Gaming and Technology Vets Team Up to Form KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc.
Filed under: Press Releases
Tagged as : david nichols, elie akilian, KingsIsle Entertainment, todd coleman
Austin, Texas - April 25, 2008 - Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. today uncloaked after three years of lock down secrecy. The company has had a team of more than 100 Austin and Dallas based employees, including top creative talent, working on multiple massively multiplayer online (MMO) projects under a cone of silence.
Formed in early 2005 by veterans from both gaming and technology, KingsIsle is led by chairman and chief executive officer Elie Akilian, and President David Nichols. Heading up development are Todd Coleman, a key creative mind behind the MMO Shadowbane and creative director Tom Hall, co-founder of well known game companies id Software and ION Storm. The first project is headed by Todd and is expected to enter beta this spring. Another release headed by Tom will be announced at a later date.
“We founded KingsIsle with an approach that fosters ingenuity,” said Elie Akilian. “Our focus is in the online environment and will continue to be so in the future. We’ve pulled together some of the most creative minds around and given them room to push boundaries and create superlative entertainment experiences. We’ll continue to build on that base of originality.”
Prior to KingsIsle, Akilian co-founded Inet Technologies, Inc. in 1989, and took the company public in 1999. He served as its President and Chief Executive Officer from April 1999 until the sale of the company to Tektronix, Inc., in September 2004.
Nichols brings to KingsIsle a wide variety of experience in operations, publishing, and financial management. Prior to joining KingsIsle, Nichols was with Midway Games Inc., and subsidiaries from 1995 to 2004. Most recently, he served as Midway’s Senior Vice President - Administration and Operations.
Todd Coleman was most recently the President of Wolfpack Studios, Inc., creators of the MMO title Shadowbane, until its sale to Ubisoft Entertainment in early 2004. Before becoming Wolfpack’s President, he was their Vice President responsible for managing the game design team, building and maintaining their online player community and publisher relations.
Coming from a 15-year stretch of successful game development, Tom Hall’s contribution to KingsIsle is his immensely creative imagination that allows him to envision entire gaming worlds and character designs that are unique in the game industry. His games have been played by millions and include the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, DOOM, Rise of the Triad and Anachronox
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April 27th, 2008 at 3:17 am
Now your company is out I would like to know what kind of MMO and would be interested in beta testing. I have been playing MMO for almost 10 years now. I began with Diablo and am now playing WoW. I have beta tested a number of games and still play a few others from time to time.
If possible I would really like to know more about your game. What kind and such.
Thank you,
Virginia Dowdney
April 28th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I wish Kingsisle the best of luck and will keep a eye on them from now on, but…..with such announcement like this it would have been nice to atleast let us know or show us something of these projects, not just “we are working on something” instead let us know what you are working on besides it’s being a mmo. And also is it going to be a MMO or a MMORPG? To explain a MMO for me is something like WOW where there is hardly any need to actualy roleplay other then just play the game, a MMORPG is more a game that lets it’s players be involved with a more commuity type of play meaning we need each other in a MMORPG where you don’t need each other in a MMO.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:53 am
[...] They’ve been working on a couple of MMO’s for three years, one of which will soon go into beta. GamerHotline Austin, Texas - April 25, 2008 - Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. [...]
April 29th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I have faith that the people who created my best mmo experience will improve on that and create an even better experience.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I have been a computer gamer since the C=64 games, and this veil of secrecy gas piqued my interest a bit. I hope these games are something special. If you need alpha tester or beta lemme know!