Stewart E. Kosoy (1950 – October 4, 2015) was a pioneer in the video game business who worked in almost every capacity from making animation to being a designer, producer, developer, agent, and most recently, publisher and financier. After holding a number of high-profile positions for some of the biggest game makers in the industry, he retired as an agent and senior partner of the Interactive Studio Management (ISM) Agency to co-found Digital Capital Corporation. He died in October, 2015.
Career
Kosoy got a job doing design consulting for
NovaLogic on the game
''Wolfpack''. He was employed by
Taito
is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...
as a producer. He joined
Sega of America
is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
where he became Manager of Developer Relations. In 1991, while working for Sega, Kosoy produced ''
Clutch Hitter
A clutch hitter is a baseball player who is seemingly adept at getting a hit in high-pressure situations, i.e. in the clutch. This usually refers to getting a hit (particularly a home run) when the player's team is trailing late in a game and need ...
'', followed in 1992 by Disney's
''Ariel the Little Mermaid'',
''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'', and
''Toxic Crusaders''. In 1993 he produced
''Dinosaurs for Hire'' and ''
The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin
''Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin'' is a video game produced by Sega of America and developed by Technopop (developer), Technopop initially on the Sega Mega Drive, Mega Drive/Genesis. It was ported internally by Sega of America for the Master System a ...
''. The 1994 production of ''
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Echoes from the Past'' completed his tenure at Sega.
Kosoy held the position of Executive Producer at Novalogic and established the company's UK office. Kosoy returned to California and became director of development for
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
. As vice president of product development at
GT Interactive
GT, Gt or G-T may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Games
* GT Interactive, an American video game developer
* GameTrailers, a video game website
* '' Golden Tee Golf'', golf video game
* ''Gran Turismo'' (series), a series of racing video games ...
, during the time classic titles such as
''Doom II'', ''
Duke Nukem
''Duke Nukem'' is a video game series named for its main character, Duke Nukem. Created by the company Apogee Software Ltd. (now 3D Realms) as a series of video games for personal computers, the series expanded to games released for various co ...
'',
''Quake'', and ''
Unreal
Unreal may refer to:
Books and TV
* ''Unreal'' (short story collection), a 1985 book of short stories by Paul Jennings
* ''Unreal'' (TV series), a 2015 television drama series on Lifetime
Computing and games
* ''Unreal'' (video game series), ...
'' were published.
He left GT to become an executive producer for
MGM Interactive
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
, where he was the executive producer on ''
Tiny Tank: Up Your Arsenal''.
In 2002, Kosoy became an agent, where he began to find and represent talented development studios, eventually becoming a senior partner at ISM. One of his most noteworthy projects was putting together the
Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (DICE) -
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
(EA) deal for ''
Battlefield 1942
''Battlefield 1942'' is a 2002 first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game can be played in single-player mode against the video game AI or in multiplayer mode a ...
'',
which eventually led to the acquisition of DICE by EA for $24.5 million. At ISM he represented clients working on such titles as ''
Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas'' and ''
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare'' until he retired in December 2011, relinquishing his senior partnership.
In 2012, Kosoy and
Todd Tribell co-founded Digital Capital Corporation (DCC). The company raises financing for game developers
by acting as a matchmaker between investors and developers. At DCC, Kosoy takes a primary role in choosing projects to receive private equity placement.
Selected games
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Stewart Kosoyprofile on
MobyGames
MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...
Stewart Kosoyat
Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosoy, Stewart
1950 births
2015 deaths
American video game designers
Video game producers
People from Los Angeles