Larry Shapiro becomes president of Oddworld
Former Brash Chief Creative Office and CAA videogames agent Larry Shapiro has landed a new gig as president of Oddworld Inhabitants, Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna's development studio best known for (duh) the "Oddworld" games.
Larry used to be Oddworld's agent when he was at CAA (pre-Brash), so it's perhaps not surprising he's working with them again. It is more surprising that Oddworld, which hasn't had a new game in a while, is taking on a president, demonstrating that despite their relative silence, they must have some promising stuff up their sleeves.
Lanning himself had been president, but is stepping aside to let Shapiro take that role while he'll focus exclusively on creative. Sherry McKenna is still CEO.
"No one is more in stride with us than Larry. We both see the same future landscape," Lanning said. "It's a petty radical departure from the contemporary landscape. While we think there’s a number of barriers to break through, we think there are tremendous opportunities on the other side of the barrier."
Shapiro similarly hinted that he's hoping to push Oddworld into new frontiers, which probably means they won't just be trying to sell $20 million AAA disc-based games to publishers.
"I have a great opportunity to add value to a company and to work with people who I am inspired by and who look to where the industry is going and not where its been," he told me. "We intend to break the model of where games are today in a unique and entertaining way."
It'll be a while until we find out exactly what Oddworld's up to now. But I do know it won't be the "Citizen Siege" animated movie that it was previously working on with Vanguard Entertainment (details here). McKenna told me there were "creative differences" and the rights are reverting back to Oddworld.
Shapiro is the first former senior exec at Brash to land a new job that I've heard of. As I reported last week, the company is in pretty dire straits. Sources are telling me there's just a "skeleton crew" left trying to sell off properties to other publishers and/or make deals with studios with which they made licensing deals to return the rights.
Like several ex-Brash employees I have spoken to, he didn't want to go into much detail about what was apparently an unpleasant experience. But he did make this one rather pointed comment about what he wanted to do:
I wanted to make Brash the Miramax or HBO of videogames, but sales marketing and finance wanted it to be Majesco.
Ouch.
More on Brash coming soon.
Chris Morris reports on the business and culture of video games and offers analysis of recent events and industry trends.
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Posted by: Richard | November 12, 2008 at 05:54 PM
This series of comments isn't making complete sense.
Was this guys in charge of making games or not?
If he was in charge of making deals that's great, by why the heck was his title Chief Creative Officer? That implies he was a creative involved in making games.
And I think we all know how horrible the games that Brash made were.
So it comes down to what this guy was doing at Brash... did he just have a BS title?
I admit his background seems impressive, although I have to at least partially agree with Waters below here - I've worked in this industry for over two decades and never heard of him either (and I am certainly considered an old man in my world :)
And Richard - would you consider the people who make movies "movie geeks"? Are Woody Allen, Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, just film nerds?
Richard - your comment is completely insulting to those of us who actually make games. The people who rep and broker deals for us and our companies (which is what Mr. Shapiro appears to be) would not exist without our work. We pay for them to exist.
Remember that before you type a ridiculous comment like that again.
Posted by: Jay tate | November 12, 2008 at 03:55 PM
Found this article Nikki Finke wrote when he left CAA. Pretty impressive. He actually repped Valve, so M. Peterson, your comment is null and void. From what I understand from the other articles online, he will be the President, overseeing creative, marketing, licensing, and the business of putting Oddworld back on the map. I doubt he's going to be actually "making" the games, the computer geeks do that.
"He is a major figure in the gaming industry, having helped CAA clients create entertainment franchises that intersect the game industry. Gamers laud Shapiro for "making things happen" for game companies in terms of getting licenses, working with Hollywood talent, moving IP back and forth, and doing the kinds of things you would imagine Hollywood and the games industry doing. Shapiro was in charge of all game initiatives focusing on integrating the video game industry with the movie and TV industries in order to create the next generation of cross platform franchises. He repped Will Wright, Valve Software and Xbox, and brokered movie deals for Doom and Halo two of the biggest games in the industry. (But Halo isn't being made. See Universal & Fox Fighting Over Halo $$$.) Shapiro also set up movies for such game franchises as Half Life, Return To Castle Wolfenstein, and Dead To Rights."
Posted by: Richard | November 12, 2008 at 02:38 PM
So Shapiro appears to have expertise in the area of making deals... not necessarily making games. He was at CAA (they didn't start making games, did they?) and he was at Brash (they didn't really know how to make games, did they?).
Evan - you mention Shapiro has all this experience - then where has he been over the last decade? I can think of dozens of top industry movers, whether they be in publishing or development, or otherwise, and his name is nowhere on that list.
This guy, if he did make games, is obviously washed up in this industry. Time to move on.
Posted by: Cris Waters | November 12, 2008 at 02:03 PM
I've known Shapiro since he was producing music videos 20 years ago. I know right after that he went on to producing VIDEO GAMES, probably before you idiots making stupid and ignorant comments were even in high school, and then sold his soul to the devil/CAA for 7 years where he mastered the 'business' of video games and forged relationships with the best in the field, including the Oddworld guys and others like Will Wright. I have a friend at Brash that said it was a clusterf**k from the get-go. It seems like he's finally at a place where he's not being overseen by clueless money hungry executives, like at CAA and Brash, and with people that share his enthusiasm and an understanding of the gaming world. Whether he can make Oddworld into a gaming giant, only time will tell. But he seems to have the best relationships and most experience (both in production and business) than anyone in the business.
Posted by: Evan | November 12, 2008 at 11:06 AM
So he wanted to make Brash into a company that made award winning games that nobody played? Games that would always be preceded by 'critically acclaimed but commercially ignored'? Great choice then.
Posted by: Scott | November 11, 2008 at 08:02 PM
M Petersen - agree entirely. My friend who worked there thought Shapiro was smart, but completely clueless on how to develop games. Typical of these Hollywood guys who shunned the industry for decades, then decide that they can actually make a buck in it so they jump in with their "expertise".
Shapiro, by the way, is known at CAA for having brokered the deal to make "Doom" into a movie.
We all remember how that turned out, eh??
Posted by: byron Tauser | November 11, 2008 at 01:40 PM
"I wanted to make Brash the Miramax or HBO of videogames, but sales marketing and finance wanted it to be Majesco."
Marketing markets the game, finance handles the money, and - wait for it - sales handles selling the games.
So Shapiro was the Chief Creative Officer, isn't his job to decide what kind of games to make?
And his comment goes to show you how much he knows about the industry - he doesn't say "I wanted to be the next Valve or Bungie" he instead compares it to a premium cable channel that is bleeding subscribers and a theatrical company that is way past its prime.
Good luck Lorne, you're going to need it!
Posted by: M Petersen | November 11, 2008 at 01:33 PM