(press release)
The Board of the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) today announced the appointments of Tom Crago and Greg Bondar to fill the roles of President and Executive Director respectively. The GDAA is the peak body for the video game industry in Australia, and is focused on promoting the growth and development of the industry both locally and internationally.
Greg Bondar replaces Evelyn Richardson in the role of Executive Director. Greg was the outstanding applicant for the position, from a strong field. He has previously headed up other industry associations, including the Australian Telecommunications Users Group and the Australian Chamber of Shipping. He has worked as a Senior Ministerial Advisor and holds an MBA and a Master of Education.
Tom Crago is the CEO of GDAA member company Tantalus Interactive. He will serve as President of the GDAA throughout 2007, working closely with Greg Bondar. Tom's appointment aligns with the desire of member companies to have a CEO from industry serve as President of the association.
"As an industry here in Australia we have achieved a great deal over the past few years," said Tom Crago. "The challenge now is to continue to grow and to assert ourselves internationally with new titles and new success stories. The GDAA is committed to helping its members realise these goals."
"I am delighted to be offered this opportunity to serve the video game industry at this exciting time in its growth," added Greg Bondar. "I look forward to working with the members, the industry and stakeholders."
The Game Developer's Association of Australia will be at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco in March.
Stop posting stupid stuff!!
I think this is a really positive thing for the industry. With all of Tom's experience making AAA games he should bring a lot to the table.
Tom's very much a business man, he seems to have done well for himself at Tantalus. Should be interesting to see what comes out.
Can't say Tantalus have done any AAA titles though, good small company and stuff and from I can see they aim to produce quality ports and titles, but nothing I would say grabs you and is AAA
lol - you do realise that 'AAA' means a game that is sold on shelves, right?
Basically "AAA" refers to very large and expensive production title
AAA is more than just large and expensive - as there are many large and expensive A or B quality games released monthly.
An example of AAA titles includes God of War, Metal Gear Solid, Gears of War and Half Life 2. These are sublimely slick games that are super polished in all facets of their development. I can't think of any Aussie games that have hit that mark. This is not a slag against Aussie games as very few games companies can produce such quality.
Yes it is a slag. That's exactly what it is
There have been plenty of AAA quality games. I agree it has nothing to do with budget.
I'd love to see the list of AAA quality Aussie games. Can someone post them?
Another attribute of AAA games is that they usually get a 90+ metacritic rating. Can't think of any local games with those scores. Someone out there must know of at least one...
Test Drive Le Mans Dreamcast 93
That's rubbish. There are hundreds of games that get bad reviews but are still AAA quality games. The key concept here is quality. You can't just arbitrarily say metacritic rating 90+. It only takes the inclusion of one bad review to skew those results beyond recognition. You would be excluding some of my favorite games. Just ridiculous :)
I think Andrew S is being facetious :)
What I'd like to know more about is what the GDAA are doing to help promote growth in the industry. Thier website looks like it hasn't been updated in ages. They haven't released a newsletter for almost a year.
To 12 and Andrew S, Sarcasm never works very well online