Los Angeles, CA – January 4, 2012 – Seismic Games, a Los Angeles-based games studio dedicated to creating high-quality, next generation social games franchises, today announced that it has raised $2 million in Series A funding, led by DFJ Frontier, a DFJ Network partner fund, and notable media entrepreneur, author and venture capitalist Tom Matlack. Seismic Games also launches with more than a dozen individual investors with deep ties to the entertainment industry.

Seismic Games creates free-to-play games with wide appeal for digital platforms including social networks such as Facebook. With over 50 years of combined executive experience launching globally successful games franchises, the studio looks to bring unique and immersive gameplay opportunities to the social games market with its first title set to launch in the first quarter of 2012. The games will be character-focused and highly customized, igniting a new wave of players looking for more sophisticated narrative and deeper engagement from their experiences online. User-generated and real-time content will also play a central role in the gameplay, as will branded and professional entertainment partnerships which connect online and offline opportunities to audiences enjoying the game.

“2012 is an incredibly exciting and important time for the games industry. Zynga, along with a handful of other developers, have perfected the analytics-based approach to game design. Seismic is focused on bringing the next wave of social games to consumers who are getting tired of ‘me too’ products,” said Seismic Games’ CEO and co-founder Greg Borrud. “In blending the best of the analytics-based game model with the quality of entertainment in traditional video games, we’re developing an entirely new social games experience with a goal of taking this market to the next level.”

Established in 2011, Seismic Games is founded and led by an executive team including CEO Greg Borrud, a 17-year gaming industry veteran and co-founder of Pandemic Studios, which was sold to Electronic Arts in 2007 for $860 million. Eric Gewirtz serves as the company’s chief creative officer and brings creative expertise with a background as director of ‘Star Wars: Battlefront’ 1 & 2, one of the best-selling Star Wars video games with more than 14 million units sold. Seismic Games’ President Chris Miller, a former VP of Vivendi Universal and 16 year industry veteran with over 30 titles to his credit including executive producer of the award-winning ‘F.E.A.R.’ and ‘No One Lives Forever’ series, rounds out the Seismic Games founding team.

“Seismic Games has the vision, knowledge and experienced team required to execute best-in-class social games that resonate with an active and growing online user base,” said Scott Lenet, co-founder and managing director of DFJ Frontier. “The launch of its first game will shake up the status quo of the social gaming market and reveal an incredibly powerful engine for collaboration with branded entertainment properties.”

About Seismic Games

Seismic Games is a Los Angeles-based games studio dedicated to creating high-quality, next generation social games franchises across digital platforms. The company is led by seasoned game industry executives with experience from Pandemic Studios, Activision and Vivendi Universal. For more information visit:www.seismicgames.com.

Los Angeles, CA – March 28, 2012 – Seismic Games today launched CelebrityMe, a first-of-its-kind aspirational, character-driven social game that invites players to live out their ultimate fantasies of celebrity lifestyle, fame and fortune online, and share the experience and excitement with their friends. CelebrityMe, available now on Facebook (http://apps.facebook.com/celebrity_me/), is Seismic Games’ first social games release following its studio announcement.

Set in the glitz and glamour of the entertainment capital of the world, CelebrityMe starts players at the pinnacle of their careers as they arrive at the premiere of their first major Hollywood blockbuster movie. Flashing back to how it all started, players are then transported to the streets of Venice Beach where they must learn the ropes and work their way up to stardom by picking out the hottest clothes, partying with the rich and famous, avoiding scandals, and ultimately taking center stage. CelebrityMe focuses on a character-driven narrative, inviting players to customize their celebrity via thousands of potential combinations of hair styles, facial features, clothing and accessory choices. Fun, interactive activities and video adventures let players create in-game movies with their friends that can be shared online, and help to get players one step closer to rock star status or movie star fame.

“Facebook is all about expressing who you are to the world. CelebrityMe takes it one step further by tapping into players’ real world interests and dreams and delivers on the fantasy of living the celebrity lifestyle,” said Greg Borrud, CEO of Seismic Games. “CelebrityMe gives players the tools to express not only who they are, but who they want to be, and lets them live out and share these fun aspirations with all their Facebook friends.”

