Neil Young (video game executive)

Last updated
Neil Young
OccupationVideo game development
Known for ngmoco

Neil Young is an English video game designer and entrepreneur. Young founded the mobile game company ngmoco in 2008, which created games including We Farm , Godfinger, and the Rolando series as well as the Plus+ mobile platform. In 2010, ngmoco was acquired by DeNA Co., Ltd. [1] [2] [3] Young was Executive Producer and product lead for the video games The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. [4] [5] [6] At Electronic Arts, Young was Studio Manager of Maxis, [7] General Manager of EA Los Angeles, [8] and General Manager of EA: Blueprint. [9] [10] [11] After leaving DeNA, Young founded N3TWORK in 2013, a small technology company that started out building a new app for organizing and viewing internet content but moved to mobile games in 2015. [12] [13] [14] [15]

Career

Young was born in London and grew up there. He moved to the United States in 1992 as a manager of game design for Virgin Interactive. [16]

Young left for Electronic Arts in 1997, [17] joining Origin Systems as General Manager overseeing the Ultima, Wing Commander, and Janes Combat Simulations businesses. Young has a co-executive producer credit on the Wing Commander film. In 1999 he moved to EA's Redwood Shores headquarters and created Majestic, an Alternate Reality game released in 2001. Majestic was not commercially successful.[ citation needed ] Young led the teams making console games based on the Lord of the Rings movies for EA, overseeing The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. [18] He took over Maxis as General Manager in early 2004, then moved to Los Angeles to run EA Los Angeles in late 2004.[ citation needed ]

In 2008, Young founded ngmoco, a mobile game company, which ngmoco released a series of mobile games including Rolando , MazeFinger , GodFinger , and We Farm .[ citation needed ]

The ngmoco founding team got back together in 2013 with N3TWORK to create an app for organizing and viewing internet content. N3TWORK abandoned its content browsing app and started making mobile games in 2015. The company created a mobile game Legendary: Game of Heroes . [19]

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References

  1. ↑ "Japan's DeNA buys iPhone game publisher Ngmoco for up to $400M | GamesBeat". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  2. ↑ Pham, Alex (2010-10-13). "Japanese company DeNA buys iPhone game developer Ngmoco for $400 million". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  3. ↑ "Neil Young's path to the multibillion-dollar mobile social game market (interview) | GamesBeat". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-11-24.
  4. ↑ Dunham, Douglass C. Perry & Jeremy (2003-04-25). "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Details and Interview". IGN. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  5. ↑ "Neil Young". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  6. ↑ Dunham, Douglass C. Perry & Jeremy (2003-04-25). "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Details and Interview". IGN. Retrieved 2017-11-24.
  7. ↑ Thorsen, Tor (2004-03-25). "Neil Young to lord over Maxis". GameSpot. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  8. ↑ Surette, Tim (2004-12-15). "Neil Young heads to EALA". GameSpot. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  9. ↑ Alexander, Leigh. "EA: Best Of Luck To Former EALA Head Young In Amicable Parting". Kotaku. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  10. ↑ "Neil Young Responds To EA Closing His Former 'Blueprint' Project". MTV News. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  11. ↑ Staff, Gamespot (2008-06-24). "Report: Neil Young departs EA". GameSpot. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  12. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai. "Neil Young Steps Down As DeNA's Ngmoco CEO, Clive Downie Steps Up". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-24.
  13. ↑ "N3twork's Neil Young takes a second stab at mobile gaming greatness | GamesBeat". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  14. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai. "The Team Behind Ngmoco Raises $12M For N3twork, A Re-Imagined Way Of Browsing Mobile Content". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  15. ↑ Nutt, Christian. "Neil Young is back in games, chasing the West's ' Puzzle & Dragons moment'" . Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  16. ↑ Marriott, Michel (2001-08-23). "Game Designer Who Breaks the Mold". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-11-25.
  17. ↑ "The Great Escape". Next Generation . No. 34. Imagine Media. October 1997. p. 43.
  18. ↑ "Neil Young Video Game Credits and Biography - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 2017-11-25.
  19. ↑ "Mobile game company N3twork acquires Agamemnon to create marketing platform | GamesBeat". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-11-25.
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