After being recently named on Management Today’s 2008 list of ‘35 Women Under 35′, a corporate a-list of women with management positions in prominent companies, SCEE’s Paulina Bozek has left Sony. Bozek was the award-winning Game Director of the $500 Million, 15 Million unit-selling SingStar franchise. While her reasons for leaving are not exactly clear, it is interesting to wonder why another employee of Playstation corporate has left Sony for Atari (Phil Harrison did so as well a while ago). What’s truly worrying is that Atari hasn’t posted good revenue or net income in ages.
Bozek is now development director of a new online game studio at Infogrames, which essentially owns Atari. The new studio will focus on innovating and developing mass-market consumer games and services for online-enabled devices including PC’s and game consoles. The new Atari studio will initially be located in Hammersmith, west London and will recruit industry-leading technical, creative and production resources, both as in-house employees and externally contracted resources.
“I am very excited to be joining Atari at this pivotal time for both the company and the industry,” said Bozek. “There is a huge opportunity as gaming platforms become more ubiquitous, more connected and attract more mainstream audiences. Atari has a great vision for the future and I can’t wait to start realising that vision in new products and services.”
“This is a significant step in expanding Atari’s online game development capability,” said Phil Harrison, President of Infogrames. “Paulina is one of the industry’s most respected creative leaders with an outstanding track-record of commercial and creative success and I’m delighted that she will bring her unique vision, consumer insight and proven ability for creating amazing entertainment experiences to Atari.”
A rep for SCEE was quoted as saying, “We are obviously very sorry to learn that Paulina will be leaving us. She has been a huge part of our family at WWS and London Studio and we wish her all the best with her new challenge.”
Information courtesy of VideoGaming247 (1) (2)
