Bill Gardner launches O~3 Entertainment
by Jolex Del Pilar

Friday, April 30 2004

Publishing company will focus on indie developers.

Today game industry veteran Bill Gardner revealed the formation of his new publishing and distribution company, O~3 Entertainment. The company intends to bring high caliber independently developed games to a variety of gaming platforms, including PC, Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube and WiFi/mobile through a unique game publishing model.

O~3 Entertainment will seek out titles from small and mid-size developers and will provide complete publishing functions to get them to market – including sales and distribution, marketing and public relations, and more operational elements like replication, warehousing and shipping. O~3 intends to create a reputation for innovative, fun games and make its own brands easily identifiable to consumers and retailers alike.

“There are a lot of high quality games being left on the table because they aren’t the next installment of last year’s licensed blockbuster,” remarked Gardner, CEO and President of the new O~3 Entertainment. “O~3 Entertainment’s approach to publishing will lead to more diverse and creative choices for gamers at retail.

O~3 Entertainment has been founded by Gardner and two former Capcom associates, Chris Jelinek, who is the new company’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing, and Hanako Watanabe, O~3’s CFO. Gardner has more than 20 years experience in the consumer business, overseeing more than $250 million in international annual sales. He was previously responsible for start-up operations of Panasonic in the U.S. and Capcom in Europe. Together the founding managers of O~3 Entertainment have experience in all areas of video game development, retailing, publishing and distribution.

O~3’s management plans to use their knowledge, key relationships and contacts to provide a new and distinct method for small and medium-sized developers to publish and distribute fresh game content in three easily identifiable brands: Macaroni Media for children’s educational and entertainment titles, Ankle Biters for “E” and “T” audiences and Total Chaos for more challenging “T” and “M” rated games with intense graphics.

--- Jolex Del Pilar