John Schappert (video game executive)

Last updated
John Schappert
NationalityFlag of the United States.svg  United States
Occupation video game executive and entrepreneur
Known for Co-founder of Tiburon Entertainment
Notable work Developing Madden NFL

John Schappert is an American video game executive and entrepreneur. Schappert is best known for co-founding Tiburon Entertainment with Jason Andersen and Steve Chiang in 1994 (developer of the Madden NFL series of video games for Electronic Arts). He is also known for his tenure as Zynga's Chief Operating Officer from 2011 to 2012. Before joining Zynga, Schappert served as the Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts from 2009 to 2011. He also oversaw Xbox Live and Microsoft Game Studios as a Corporate Vice President of Microsoft from 2007 to 2009. Schappert most recently founded Shiver Entertainment in 2013. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden, and has sold more than 130 million copies, and influenced many players and coaches of the physical sport. Among the game's realistic features are sophisticated playbooks and player statistics, and voice commentary that allows players to hear the game as if it were a real TV broadcast. As of 2013 the franchise has generated over $4 billion in sales.

Electronic Arts American interactive entertainment company

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. It is the second-largest gaming company in the Americas and Europe by revenue and market capitalization after Activision Blizzard and ahead of Take-Two Interactive and Ubisoft as of March 2018.

Zynga Provider of social game services

Zynga Inc. is an American social game developer running social video game services founded in April 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its mission as "connecting the world through games."

Career

The first reference to John Schappert is as an Apple IIGS programmer working for a company called Visual Concepts in California in 1992. Electronic Arts hired Visual Concepts to work on its Madden NFL '94 video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The EA/Visual Concepts partnership continued through the development of Madden NFL '95 . Then Schappert and two other Visual Concepts engineers (Jason Andersen and Steve Chiang) quit Visual Concepts, moved to Orlando, and co-founded Tiburon Entertainment in 1994. Tiburon took over development of Madden NFL '96 for the SNES. In 1995, EA contracted with Tiburon to develop a new college football game (which became NCAA Football 98, released in 1997).

Apple IIGS Apple II series 16-bit computer

The Apple IIGS, the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer, Inc. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST, it remains compatible with earlier Apple II models. The "GS" in the name stands for "Graphics and Sound," referring to its enhanced multimedia hardware, especially its state of the art audio.

Visual Concepts video game developer

Visual Concepts Entertainment is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. Founded in May 1988, the company is best known for developing sport games in the 2K franchise, primarily NBA 2K and WWE 2K. Visual Concepts was acquired by Sega in May 1999 and sold to Take-Two Interactive in January 2005. The acquisition of the company led Take-Two Interactive to open their 2K Games label, as well as its 2K Sports division, which Visual Concepts became part of, on the day following the acquisition.

<i>Madden NFL 94</i> 1993 NFL video game

Madden NFL '94 is an American football video game released in 1993. It was the first game in the Madden series with an official National Football League team license, as well as the first Madden game that allowed players to play a full regular season. However, the game is not licensed by the NFL Players Association, so all of the players are identified by number only.

The EA/Tiburon partnership flourished and led to the acquisition of Tiburon by EA in 1998 (Tiburon became EA Tiburon after joining EA). All Madden NFL development work went to Tiburon after the acquisition. [9] Schappert served as Vice President and General Manager of EA Tiburon. Schappert was eventually promoted to Vice President and General Manager for the large EA Canada studio in Vancouver in 2002, leaving Orlando behind. He became Senior Vice President and Group General Manager in 2003, overseeing EA Canada, EA Tiburon, EA Black Box, and EA Chicago. In 2006 Schappert became Chief Operating Officer of EA World Wide Studios.

EA Tiburon

EA Tiburon is an Electronic Arts video game development studio located in Maitland, Florida, United States founded in 1994. It was formerly known as Tiburon Entertainment, which was acquired by EA in 1998. EA had already purchased a minority equity interest in Tiburon in May 1996, the terms of which included that Tiburon would develop games exclusively for EA.

EA Black Box was a video game developer based in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1998 by former employees of Radical Entertainment and later acquired by Electronic Arts (EA). The developers are primarily known for the Need for Speed and Skate series. It was renamed Quicklime Games during the development of Need for Speed: World, but after a series of restructures it was shut down in April 2013.

2007 brought a big change for Schappert as he left EA and joined Microsoft in Seattle as Corporate Vice President of Live Software and Services with oversight over the Xbox Live business as well as Games for Windows (including Microsoft Game Studios) and Xbox Live Arcade.

Microsoft U.S.-headquartered technology company

Microsoft Corporation (MS) is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. As of 2016, it is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies. The word "Microsoft" is a portmanteau of "microcomputer" and "software". Microsoft is ranked No. 30 in the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Xbox Live online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service

Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system in November 2002. An updated version of the service became available for the Xbox 360 console at the system's launch in November 2005, and a further enhanced version was released in 2013 with the Xbox One.

Schappert went back to EA (and San Francisco) in 2009 to become Chief Operating Officer for the whole company. [10] [11]

In 2011 Schappert joined Zynga as Chief Operating Officer. [12] He helped take Zynga public in late 2011. He left Zynga in 2012. [13]

Schappert moved back to Florida and founded Shiver Entertainment in 2013. The new company is based in Miami. [14] [15] The Korean and Japanese game company Nexon invested in Shiver and entered into a publishing partnership with the start-up to bring its games to market. [16]

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References

  1. ↑ "Zynga COO John Schappert quits". Fortune. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  2. ↑ Campbell, Colin (2013-09-09). "Former Zynga and EA COO John Schappert forms new studio, Shiver Entertainment". Polygon. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  3. ↑ "John Schappert Returns to EA as Chief Operating Officer (NASDAQ:EA)". investor.ea.com. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  4. ↑ CNBC.com, Chris Morris|Special to (2009-06-19). "Microsoft Is Losing Another Top-Level Xbox Manager". CNBC. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  5. ↑ "Microsoft's John Schappert coming back to EA". The Technology Chronicles. 2009-06-19. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  6. ↑ Pham, Alex (2012-05-03). "Zynga's chief operating officer plays it safe". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  7. ↑ "From triple-A to free-to-play: John Schappert on mobile, PC and a changing industry landscape" . Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  8. ↑ "UPDATE 3-EA's COO leaves for Zynga - sources". Reuters. 2011-04-26. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  9. ↑ Paprocki, Matt (2017-08-22). "The asterisk on Madden's annual release legacy". Polygon. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  10. ↑ "John Schappert leaves Microsoft, returns to EA". Engadget. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  11. ↑ Totilo, Stephen. "Microsoft's John Schappert Leaves Msoft For EA, Not Being Replaced". Kotaku. Retrieved 2017-11-24.
  12. ↑ "EA's COO John Schappert Leaves to Join Zynga". AllThingsD. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  13. ↑ Writer, BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology. "Zynga COO John Schappert resigns". sandiegouniontribune.com. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  14. ↑ "Stocks". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  15. ↑ "John Schappert surfaces with Shiver Entertainment". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  16. ↑ "Nexon invests in former EA, Zynga COO's studio, Shiver Entertainment". Engadget. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
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