Mark Jacobs Interview Part One - What's in a Name?
On Wednesday, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood spoke with EA Mythic VP and General Manager Mark Jacobs about four different announcements from the studio. Part One announces a name change for the company from EA mythic back to Mythic Entertainment. Tomorrow's part two will reveal three more announcements concerning Warhammer Online.
Mythic Entertainment. It’s a name that we haven’t really heard much of since June 20th, 2006 when the company known best for their Realm vs. Realm style MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot and their upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online announced that it had been acquired by publishing giant Electronic Arts (EA). After the announcement the company went through a name change and a re-branding, including a new logo, that saw the studio re-named “EA Mythic”.
Today, MMORPG.com learned that EA Mythic will be going through another transition as the company reclaims the Mythic Entertainment name.
“We are going back to Mythic Entertainment,” said Mark Jacobs, the VP and General Manager of EA Mythic. “I’ve always been a believer of separate branding,” he continued, going on to cite a number of successful companies like Disney and GE that operate subsidiary companies under separate and distinct brands.
“I think that this is a wonderful example of how things at EA are changing,” he continued, “both John (Riccitiello, CEO of EA) and Frank (Gibeau, EA) have spoken multiple times about city states, more freedom, that sort of thing and I think this is an obvious example.”
With that quote, Jacobs is referring to statements that Riccitellio made published in a February 10th article from Gamasutra essentially stating that EA subsidiaries are like city-states [of the larger EA empire]:
"These citystates are more about who they are individually than they are part of EA... The heart and soul of what our company is with the developers who create the products because without that we are absolutely nothing."
It seems as though a part of supporting that individuality means a re-branding or in this case a re-re-branding of their studios, including Mythic Entertainment. Still, just in case there was any confusion, Jacobs also points out that they are still the same company and are still a part of EA:
“We’re still part of EA,” he said, “this is a name change and both Mythic Entertainment and EA are well represented in the game, on the box, etc. but the developer is going to be officially Mythic Entertainment.”
The last question I asked before moving on to other subjects revolved around the logo. Is the new logo here to stay, or whether we should expect a return to the classic Mythic Entertainment.
“We are going to go with a hybrid,” Jacobs answered. “Going back to the old logo… ok that’s good, but we’re looking to do something better so I think you’ll like our new logo. It is very similar to what we’ve done before, but it’s not identical.”
While this is the end of the announcements for tonight, log on to MMORPG.com tomorrow for a report on the rest of that interview that includes three other exclusive announcements specifically addressing Warhammer Online.