CelebrityMe key features:

• Create Your Celebrity – Players can customize everything about their celebrity alter-ego from the stage name they choose, to their hairstyle, down to the shoes they wear. Dressing the part for everything from auditions to nightclubbing is an important step to becoming a star.

• Find Your Calling – Players choose a celebrity career path with a focus on Hollywood, music or the socialite lifestyle, and can even go for it all to become the envious triple threat.

• Become a Star – For the first time ever in a social game, players can create in-game animated movies, TV shows, and music videos starring themselves and their friends.

• Build Your Entourage – Each animated performance, or ‘Gig’, lets players cast their real-world Facebook friends to fill the character roles, be it a love interest or villain. Acting as casting agent, producer, director, stylist and star, players can change each element of the ‘Gig’ as many times as desired to achieve better reviews.

CelebrityMe, a new social game that debuted today on Facebook, allows users to take on the persona of a minor entertainer and grow into a world-wide superstar. Players start as unknowns in Venice Beach and accrue money and points for performing a series of fame-building tasks. These can range from putting together the right outfit to posing for the paparazzi. Think Farmville, but instead of harvesting crops, one is tending to his or her career.

The game is the first product from Seismic Games, a Los Angeles-based games studio begun last year by three veterans of the gaming industry. Company co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Eric Gewirtz says he and his partners were frustrated by the prohibitive financial nature of creating new console games and were inspired to try something new.

The trio were particularly encouraged by the social gaming space, which they thought was lacking in character-based experiences. The result of their brainstorming was CelebrityMe, which is not only based on a popular consumer subject, but also lets players create in-game animated movies and music videos featuring other friends who have signed up for the game.

The bonus of being a game that revolves around celebrity, says Mr. Gewirtz, is that CelebrityMe easily lends itself to brand integration and other cross-promotional opportunities. While fictional personas currently star in faux films like “Hindenberg,” the company is in talks with studios and networks to allow real-life creative properties to be included in the game.

Mr. Gewirtz also says the game will focus on the more positive aspects of fame, as opposed to the seedier elements, like drug addiction. He describes the game’s tone as “tongue-in-cheek,” as creators play to spoof different aspects of today’s celebrity scene. For example, once players become famous, they can debut their films at the Shangri-La Theater and be interviewed by Whitney Opera — obvious plays on Los Angeles’ Chinese Theater and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Viewers are likely to interact with real-life shows like those that are executive produced by television producer Craig Silverstein, one of Seismic Games’ investors. Mr. Silverstein, who is friends with Mr. Gewirtz, says that despite not having his own Facebook account, he instantly saw the appeal of a social celebrity-based game.

“Though I work in a more traditional entertainment environment, I’ve watched the rise of interactive entertainment and understand everything is about immersion nowadays,” he says.

“Certain video games are becoming more like cinema and television is becoming more interactive and social. Everything is really all drawing together.”

Original Article:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/03/28/celebrityme-adds-celebrity-shine-to-social-gaming/?mod=google_news_blog

Seismic Games, the social gaming shingle formed by videogame vets earlier this year, will launch “CelebrityMe” today as its first title on Facebook.

Game lets players live out their celebrity fantasies and share their exploits with their friends online. Plot plays out as a flashback, starting out at the premiere of a player’s first major Hollywood blockbuster before recalling how his career began, on the streets of Venice Beach, where they picked out the hottest clothes, partied with the rich and famous and avoided scandals. Game enables characters to be customized and in-game moves to be created and shared.

“Facebook is all about expressing who you are to the world,” said Greg Borrud, CEO of Seismic Games. “‘CelebrityMe’ takes it one step further by tapping into players’ real-world interests and dreams and delivers on the fantasy of living the celebrity lifestyle. ‘CelebrityMe’ gives players the tools to express not only who they are, but who they want to be and lets them live out and share these fun aspirations with all their Facebook friends.”

Formed in January by former execs from Pandemic Studios, Vivendi Universal and Activision, Los Angeles-based Seismic Games closed a $2 million round of financing from DFJ Frontier, venture capitalist Tom Matlack and investors who include TV showrunners Craig Silverstein (“Terra Nova,” “Nikita”) and Rupert Perry (former president of EMI Records) as well as Lambert Media Group.

