Jon Epstein takes on videogames role at United Talent Agency

Videogames online media veteran Jon Epstein has moved over to United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the largest talent and literary agencies in Hollywood, where he will be driving a major expansion for the firm into the games business.

Epstein was formerly executive vice president and general manager of IGN / GameSpy, the company created by the merger which he, as president of GameSpy, helped to spearhead last year.

Prior to that Epstein was president and CEO of GameSpot.com, and in total he brings over twenty years of media and marketing experience to UTA - where he will work with agent Brent Weinstein, who has already pushed the agency into the games market.

"UTA offers a tremendous platform to bring together tastemakers and dealmakers in the worlds of entertainment, gaming and marketing," Epstein enthused in a statement on his new role. "As the scale of the gaming economy grows and the complexity of the game's intellectual property becomes more dependent on quality story telling, it is refreshing to see a shop such as UTA taking such a proactive step. I could not be more excited about this opportunity."

United Talent Agency already represents some of the most successful talents and properties in the film industry, including actors such as Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford and Jim Carrey, and directors such as M. Night Shymalan, Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers.

Last year the company arranged a deal between Midway Games and 2 Fast 2 Furious director John Singleton to create a new console title, "John Singleton's Fear and Respect".