Ten Ton Hammer:
I don’t know if you were a fantasy, baseball, or comic book
fan before you started working at 38 Studios, but have you become a fan
of all three since you joined the team?
style="font-weight: bold;">Brett:
I’ve never been a hardcore fantasy sports guy. I’ve
tried a few, and I completely get it, but I just never got hooked
(mainly a time/priority thing). I was certainly into comic books as a
kid. I guess I had pretty vanilla tastes - Spiderman and Batman were my
favorites; X-Men and Sgt. Rock if I was getting whacky. I loved Mad
Magazine also – which was sort of the litmus test for dorks.
Munch, the 38 Studios Mascot
Ten Ton Hammer:
What has it been like working for three “Hall of
Famers”? Are you at all intimidated by their sheer
“star power”?
style="font-weight: bold;">Brett: I guess I
just don’t get intimidated that easily. As impressive as
Curt, Bob, and Todd are, we’re all on the same page about
what we are going to accomplish here. You have to get the egos out of
the room to really get anything done. It’s not about
“star-power,” but more about where we can take this
next. More importantly, it’s not just them - the whole crew
at 38 Studios are rising stars. Truly amazing talent –
incredible people. I periodically have to punch myself because I still
can’t believe I get to work with these folks.
Ten Ton Hammer:
You’ve got a pretty fascinating background in the computer
games industry, with several titles from the Medal of Honor series and
Nightcaster as part of your portfolio. Why did you decide to
leave Midway for 38 Studios?
style="font-weight: bold;">Brett: This is a
sensitive topic because the Midway Austin studio was a great experience
for me. I helped build up that studio, and I enjoyed my role
and the people very much. As perfect as this opportunity is,
it wasn’t exactly easy to leave that situation.
I’ve been very fortunate to work with so many great people,
and I tend to get attached. Denise and that crew are a very talented
bunch. We were working on the sequel to Area 51, “Blacksite:
Area 51,” (and a few other things I can’t discuss
yet).
And
now 38 Studios is a whole new ship and crew, full of unstoppable
talent. Honestly, I just consider myself very, very fortunate. 38
Studios is certainly the coolest place on earth to work and is full of
exceptionally talented people. Midway Austin comes in as a very close
second - awesome people.
Ten Ton Hammer:
What opportunities did 38 Studios give you that you weren’t a
part of at Midway?
style="font-weight: bold;">Brett: I love to
design and build stuff - all kinds of stuff. I’m a
tech/software guy by background. There are some interesting parallels
between scaling software architectures and scaling people-structures
and organizations. I helped build up the Midway Austin studio. I helped
build up the EA-LA studio from what was essentially the Dreamworks
Interactive studio. And I’ve helped build up a few other
companies. In this case, I have the opportunity to build an entirely
new entertainment company – essentially from scratch. I guess
you could say I like challenges.
There
is so much we can do here that it’s mind-blowing. Just
imagine what happens if you give R. A. and Todd unlimited tech and an
unlimited audience and new media and distribution channels.
I’m drooling. The MMO product is the primary delivery vehicle
for our original intellectual property. But there is so much more we
can and will do.
alt="Bob Salvatore" title="Bob Salvatore" name="photo_j"
border="0" height="114" width="150">
R.A. Salvatore, Director of Creative Content
Ten Ton Hammer:
As the president and CEO of 38 Studios, what does your job entail?
It’s obviously a lofty title, but are you as responsible for
the welfare of the studio as you were when you were the site director
at Midway? Just give us a glimpse into your day-to-day routine, if you
could.
style="font-weight: bold;">Brett: I certainly
consider the overall welfare of the studio and people to be my top
responsibility. Without the team, you’re dead in the water.
We are building an entertainment company. My role is to provide vision
and leadership in tackling several ongoing challenges: Building the
studio, building an intellectual property, and raising capital. These
are non-trivial tasks, and I feel very lucky to be working with a team
who can pull this off. I’m a huge believer in getting the
right people in place, giving them what they need to be
successful, and then getting out of their way. As with many
start-ups, we all wear a lot of hats. So, operationally, I’m
involved in nearly every aspect of what we’re doing (at least
indirectly). But my primary focus day-to-day is on execution and
delivery of the IP and MMO product.
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