“I think all entertainment is becoming interactive, even traditionally passive media like television and film,” Silverstein said. “Audiences will watch and then tweet, blog, vote and play. ‘CelebrityMe’ is a platform where audiences and the studios in the coming months can connect in a fun, innovative and impactful way. The experience and talent of the team at Seismic Games studio is what got me excited to invest. The game concept itself sealed the deal.”

Borrud co-founded Pandemic Studios, which was sold to Electronic Arts in 2007 for $860 million. Eric Gewirtz serves as the company’s chief creative officer. His credits include director of the first two installments of “Star Wars: Battlefront.” Seismic president Chris Miller is a former VP of Vivendi Universal and exec produced “F.E.A.R.” and “No One Lives Forever.”

Original Article:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118052003.html?cmpid=RSS|News|LatestNews

Thanks to breakout hits like FarmVille and CityVille, the $9.5 billion public company is pretty much it. Playfish was bought by Electronic Arts in 2009, Playdom by Disney a year later and other names like CrowdStar have all but faded. It’s become what looks like a winner-takes-all market, with Zynga currently owning the seven most popular games on Facebook.

Don’t tell that to the founders of Los Angeles-based Seismic Games. Created last year by industry veterans Greg Borrud, Eric “Giz” Gewirtz and Chris Miller, Seismic is debuting on Facebook today with CelebrityMe, a game that lets users create an avatar with the hopes of attaining virtual fame and fortune. The company said in January that it raised $2 million from DFJ Frontier and other investors.

Set in L.A.’s Venice Beach, the game lets players initially choose to be a musician, actor or socialite and then customize their characters with names, clothing and hairstyles. The social component of the game comes as users invite friends to join their scene, whether as a bandmate, casting agent or villain. Seismic plans to introduce a Hollywood backdrop soon and then downtown L.A. a few months later.

As with Zynga’s games, CelebrityMe will let users play for free and buy Facebook credits for in-game purchases that help them advance to different levels. Facebook keeps 30 percent of the revenue.

Like all social games, the Holy Grail is to make it viral: Get initial users to bring in their friends and have those friends rave about it on Facebook. This approach has become more of a challenge since Facebook has limited users’ ability to spam their network with every little update. That means advertising becomes important to drive traffic. But ads cost money, and that’s where startups like Seismic can get trounced by cash-rich Zynga.

Gewirtz said his team can’t worry about that. They’re focused on creating games that people want to play, and they see an opportunity to add features that aren’t available in the ‘Ville titles. While Zynga pioneered the free-to-play model on Facebook, Gewirtz said those games leave plenty to be desired by people who don’t want to continuously water their virtual crops.

“If you have an innovative new game that feels like a new experience, you’ll still find some breakout hits,” he said. That won’t happen “if people keep making farm games.”

So is Gewirtz worried about Zynga copying his game? He didn’t answer that question directly, but he did say that his team has already checked to see if the name “CelebrityVille” has been claimed.

It has.

Original Article:

http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-blog/2012-03-28-facebook-gets-a-new-game-not-made-by-zynga-will-it-score/

CelebrityMe, which has its coming-out party today on Facebook, is the first game from L.A.’s Seismic Games.

At the game’s outset, your character is at a Hollywood premiere for your latest movie. But, no, it won’t be that easy becoming an A-lister. A flashback leads to the game’s true beginning: You are a newcomer to Venice Beach, Calif., where you begin the quest of seeking the limelight.

Seismic Games, founded in 2011, has an executive team with a storied background in console video game development. As they looked at social games, the developers accepted the popularity of games such as FarmVille and CityVille but wondered how they tracked with players’ true interests. “What we found were missing were character-focused games and games focused around common fantasies,” says Seismic Chief Creative Officer Eric ‘Giz’ Gewirtz.

He and Seismic CEO (and fellow co-founder) Greg Borrud worked together at Pandemic Studios (Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2), which Borrud also co-founded. The other Seismic co-founder is President Chris Miller, who was executive producer of the F.E.A.R. and No One Lives Forever games while at Vivendi Universal. In 2008, Miller and Gewirtz co-founded Little Quake Games, which created the award-winning app Rock Prodigy.

