51.1 million loss the year prior. By the looks of it, it is going to take some major work to turn this lose into a win.

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