SDCC’09: Former Blizzard North Pres to lead Marvel MMO development

Press Release

Gazillion Entertainment, a leading developer, publisher and operator of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games for wide audiences, announced today that former President of Blizzard North David Brevik has joined as Studio Director for Gargantuan. David will lead development efforts of the highly anticipated Marvel Universe MMO for PC and consoles, in addition to heading up the Gargantuan development studio which is located at Gazillion’s headquarters in San Mateo, California.

David Brevik has been a game industry innovator for nearly two decades. Among his many leadership roles, David served as President of Blizzard North for seven years. Notably, David was responsible for creating Blizzard’s Diablo series, for which he was Project Lead, Design Lead and Lead Programmer on both Diablo and Diablo II. The Diablo franchise is one of the top PC titles of all time with over 20 million copies sold. David also launched Blizzard’s online gaming service, Battle.Net, and was involved in key initiatives spanning multiple game and technology projects at Blizzard Entertainment. Prior to joining Gazillion, David was a Director at Flagship Studios.

At the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, David will participate on a panel Q&A entitled The State of MMOs: A Discussion with the Developer with other acclaimed game designers, including Craig Alexander (Turbine), Gordon Walton (BioWare), and Bob Ferrari (Sanrio Digital) on Thursday, July 23^rd from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

“I’m a huge fan of comic books, Super Heroes, and MMORPGs, so the chance to lead the creative efforts for the Marvel Universe MMO is an amazing opportunity. Gazillion’s mission to bring MMOs to the mainstream while maintaining the depth in gameplay that enthusiast gamers demand is something that deeply resonates with me,” said David. “Marvel is a perfect fit for this mission, and I couldn’t imagine a better venue to announce our efforts than Comic-Con.”

“As the creative and technical force behind the Diablo franchise and Battle.Net, David is an immensely talented game industry veteran who is responsible for bringing role playing games and online gaming more generally to an extremely large and thankful audience around the world,” said Rob Hutter, CEO of Gazillion. “We’re thrilled that he’s chosen to bring his vision and design leadership to the development of our landmark MMO franchise with Marvel.”

About Gazillion Entertainment

Gazillion Entertainment is a leading developer, publisher and operator of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games for wide audiences. Gazillion has assembled talent from across the landscape of MMOs, videogames, animated feature films and technology to address the mission of building breakthrough massively multiplayer experiences featuring world class brands and original franchises, superior production quality and unmatched gameplay. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Gazillion has four independent but wholly owned MMO development studios located in California, Colorado, and Washington currently in production on Casual and AAA MMO properties. The company also owns the award-winning SmartyCard payment service for younger audiences which works with leading online games and more. For more information on Gazillion, its products and services please visit www.gazillion.com.

About Marvel

Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 5,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in licensing, entertainment (via Marvel Studios and Marvel Animation) and publishing (via Marvel Comics). Marvel’s strategy is to leverage its franchises in a growing array of opportunities around the world, including feature films, consumer products, toys, video games, animated television, direct-to-DVD and online. For more information visit www.marvel.com.