Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

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?  

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”?

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?   

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?

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.  

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.

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.