General Discussion

Sony Online Entertainment names David D. Christensen as Vice President of Business Development & International Operations.

Sony Online Entertainment, (SOE) a global leader in the online gaming industry, today announced the appointment of David D Christensen to Vice President of Business Development & International Operations. In this newly created role, Christensen will be responsible for generating strategic global growth opportunities and securing key business alliances for SOE, with an emphasis on the European and Asian markets. In addition to his business development responsibilities, Christensen is tasked with managing SOE's international operations group. Christensen will be based in SOE?s new Los Angeles studio and will report to John Needham, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President for Sony Online Entertainment.

Christensen is a veteran of the video games industry with a broad range of business experience, including development partnerships, acquisitions, licensing and business affairs. Prior to joining SOE, Christensen served as Vice President of Business Development for IGE where he drove the company's relationships with the massively multiplayer publishing community. Prior to that, Christensen served as the Director of Business Development for Vivendi Games. He was instrumental in leading negotiations on licensing and development deals for several critically acclaimed and commercially acclaimed successful franchises including Crash Bandicoot, The Incredible Hulk, Lord of the Rings, Riddick and Spyro.

"David brings a wealth of experience to his new role within SOE," said John Needham, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Sony Online Entertainment. "His exceptional knowledge and insight into the global online gaming market will be an integral part of our expansion strategy moving forward both domestically and in key international markets."

Christensen studied taxation at the Georgetown University Law Center and received his Juris Doctor from The John Marshall Law School. He earned his Bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois.

Read more here.

they hired the former Vice President of Business Development for IGE?  ROFLMAO !!!!

Good job Sony, way to improve your image with your customers

Holy crap!

Hiring someone from IGE, I am speechless.  Time to move on.

 Perhaps this means that Sony may want to send a flood of their very own gold farmers into their competitors MMO's?

Did they make this a big announcement just to piss people off?