Majesco also announced that it is appointing Bill Petro as its Vice President of Internal Development responsible for building and overseeing studio operations. The newly created position will report directly to Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations.
“Creative and technical talent is at the heart of all great games and enduring intellectual properties. 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,” said Gui Karyo. “We are particularly pleased to have someone of Bill’s talent and experience in the lead role. Bill not only brings a fluency in developing and implementing successful creative processes, but he shares our vision for building a product line and intellectual property assets that emphasize fun, addictive game experiences.”
Jesse Sutton, Majesco’s Interim CEO, added: “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. We also firmly believe that the creation and ownership of intellectual property increases long term shareholder value.”
Added Petro: “Majesco is well positioned to succeed within the mass-market video game sector. I am excited to join such a dynamic organization and begin expanding its in-house capabilities.”
With over 20 years in the video game industry, Mr. Petro has risen to leadership roles out of the ranks of technical programming. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Development for Sega of America where he oversaw the company’s entire development efforts throughout North America. Prior to that he was Vice President of Development at Atari where he managed a staff of 80 employees, and headed direction and development on award-winning brands such as Backyard Sports. He also held a variety of product development positions for well-known video game publishers, including Konami of America and Electronic Arts.