Warner Bros. gets a new videogame chief

I've already reported on this blog that a lot of Vivendi Games' projects (primarily those in the Sierra label) may have a hard time finding a home at Activision Blizzard once the merger is complete.

But it's just as true that most of the Vivendi execs who aren't part of Blizzard will have a hard time finding a home at Activision. From what I've heard, an exodus has already started and those who are still around are looking, because big layoffs are expected after the merger is done in a month or two and the Activision management team takes over.

One of the most senior execs, president of worldwide studios Martin Tremblay, just found what has got to be one of the more plum gigs in the videogame biz: president of Warner Bros. Interactive.

While most videogame companies are worried about getting acquired, Warner Bros. is investing heavily, both internally and via acquisition/investment (like Traveller's Tales and Eidos), to grow its position in the space. Tremblay will have the luxury of lots of money to invest and, as part of a big conglomerate, not nearly as much public scrutiny of his performance as he would get at an independent publisher that has to report its own earnings.

For Warner Bros., Tremblay is by far the most experienced (and certainly expensive) exec they've hired for their videogame division. The last person in charge of Warner Bros. Interactive was Jason Hall, whose experience was running developer Monolith, not a publisher, and who had a senior VP title, not president. For the past year, WB home entertainment head Kevin Tsujihara has been looking for a really experienced executive to head up all of the studio's videogame operations, which include internal production via Monolith and Traveller's Tales (and probably more developers soon), licensing, and North American distribution for partners like Brash, Eidos, and Codemasters.

While other studios, like Paramount, are just dipping their toes into videogame production, Warner Bros. is clearly moving aggressively and Tremblay's hire is just another big sign.

Read the whole story about Tremblay's hire on Variety.com.