For Seismic’s first social game, Gewirtz says, “we wanted to give Facebook fans the idea of creating their own celebrity and living that international celebrity lifestyle.”

FarmVille “is a great game,” he says. “But why can’t I be a rock star on Facebook?”

Players create and customize their personas, then outfit them for their various stops on the road to fame. Once you decide what type of celeb you want to be — movie star, musician, socialite — you can invite friends to play along. If you’re going to be in a rock band, “you can have your Facebook friends be the drummer or guitarist,” he says. Opt for being a movie star, and “your friends can be your love interest or sidekick.”

As the game progresses, certain milestones result in the creation of in-game movies that show how your film, concert or scene plays out. You make some choices, and there’s some Wheel of Fortune randomness that makes each player’s experience unique. The movies can be posted to your Facebook page, too.

While the game is free to play, spending real money on in-game cash can gain you quicker access to accoutrements and some exclusive glitz items.

“It’s a different type of Facebook game, but it is also meant to be funny, Gewirtz says. “If you chuckled a little bit and it made your day a little happier, that was part of our intent.”

Original Article:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2012/03/fantasy-fame-game-celebrityme-comes-to-facebook/1#.T6eIJtVGKF9

The funding came before the company has even released its first title, signalling just how eager investors are to place their bets on the small but fast-growing social games market currently dominated by Zynga Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc.

In the last few years, numerous start-ups have jumped into social games, including Rumble, MindJolt SGA and Kabam — all backed by funding from heavy hitters in the venture crowd.

Seismic’s investors include DFJ Frontier, a division of SIlicon Valley’s Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which has invested in Skype, Hotmail and hundreds of other technology companies. Also in the mix is Craig Silverstein, a television producer whose credits include “Nikita,” “Bones” and “Terra Nova.”

Based near Culver City, the 23-person game studio may be spanking new, but its founders are old hands in the world of games. Its chief executive, Greg Borrud, co-founded Pandemic Studios, where he managed a team of 500 game developers who produced big-budget console titles such as Star Wars: Battlefront, Mercenaries and Destroy All Humans. The Santa Monica studio, along with its sister company BioWare, was sold to Electronic Arts in 2007 for $860 million. Its president, Chris Miller, was a vice president at Vivendi Universal Games, and co-founder Eric Gerwitz was a lead game designer at Activision Blizzard Inc.

But enough with the name-dropping. What’s really so bewitching about Seismic that compels rational investors to part with their millions? Borrud believes his yet-unannounced social game would tap into new ways to play social games by drawing on lessons learned from his years in producing traditional video games.

“We think there’s an opportunity to focus on letting people play with identity, customization and character development,” Borrud said in an interview. “It ties into Facebook as a platform, where it’s a reflection of you as an individual. It starts with letting you build your character, giving yourself a name, determining what you look like, what you like to do, who you’d like to be. Traditional games have been doing this for years, because people love doing that. I’m surprised at how shallow that aspect of play is in most social games, and we see an opportunity in that.”

For now, that promise will just have to suffice because Seismic’s first title, a casual role-playing social game, isn’t expected to hit Facebook for at least several months.

Original Article:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/01/seismic-seizes-2-million-in-funding-jumps-into-social-games.html

But like other veterans of the games industry, he has strayed from his roots as a “hardcore game” developer, and instead hopes to find success in the growing social market with the foundation of L.A.-based Seismic Games, where Borrud serves as CEO.

Seismic announced its existence Wednesday, and also confirmed it raised $2 million in series A funding, led by DJF Frontier, DFJ Network partner fund and venture capitalist Tom Matlack.

Fellow Pandemic co-founders Josh Resnick and Andrew Goldman have moved away from games since Pandemic parent Electronic Arts closed the studio in 2009, but Borrud told Gamasutra that his passion for games hasn’t waned since Pandemic’s end, and he wanted to make sure he could return to the industry with more foresight than ever.

“There was a period there where Josh, Andrew and myself, the co-founders of Pandemic, had to remain neutral. We couldn’t do anything for a period of time,” explained Borrud. “It was an interesting time to be forced to not work, in a way, but it was a great advantage because we had an opportunity to lift our heads out of the craziness that was going on and take a look around and see what is happening in games right now.”

