MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Tim Heaton has been appointed as interim general manager of recently acquired Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment.
Sega is currently looking for a full-time general manager for the studio it acquired from THQ earlier this year for £26.6 million, with The Creative Assembly studio director Heaton taking the role on a temporary basis.
As part of his role, Heaton will help with the Vancouver-based outfit’s development of Company of Heroes 2 and help bring in new staff for the developer.
As well as overseeing the tranistion for Relic to new management, he will retain his role as studio director of The Creative Assembly.
In a statement to Develop, Heaton said that both The Creative Assembly and Relic could learn a lot from each other, but there were currently no plans to tie the studios together.
“We are currently looking for a full-time General Manager at Relic, so my role in this phase is to keep the studio focused on delivering COH2, to find the necessary staff to take Relic into the future and to ease the transition," said Heaton.
"All publishers are similar and yet very different at the same time – there’s a load of process and quirks about how Sega do things that I can bring some experience to help with.
"Sega bought Relic because they could see the staffs’ depth of ability and knowledge in the PC strategy space. The studio has had a tough time in the past few years with a publisher struggling to support them, but it’s a testament to the way Relic works that it has had great staff retention, and that it has focused on making Company of Heroes 2 a great game.
"To be honest we could see many similarities with Creative Assembly – they’re pragmatic, deeply experienced and retain focus on the important things.
"We’ve spent the last few years building a really strong infrastructure at CA. The games are led and supported strongly and we’re clear on our aspirations. That allows me some time to take all the learning we’ve had at CA as we’ve grown, and apply what’s appropriate in Vancouver.
"At the same time, although there are no plans to tie the two studios together, we’re already seeing knowledge feedback from Relic into CA.”
Tim Heaton recently wrote an article for Developdiscussing Sega’s bid for Relic Entertainment, and what it means for the publisher.
