The Order: 1886 developer Ready at Dawn has announced Blizzard's former chief operating officer Paul Sams as the studio's new CEO.
Ready at Dawn co-founder and current CEO Ru Weerasuriya will focus entirely on the creative side of the business as president and chief creative officer. Sams will oversee day-to-day business operations and the company's growth plans, as well as a new business development and publishing arm based in Austin, Texas which aims to help other games get published, as well as taking control of its own IP.
“I am excited to reunite with some of the best and brightest of my former colleagues to help lead what I believe to be the most capable and highest potential independent game developer in our industry,” Sams commented in a press release.
Weerasuriya added, “Words can't describe how excited our team and I are to have Paul join the Ready At Dawn family. He is not only one of the most accomplished, respected and experienced leaders in our industry, I am also fortunate to count him as a close friend. It is never easy finding someone to take over the reins of a company after this many years but I cannot think of anyone better suited to guide the team as we look to the future.
“In addition, this opportunity further fulfills a goal we had long sought. With Paul's arrival, the entire team at our studio in Irvine will turn its attention solely on creative and game development, while Austin will become the focus of our business endeavors. Paul's expertise will be essential in achieving some of our goals, including our desire to seek a strategic partner in helping us create and retain ownership of our own transmedia IPs.”
IP ownership is key to any developer but often rests with publishers instead. Ready at Dawn's plan clearly aims to change this. The studio hopes to continue working on The Order as a franchise, despite ownership resting with Sony, and will also advance to a multiplatform future.
Weerisuriya told GamesIndustry, "Since the release of The Order, we have been very hard at work to advance our engine and technology to a place where we can deliver our games on PC, Xbox One, PS4 and one other unannounced platform that you will soon find out about."
The unannounced platform may be a VR platform such as Oculus or Nintendo NX.
Sams has previously worked on Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and Hearthstone at Blizzard.