As it turns out, Borrud saw something special happening on social networks. He said the smaller projects and emerging business models would let him take creative risks more easily, while at the same time would protect the company if those risks don’t pan out.

“I’m not sure I was excited about any of the games I was playing in the social space, but I was excited by the ability to, with relatively low risk, try stuff out. When you put out a new game [on social networks], you aren’t betting the whole company on it. You’re betting a decent amount of money, but you can turn it out in a year, and you can really push the boundaries.”

Thus, Borrud, along with Chris Miller of Vivendi and Eric Gewirtz of Pandemic and Activision, last year founded Seismic Games, which is aimed primarily at social gaming. Now that he’s gotten his foot in the door, Borrud finds the social space reminiscent of the days when he first founded Pandemic.

“Honestly, the climate reminds me a lot of when we started Pandemic in 1998. We started as a PC developer, and we saw that space grow and we grew onto the consoles. We’ve seen that history, and we see that potential in social games. Getting in at the ground floor is incredibly exciting.”

According to Borrud, social games are still very much in their infancy, and if things play out the way he expects, Seismic Games is prepared to adapt to where the market is headed.

“What I saw in all this was a replay of the mid-90s. It was like I was looking at Sim City, or Command & Conquer, or Warcraft. I felt like I was looking at RTS games from the mid-90s, and I was like, ‘I’ve seen how this plays out!’ Games started here, but then got really good and even more mass-market, especially as they started focusing more on the characters.”

Borrud explained that as PC gaming moved into the new millennium, the games became more personal, focusing more on characters than large-scale management scenarios. With the social space currently dominated by city management titles like CityVille or Empires and Allies, the space could be primed to see a similar transition.

“For us, the question is: How do we bring in some of these light role-playing elements and make it more focused on my guy than on my farm or on my city? We’ve seen that with things like Sim City going to The Sims, and we think that same thing will happen in social games.”

Despite likening the social space to the hardcore PC market of the 1990s, Borrud said he has no desire to make games for that audience again. Rather, he hopes to take lessons learned in the hardcore space to help make his studio’s social games a bit more interesting for the casual player.

“For us, the excitement is reaching those new audiences. Those audiences that don’t know the history of games, who haven’t played Diablo or Call of Duty. The idea isn’t to make hardcore games for a casual consumer, but there are certain game elements that make those games so compelling, and we want to direct those elements at a more casual consumer, to help bring the entertainment back into these games.”

Seismic Games has yet to reveal its current projects, but hopes to debut its first game in early 2012.

Original Article:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/39346/Pandemic_cofounder_turns_toward_social_games.php

The LA-based company, which promises to create “high-quality, next-generation social games franchises,” received the new funds from DFJ Frontier (a DFJ Network partner fund) and Tom Matlack, which the company said is a “notable media entrepreneur, author and venture capitalist Tom Matlack.”

Seismic Games told Benzinga that more than a dozen individual investors – each with ties to the entertainment industries (Hollywood included) – are on board.

According to the official announcement: “With over 50 years of combined executive experience launching globally successful games franchises, the studio looks to bring unique and immersive gameplay opportunities to the social games market with its first title set to launch in the first quarter of 2012. The games will be character-focused and highly customized, igniting a new wave of players looking for more sophisticated narrative and deeper engagement from their experiences online. User-generated and real-time content will also play a central role in the gameplay, as will branded and professional entertainment partnerships which connect online and offline opportunities to audiences enjoying the game.”

“2012 is an incredibly exciting and important time for the games industry,” Seismic Games’ CEO and co-founder Greg Borrud said in a company release. “Zynga, along with a handful of other developers, have perfected the analytics-based approach to game design. Seismic is focused on bringing the next wave of social games to consumers who are getting tired of ‘me too’ products. In blending the best of the analytics-based game model with the quality of entertainment in traditional video games, we’re developing an entirely new social games experience with a goal of taking this market to the next level.”

Borrud, a 17-year game industry veteran, is primarily known as one of the founders of Pandemic Studios, which was sold to Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) in 2007 for more than $800 million. In a typical game industry move, EA closed the studio two years after the acquisition. But as an independent studio, Pandemic thrived, hence the hefty buyout.

