Did you remember a studio called Red 5 which is formed by a bunch of former developers from Blizzard and World of Warcraft team? It has been three years since they found Red 5 studio and all we know is a massive multiplayer online game which is till under developed and wrapped in secrecy until recently.
After a surprise shuffle in management currently the studio now has two new leaders who are experienced and Talented. They are Mark Kern, former president and CEO who served as WoW's team lead while at Blizzard, and Michael Weingartner, previously the company's Engineering VP, took over as president and CEO. He joined the company in March of this year, his resume including executive positions at Oracle, HP, and Talking Blocks.
They recently talked with Gamasutra about their new roles, the company's global plans, and the advantages and challenges of using a microtransactions-based revenue model.
According to their words, Red 5 has over 100 staff and two work places located both in the U.S. and in China. Chinese studio offered them a good opportunity to learn more about Asian culture and Asian market. Mark Kern confirmed that "We built this company to be a global company from day one. We do intend to have a game that appeals as much to the East as it does to the West. And in terms of the timing of these launches, as you know, it's very complicated with an online game. We are looking at [releasing to] some markets simultaneously, and some on a very quick roll-out schedule."
About their MMO game, "we're not trying to be a sequel to WoW." They considered time is a very important concept to the MMOG and interested in those WoW gamers that have, perhaps, broader play experience, that have a large palette of games that they enjoy, and they've trying to pick experiences that target them. "We've identified in the core gamer audience."
When asked about the a time frame for the game announcement, Mark Kern laughed and said "In the coming months"
