Mike Verdu
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Michael Verdu (born December 28, 1964) is an American manager and producer and author of computer games.


Life

Verdu was born on December 28, 1964. His father worked for a trade union, his mother was a dance instructor. Michael visited the
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...
in
Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
, 600 km away from his native Washington. He did not finish his studies because Advanced Technology, an IT service provider for the US
Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...
, offered him a lucrative job as a programmer. Aged 20, he left Advanced Technology in 1985 to found the software company Paragon Systems that produced software for the Department of Defense. Paragon's programs were used to maintain submarines of the
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and
Los Angeles-class submarine The ''Los Angeles'' class of submarines are Nuclear marine propulsion, nuclear-powered fast attack submarines (hull classification symbol, SSN) in service with the United States Navy. Also known as the 688 class (pronounced "six-eighty-eight") af ...
s. The company also rented out programming capacities, for example to
Bob Bates Robert Bates (born December 11, 1953) is an American computer game designer. One of the early designers of interactive fiction games, he was co-founder of Challenge, Inc., which created games in the 1980s for the pioneering company Infocom. ...
' video game start-up Challenge Inc. which developed
text adventure '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...
s for industry leader
Infocom Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''. ...
. In September 1987 Verdu sold Paragon Systems (which had 25 employees by the time) to IT service provider American Systems Corporation where he worked as the business unit director for software development for the following three years. When defense budgets dwindled down with the end of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, Verdu turned his passion for computer games into a profession and founded the video game development studio
Legend Entertainment Legend Entertainment Company was an American Video game developer, developer and Video game publisher, publisher of computer games, best known for creating Adventure game, adventure titles throughout the 1990s. The company was founded by Bob ...
together with Bob Bates who in the meantime was affected by the shutdown of Infocom. Legend Entertainment produced text adventures and acted as its own
publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
. Verdu was the CEO of the company and remained on this position until the company was sold to
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 ...
in 1998. After the acquisition Legend Entertainment was integrated into GT Interactive's production line as a studio and remained so when
Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...
bought GT in 1999. Verdu and Bates acted as the studio heads, with the studio focussing on the production of first person shooters. From July 2002 until May 2009 Verdu worked for
EA Los Angeles Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in March 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft (later moved to M ...
, first as producer, then from 2005 on as division director for
real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...
games, and from 2007 on as vice president/general manager. During his seven years at EA Los Angeles he was responsible for titles such as '' Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars'' or '' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II''. From June 2009 until August 2012 Verdu worked as
Chief Creative Officer A chief creative officer (CCO) is the highest ranking position of the creative team within a company. Depending on the type of company, this position may be responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, and branding associated with ...
for American
browser game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on c ...
publisher
Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...
. At this time Zynga had a market value of about nine billion dollars. In September 2012 he left Zynga to found the independent
studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
TapZen. The starting capital was provided by his former employer, later on Chinese tech corporation
Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...
acquired a financial interest. In January 2015 TapZen was bought up by browser and mobile games producer
Kabam Kabam (formerly Watercooler, Inc.) is an interactive entertainment company founded in 2006 and headquartered in Vancouver, BC. with offices in Montréal, QC, San Francisco, CA and Austin, Texas. The company creates, develops and publishes massive ...
. The Canadians hired Verdu as
Chief Creative Officer A chief creative officer (CCO) is the highest ranking position of the creative team within a company. Depending on the type of company, this position may be responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, and branding associated with ...
for the mother company. When Kabam was bought up by South Korean video game company
Netmarble Netmarble Corp. (Hangul, Korean: 넷마블 주식회사) is a South Korean mobile game developer. It is South Korea's largest mobile-gaming company which was founded in 2000 by Bang Jun-hyuk. Overview Netmarble developed ''Lineage 2 Revolution ...
Verdu went back to
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 ...
, this time as senior vice president of
EA Mobile EA Mobile Inc. is an American video game development studio of the publisher Electronic Arts (EA) for mobile platforms. The studio's primary business is producing games for mobile phones. It has also produced other entertainment-related softwa ...
. From May 2019 on he was vice president of content for
augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...
and
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
at the Oculus division of Facebook. In July 2021 he was hired by
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
as vice president, responsible for their upcoming video game branch. Verdu is married and lives in California.