Eric Gewirtz, who is credited as the director of the Star Wars: Battlefront video games, will serve as one of Seismic Games’ chief creative officers. Chris Miller, whose history includes a VP gig at Vivendi Universal and an executive producer credit on the video games F.E.A.R. and No One Lives Forever, will act as the Seismic Games’ president.

“Seismic Games has the vision, knowledge and experienced team required to execute best-in-class social games that resonate with an active and growing online user base,” Scott Lenet, co-founder and managing director of DFJ Frontier, said in a company release. “The launch of its first game will shake up the status quo of the social gaming market and reveal an incredibly powerful engine for collaboration with branded entertainment properties.”

Original Article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/01/04/seismic-games-scores-2-million-to-produce-next-generation-social-games/

Except Seismic Games, a new startup that just came out of stealth mode today and raised $2 million. It wants to make games with a whole load of user-generated content.

No, that doesn’t mean painting a shovel or building a farm. Instead, Seismic’s games will have content you can “share like a YouTube video,” Seismic Games CEO Greg Borrud said.

We spoke with Borrud, a nearly 20-year veteran of the gaming industry, to find out what the company is doing. Here’s what we learned:

Social gaming is evolving the same way traditional console games evolved 15 to 20 years ago. The biggest fish are going public, while the rest are getting gobbled up by existing companies. Eventually, the bigger companies in social gaming will start publishing third-party games instead of acquiring studios for new games.

Seismic Games raised a $2 million seed round in four months and assembled a full development team in even less time. Now it’s just adding testers and getting ready to launch their first game.

The founders are no slouches. Greg Borrud grew Pandemic from a studio of 13 to a team of more than 500 after its acquisition by Elevation Partners and eventual merger with BioWare.

Amazon’s uptime actually isn’t good enough for social games, in Borrud’s opinion. The company went with Rackspace, not because of cost, but for stability reasons. They’ll be switching to an internal infrastructure eventually, though.

Real-time content and user-generated content will dominate Seismic’s games. That means if you see something in the news one day, you’ll probably see it in one of Seismic’s games the next day. That also means Seismic’s games will have some elements that you will share like a YouTube video, though Borrud wouldn’t elaborate any further than that.

Here’s the full interview:

BUSINESS INSIDER: So tell us a little bit about the company.

Greg Borrud: We’re all people who have worked in the traditional game space and have seen the whole evolution of the space. We’ve seen a bit of a replay of the industry with social games and are wondering how we can make our mark and take a benefit of what we’ve learned in the past 15-20 years from experience.

We were all at Activision in the early days, Bobby Kotick starting over again. I spun out with a couple partners to form Pandemic studios, and a year or two we brought in Giz (Gerwitz) as the creative director. He was one of our head creative folks at Pandemic Studios. This was all before Pandemic merged with BioWare (which is one of Electronic Arts’ top game development studio).

We were excited about going after an audience outside of 25-year-old guys, going to women and older folks and younger folks. The console space had been trying to break the cycle of $60 box products and it’s really challenging to do when you have that deep investment. In the social gaming space, you’re able to be much more agile and move in. Zynga and Kabam and Playfish have perfected this model.

The other thing we were excited about was just the opportunity for experimentation. We love making games and experimenting and trying new things. It’s difficult to experiment when you’re spending $30 to $40 million on a product. In the social gaming space you can try a lot more and you have a conversation with your audience. You can see how they respond and make changes. That’s something that’s really compelling to game designers and compels us to take risks and move the genres forward.

BI: What kind of experience does the team have?

GB: Our core influences are from consoles and traditional console gaming. A number of us are Pandemic guys. I am, Giz is, several employees are. (President Chris) Miller was on the publishing side at Vivendi. A number of our flash engineers and artists come from the social gaming space. We just hired a bunch of folks from Meteor Games, but no one here has ever worked at Zynga.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-old-school-game-developers-want-to-make-the-youtube-of-social-games-2012-1#ixzz1uAcVIXEm

Original Article:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/04/businessinsiderthese-old-school-gam.DTL