Jim Eisenstein appointed Head of North American Production for Digital Bridges
Leading Mobile Games Publisher Lands Media & Entertainment Expert To Head San Mateo Studio
GDC, San Francisco, CA, 7th March 2005: Digital Bridges, a world leader in the creation and distribution of mobile entertainment solutions, today announced the appointment of Jim Eisenstein as Production Director for North America. In addition to managing Digital Bridges' US-based production of games, Jim will be responsible for overseeing the company's North American development, porting, QA and certification operations, run from the company's new North American headquarters in San Mateo, California. Jim will work to grow the San Mateo based team to 60 people later this year, as he further builds the unit's West Coast development, production and QA teams.
Jim brings more than twenty years of technical, creative and management experience in the gaming and handheld technologies industries to Digital Bridges. Most recently Jim was at Activision working on premium-title product releases such as Shrek 2, Spiderman 2 and Seaworld Adventure Parks Tycoon. Prior to that, Jim held management positions at Microsoft, 3DO, Sierra, and Atari, where he programmed, designed, directed and produced a wide variety of videogame titles on different platforms.
Digital Bridges is embarking on a recruitment drive for its San Mateo operations, starting with GDC this year and is specifically on the hunt for developers, producers and QA technicians.
The establishment of the company's West Coast presence in October 2004 helped cap a year in which Digital Bridges became one of the fastest-growing mobile game publishers in the dynamic North American market. Over the last 12 months Digital Bridges has expanded its distribution base to include a number of portals and smaller carriers in addition to covering all major North American wireless network carriers; and signed a number of strategically significant content partnership deals directly targeting the U.S. market. These include its license deals with Vivendi Universal Games, Universal Studios NBC, MGM, Sports Illustrated, and the US rights covered by its multi-region partnership arrangement with Electronic Arts.
Blockbuster titles launched in the U.S. in the last 12 months include the phenomenally successful The Fast and the FuriousTM racing game as well as its sequel, 2Fast 2FuriousTM; EA SPORTS Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004TM;EA SPORTS 2005 FIFA MIETM; PlatoonTM; Crash Bandicoot Nitro CartTM; RobocopTM;dbi 3D Pool; Spyro Ripto QuestTM, the critically acclaimed Gauntlet; and Sports Illustrated 2005 Football Trivia. Digital Bridges' line-up of new premium-branded titles to launch imminently includes: EA SPORTS 2005 Tiger Woods PGA TourTM;; Arctic Challenge Snowboarding; Nate Adams Freestyle Motocross; and Crash Bandicoot: TwinsanityTM.
Brian Greasley, CEO of Digital Bridges commented: "We are extremely pleased that Jim has joined us to build our games production operations and help grow our overall North American presence. His impressive experience and skill set will be a valuable asset for us as we enter a new growth phase for the company. With the combination of our brand partners, premium branded games portfolio; extensive distribution and growing local operations, we are in a strong position to significantly increase our share of the North American market."
Jim Eisenstein, Production Director for North America, commented: "We've got an exciting time ahead of us in the North American market. The opportunity to build a dream team and take on our competitors from a more equal footing, in terms of presence in the market, is hugely motivational for me personally, an emotion matched by the ambition of the business as a whole."
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About Digital Bridges
Founded in 1998, Digital Bridges is a world leader in the creation and distribution of mobile entertainment solutions. An industry pioneer, Digital Bridges provides the best in mobile entertainment to a global distribution network of operators, portals, retailers, interactive TV channels and other e-commerce outlets, representing over 400 million subscribers worldwide. The company possesses a unique combination of mobile technology, development and publishing expertise, and works with many of the world's leading media and entertainment brands including Crash BandicootTM, RollerballTM, RobocopTM, The Pink PantherTM, PlatoonTM, 2 Fast 2 FuriousTM, Weakest Link, Space Invaders®, EA SPORTSTM 2005 FIFA Football Mobile International Edition and EA SPORTSTM 2005 Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®. UNITY, the company's best-in-class technology platform, supports all current and future mobile standards, protocols, technologies and operating systems. Digital Bridges' investors include funds advised by Apax Partners, Argo Global Capital and Openwave Systems Inc. Digital Bridges has its commercial and publishing headquarters in London, with technology & production divisions in Dunfermline, Scotland and San Mateo, California as well as sales offices in Paris, Munich, Madrid, New York, Fairfax, Sao Paolo and Singapore.
For more information, please call +44 (0) 20 7901 1760 or visit us at our corporate site www.digitalbridges.com
Jay Boor/Annabel Brog
Digital Bridges
DD: +44 (0) 207 901 1770
Mob: +44 (0) 778 756 1352
Mob: 650 430 5805