Round Up: Activision Hires, DIRT Voice, Vogster Unreal

Today's round-up includes news of a newly appointed chief customer officer at Activision, Travis Pastrana signed for DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road, and Vogster licensing the rights to use Epic's Unreal Engine 3 on its upcoming MMO, as well as the latest Game Career Guide updates, Serious Games Source posts, GameSetWatch posts and Gamasutra job postings. - Major publisher and developer Activision announced that the company has appointed Brian Hodous as its new chief customer officer. Hodous, who is expected to join the company in early November 2006 in the newly-created position, will be responsible for leading Activision Publishing’s global sales operations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, driving the company’s supply chain function and developing new business opportunities worldwide. The new executive comes to Activision from confectionery and beverages company Cadbury Schweppes, where he most recently worked as group director and executive vice president of global sales. Hodous will report to Mike Griffith, president and chief executive officer of Activision Publishing. - Representatives from British publisher and developer Codemasters have announced that the company has signed a non-exclusive agreement with U.S. professional rally racer and X Games star Travis Pastrana to be featured in the upcoming DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road next-generation racing title. Scheduled for release in 2007, this latest entry in the long running Colin McRae-labeled racing series is in development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as the PC. Travis will contribute his voice for DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road as the pre-competition presenter and introduce players to forthcoming race events, specific stages and car characteristics. In addition, he will also congratulate players following successful races, and let them know if they’re ready to advance to tougher championships. - New Jersey-based game developer Vogster announced that it has entered into a licensing agreement with developer and middleware company Epic Games to utilize Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 technology in the development of Vogster’s next-generation multiplatform massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), Crimecraft. “Vogster has set upon an ambitious game-development course,” commented Arseniy Nazarenko, general producer of Vogster’s Kiev production office. “We are preparing to launch Crimecraft, our own unique and exciting MMO game, in 2008. Crimecraft is going to shake the global video game industry with its innovative features and characters actions. The Unreal Engine 3 is the most powerful game engine available, and will play an instrumental role in the realization of our development plans.” - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch include news of a game-related online sitcom called Played Out, custom-built arcade stick controls for the Xbox 360, and controversy surrounding Tom Chick's review of Sword of the Stars. - The latest updates from Gamasutra sister site Game Career Guide include news of the GameTools Project offering free access to GameTools 3D technology to all companies and universities developing games/3D applications within the European Union. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including openings from Blizzard, Day 1 Studios, Edge of Reality, EA, Locomotive Games / THQ, Lucasfilm Singapore, Midway, Monolith Productions, TimeGate Studios, and Turbine.