Trilogy Studios Launches, Unveils Episodic Plans

Author: by David Jenkins, Simon Carless

Former Electronic Arts Los Angeles executives Rick Giolito and Mark Skaggs, together with former Vivendi Universal executive vice president Michael Pole, have formally announced the formation of their new Santa Monica, California-based developer Trilogy Studios. The new company was formed during the summer, with Giolito serving as president and head of production, Skaggs as COO and director of development and Pole as CEO. The executives have a combined pedigree working on titles such as the Medal Of Honor series, which Giolito led for 5 years, and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and Command & Conquer titles, which Skaggs headed up development for, and many of the company's initial employees are former EA Los Angeles workers, particularly a core team of senior coders, artists, and production staff who formerly worked on the Medal Of Honor franchise. Trilogy Studios' first game is described by Skaggs, speaking to consumer website GameSpot, as a "first person shooter/RPG combo" that uses Unreal Engine technology. The game will apparently be an episodic experience, although it is not clear how much this refers merely to the structure of the game, as well as the company’s intention to support downloadable content. The studio will develop for both the PC and next generation consoles. Giolito commented of the announcement: "Trilogy is focused on developing next generation properties that will fill the creativity gap facing the games industry today. We see a wealth of opportunity in new financial and distribution systems for interactive entertainment in addition to the traditional developer/publisher model, and Trilogy is building the infrastructure to support these new efforts." In relation to this concept, Trilogy has also announced the completion of its first round of independent equity funding, totaling $2.9 million. David D. Jackson, Managing Director for Evanston Financial Strategies, has joined the company's board of directors as a financial advisor.