Works

In games business, Verdu mainly laid the focus on being a manager and producer. During the ten years as CEO of Legend Entertainment he engaged in creative activities as well though. ''
Mission Critical A mission critical factor of a system is any factor (component, equipment, personnel, process, procedure, software, etc.) that is essential to business operation or to an organization. Failure or disruption of mission critical factors will resu ...
'' (1995) was the only narrative game he completely wrote himself. He was involved in writing the scripts for ''Gateway'' und ''Gateway II: Homeworld'' and the development of the ego shooter ''Unreal II: The Awakening''; his share of the work on ''Gateway II'' was about 50%. Verdu started the Legend Entertainment tradition to obtain licenses for literary works and use them as a blueprint for games. When the company faced the problem of having only two full-time authors (Bob Bates and
Steve Meretzky Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957)
''Infocom''. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
is an American
) and thus having too little capacities for producing new games, Verdu suggested licensing existing stories to save time on game design. As a fan of the works of
Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satelli ...
he brought up the idea of using Pohl's '' Gateway'' trilogy as a blueprint for a game. Bob Bates made use of his contacts back from Infocom times and organized the license. Verdu suggested himself as the author for the implementation. He had no previous experience in this metier, but Legend found a way to canalise Verdu's thirst for action: The writing of the script was shared between three unexperienced but enthusiastic authors (Verdu, programmer Glen Dahlgren and producer and musician Michael Lindner) who were supervised by Bates. This way of working worked well, ''Gateway'' was well received by the media. Other conventional writers whose works were licensed to Legend for conversions to computer games were
Piers Anthony Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born 6 August 1934) is an American author in the science fiction and Fantasy (genre), fantasy genres, publishing under the name Piers Anthony. He is best known for his :Xanth books, long-running novel series set in ...
(''
Companions of Xanth ''Companions of Xanth'' is an adventure game published in 1993 by Legend Entertainment. Gameplay The game is based on Piers Anthony's ''Xanth'' novels and loosely follows the plot of his 1993 novel '' Demons Don't Dream'', in which a young man u ...
''),
Terry Brooks Terence Dean Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly epic fantasy, and has also written two film novelizations. He has written 23 ''New York Times'' bestsellers during his writing career, and has ...
(''
Shannara ''Shannara'' is a series of high fantasy novels written by Terry Brooks, beginning with ''The Sword of Shannara'' in 1977 and concluding with ''The Last Druid'' which was released in October 2020; there is also a prequel, ''First King of Shann ...
'') and
Spider Robinson Spider Robinson (born November 24, 1948) is an American-born Canadian list of science fiction authors, science fiction author. He has won a number of awards for his hard science fiction and humorous stories, including the Hugo Award 1977 and 198 ...
(''
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon Callahan's Place is a fictional bar with strongly community-minded and empathetic clientele, part of the fictional universe of American writer Spider Robinson. It appears in the ''Callahan's Crosstime Saloon'' stories (compiled in the ...
''). In ''Mission Critical'' Verdu delved into the topics of evolution and the potential of artificial intelligence. His central issue was how humanity could deal with the awakening of artificial intelligence as an actual new lifeform, not as an anthropomorphic reflection of humans as seen in literature. In this context Verdu sees the current stage of evolution as an intermediate form within the frame of a further evolution.


Reception

American ''
Byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
'' magazine named ''Mission Critical'' game of the year 1995. During the "Year in Review 1995" awards hosted by US magazine
Computer Game Review ''Computer Game Review'' was a print monthly magazine covering both computer gaming and video gaming. The magazine was started in 1991. Also known as ''Computer Game Review and 16-Bit Entertainment'', and then later as ''Computer Game Review and C ...
''Mission Critical'' won in the categories "Adventure of the Year" and "Best Graphics of the Year".Nuke.com:


Games

* 1990: ''
Spellcasting 101 ''Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All the Girls'' is a 1990 adventure game. It was the first installment of the '' Spellcasting'' series created by Steve Meretzky during his time at Legend Entertainment. All three games in the series tell the s ...
'' (producer, Legend Entertainment) * 1991: '' Timequest'' (co-producer, Legend Entertainment) * 1992: '' Frederik Pohl's Gateway'' (co-producer, Legend Entertainment) * 1993: '' Gateway II: Homeworld'' (co-producer, Legend Entertainment) * 1993: ''
Eric the Unready ''Eric the Unready'' is an adventure game developed and published by Legend Entertainment for MS-DOS in 1993. ''Eric the Unready'' is a parody of the fantasy genre in general, though it parodies numerous other topics as well, ranging from '' Star ...
'' (co-producer, Legend Entertainment) * 1994: '' Superhero League of Hoboken'' (co-producer, Legend Entertainment) * 1995: ''
Mission Critical A mission critical factor of a system is any factor (component, equipment, personnel, process, procedure, software, etc.) that is essential to business operation or to an organization. Failure or disruption of mission critical factors will resu ...
'' (author, Legend Entertainment) * 1999: ''
The Wheel of Time ''The Wheel of Time'' is a series of high fantasy novels by American author Robert Jordan, with Brandon Sanderson as a co-author for the final three novels. Originally planned as a six-book series, ''The Wheel of Time'' spans 14 volumes, in a ...
'' (co-producer, Legend Entertainment) * 1999: '' Unreal Mission Pack 1: Return to Na Pali'' (producer, Legend Entertainment) * 2003: '' Unreal II: The Awakening'' (author, Legend Entertainment) * 2006: '' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II'' (producer, EA Los Angeles) * 2007: '' Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars'' (producer, EA Los Angeles)


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Verdu, Mike 1964 births American video game designers American video game producers Interactive fiction writers Living people Netflix people Video game businesspeople