Partner Article

Warner Bros enlists fast-growing firm

ONE year on from its launch out of the rubble of a collapsed North East giant, a fledgling video games developer has seen a 75% surge in business, landing deals with a string of global clients including Warner Bros.

Gateshead’s Atomhawk Design was launched by former staff at the now-axed Midway games studio on Tyneside last year and has since enjoyed exponential growth.

The company has expanded into an office four times bigger than its original premises and is planning on gradually growing its team up from seven to 12 as its workload in a number of global markets increases.

Since the turn of the year the firm has been working alongside entertainment behemoth Warner Bros on a new version of one of its major gaming IPs.

As work with other big brand names such as Ubisoft comes on board, Atomhawk expects its business to grow 75% in the next year, matching the expansion rate of its first year of trading.

Company founder Cumron Ashtiani, who recently met with representatives of SEGA and Disney at a major event in San Francisco, said: “The entertainment industry is dominated but only a handful of global corporations who are, at the top level, feeding the money into a lot of companies further down the food chain, essentially acting as the funding source for the entire industry.

“What I have found interesting is that even if you make contact and build relationships with one branch of these corporations then that doesn’t mean you have any contact with the same firm in other territories like Japan.

“This means that it is essential to meet all the different branches of these corporations all across the globe which is what I will be focusing on this year.”

Meanwhile, the company – that has just completed a project on Ninja Theory’s Enslaved game – has made two appointments to facilitate its growth.

Stephane Stamboulis has joined the firm as a senior concept artist, having previously worked as a comic book artist for 10 years. He’s best known for his work on the comics based on the “Silent Hill” series by Konami.

Also, former Midway Games employee Amy Hill joins as office manager and production associate.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .