Frogster Online Gaming CEO, Managing Director Resigning

Following a year of instability in its management team, Frogster Interactive Pictures has announced that Andreas Weidenhaupt, CEO and managing director of its Online Gaming subsidiary since 2008, is resigning. Weidenhaupt was also the founder and managing director of German games portal Onlinewelten.com, another Frogster Interactive subsidiary. In 2009, the CEO joined the Berlin-based parent company's executive board, overseeing its product/brand development and portfolio expansion as chief licensing manager. Frogster Interactive credits Weidenhaupt with licensing popular free-to-play MMORPG Runes of Magic and helping adapt the Taiwanese game for the Western market. He was also responsible for licensing titles like Tera, Mythos, and an unnamed MMO from China's Shanda Games, all of which are slated to release in 2011 in 2012. Weidenhaupt is leaving Frogster Online Gaming in April 2011 to focus on "new professional challenges", and will remain available as a consultant for the publisher. Frogster Interactive hasn't yet announced a replacement or a search for one, but the company says its executive board will take over his duties. The chief executive's departure follows four months after Frogster Interactive ousted three executives: CFO Ralf Kloppel, chief administrative officer Bjorn Koschin, and his brother and Frogster America CEO Lars Koschin -- the first two of whom have since joined other Frogster veterans at rival German free-to-play firm Neonga. The publisher did not provide a reason for their termination publicly, though the dismissals followed shortly after Gameforge, another free-to-play online game company in Germany, purchased a majority stake in Frogster Interactive as part of a "friendly" takeover. "We thank Andreas kindly for his job performance of the past years, the amicable co-operation with the executive board colleagues and for his significant contribution to the success of Frogster," says the company's executive board chairman Christoph Gerlinger. Gerlinger adds, "In the course of last year, Andreas managed to fill the Frogster product pipeline with excellent titles for the next years in advance."