"Zach and PJ bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the video game industry to their positions with Empire Interactive," said Karim Farghaly, vice president of sales, Empire Interactive. "It's exciting to have added two such intelligent and energetic individuals to the family as we grow the business in a new territory. Their experience will enable us to provide our North American business partners with outstanding service and quality products for our consumers."

In his new role, Snavely, who has more than 13 years of experience in game production across 10 platforms, will be leading and facilitating communication with development studios, first-party contacts, and identifying new project opportunities with potential development partners. Prior to joining Empire Interactive, Snavely spent five years at Sony Computer Entertainment America as a senior producer working on games like NBA PSP and High Velocity Bowling. He is considered an industry expert in sports game development and artificial intelligence, with a proven track record for his work on the Tony La Russa Baseball and NBA Shootout franchises.

As director of product marketing, Rener will lead marketing efforts for Empire Interactive games published in the U.S. Prior to joining Empire Interactive, he was content director at ON Networks, an online television network in Austin. As creative marketing director at Aspyr Media, Rener worked on a wide variety of titles across multiple platforms including Stubbs the Zombie for which he produced the original soundtrack.

Before transitioning into the interactive entertainment industry, Rener spent two years in the motion picture production, working on films for Sony and Warner Bros. He then made a move into advertising working on popular brands like Kinko's, United Health Care, and Sea World. Rener brings a broad variety of experience and knowledge in the advertising, marketing, film and interactive entertainment industries to his new role at Empire Interactive.