Tag Archives: john kavanagh

SCEA’s John Koller has told GI.biz that more of Sony’s larger franchises will be hitting PSP this year, making it the “best year the PSP has ever had”.

“There’s a lot of software coming. We’re really focused on software, and I don’t think that’s a big surprise given that it’s going to be the best software year the PSP has ever had, there’s no doubt,” he said.

“You can think of some of the major franchises on console that would come over to PSP and people are going to be very excited.”

During the interview, Koller said that Sony has only unveiled the first half of machine’s line-up so far this year, and will release more announcements leading into E3.

“The fruits of the labour is pouring out this year, and we’ve been talking about it a lot, but we’ve only mentioned about the first half of the line-up,” said Koller.

“There’s another half to maybe three quarters that we’re going to be announcing in the months leading up to E3. There’s a lot of big franchises to come.”

He went on to talk about how successful 2008 was despite the limited number of titles available for the handheld.

“Last year was the best sales year for PSP, and that was with a limited software line-up. How high is high when we have a much better software line-up for this year?”

Read the full interview through the link.

Paramount Digital Entertainment has appointed John Kavanagh as SVP of videogames.

In what is probably the driest news story in the world, Kavanagh previously established Kuju America and was VP of product development at Eidos.

“We are very excited to have someone as experienced as John come aboard to lead our videogame group,” says Thomas Lesinski, Paramount Digital president.

For the streets.

British developer Kuju is to open its first US studio in San Francisco, the company confirmed today. Named Kuju America, the studio is to focus on casual titles and has started work on its first game. John Kavanagh will head up the operation, the first outside the UK for Kuju.

“This is an exciting and significant step for the Kuju group of studios,” said Kuju’s corporate development officer Jon Newth. “The US, and San Francisco in particular, is a natural choice for our first non-UK studio. It’s a hotbed of development talent, home to many leading publishers and some of the leading US games press. We’re delighted to have John on board, with his wealth of experience and contacts, to maximize the potential of the business in the area.”