Press Releases
Kay Gruenwoldt Joins Frogster America as General Manager
Executive to Lead North American Expansion
Berlin, 18.04.2011:
The executive board of Berlin based MMO game publisher Frogster Interactive Pictures AG named Kay Gruenwoldt General Manager of Frogster America Inc. Kay Gruenwoldt will lead the US subsidiary based in San Francisco and be responsible for growing the company’s presence in the region together with the CFO.
The boards of Frogster Interactive and Frogster America see Kay Gruenwoldt as a key addition to the management team to facilitate the further growth of North American operations. Frogster America has successfully run the free-to-play fantasy MMO game ‘Runes of Magic’ for over two years. The board of Frogster is convinced that with the assistance of Kay Gruenwoldt, the US subsidiary will grow its product portfolio, staff, scope and revenues substantially.
Kay Gruenwoldt is a 15-year veteran of the game and entertainment industries and has held executive level management positions in operations, sales, design, development and marketing with companies including JoWood and Nokia, where he was responsible for all North American marketing. Most recently, Gruenwoldt was the founder and managing director of Walking Squid, a boutique consulting agency in the space of digital and mobile media and games and CEO of the Games Academy in Vancouver. Gruenwoldt advised multiple global entertainment companies in the social games, MMO and mobile spaces and has extensive experience launching and supporting new original IPs as well as platforms. Working for General Electric’s Industrial Systems in Europe and North America, Gruenwoldt gained extensive experience in project management and new product development. Gruenwoldt is a member of IGDA and AIAS, an Advisory Board member for the Dubai World Games and Canadian Videogames Awards, member of the board of Games Academy Vancouver as well as a frequent speaker at industry events around the world.
“Frogster is poised to expand its business in the North American MMO market. I am ready to add my industry experience to contribute to the strong team we already have in place,” said Kay Gruenwoldt, General Manager of Frogster America, Inc.
“Frogster is a leading player in the European MMO market. We are now looking at accelerating Frogster’s growth in North America”, adds Christoph Gerlinger, CEO of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG.
Bounty Bay Online
Pirates, Merchants & Explorers
With ‘Bounty Bay Online’ players enter the historic Age of Discoveries when famous circumnavigators were roaming the seas. Since 2007, they start an online career as a merchant, sailor, fisherman, pirate, explorer or in one of several other professions in a charming sailor setting. Alone or with a guild of players they follow gripping quests, start a flourishing overseas trade and discover monumental sights. Following exciting player vs. player battles on land and sea, powerful guilds can take control of cities and entire colonies and thus control their destinies.
More information on www.bountybayonline.com.
Runes of Magic
a world full of wizardry and adventure
‘Runes of Magic’ has been redefining the standard for free-to-play MMORPGs since 2009 with its massive amount of features. The online role-playing game is based on an exciting, multi-layered story, driven by thousands of quests set in the atmospheric fantasy world of Taborea. ‘Runes of Magic’ features a unique multiple class system enabling players to combine one of eight primary classes with a second and third class. Thanks to a comprehensive crafting system, individual player homes, arenas and battlefields, guild castles and siege wars, challenging dungeons and many other features, ‘Runes of Magic’ offers plenty of online adventures for all kinds of players.
More information can be found on www.runesofmagic.com.
TERA
online game world to set new standards in the genre
An impressive and highly-detailed virtual world with triple-A quality claim awaits thousands of players with ‘TERA’. Entirely developed in Unreal Engine 3, ‘TERA’ transcends current representatives of the genre with breathtaking 3D graphical environments, thrilling animations and spectacular effects. With seven races and eight character classes, ‘TERA’ offers an abundance of possibilities for character creation and development. The dynamic real-time combat system of ‘TERA’ gets players engaged in battles considerably more actively than all conventional MMORPGs available on the market. ‘TERA’ is set to be released in May 2012 based on a subscription model.
More information can be found on www.tera-europe.com.
Eligium
The Chosen One
In ‘Eligium – The Chosen One’, MMO fans will come face-to-face with hordes of menacing demons. It is up to the chosen one to reunite the four races in order to repel the hellish creatures. Through its various features including an atmospheric game world, numerous gloomy dungeons with demanding boss battles, raid instances, an inspired PvP and ranking system, open world events, an unique item upgrade system, and mounts which players can train and watch grow, ‘Eligium’ provides players with a feature packed gaming experience unlike no other.
More information can be found on www.eligium.com.
RaiderZ
An Action-Packed Fantasy Game World
With ‘RaiderZ’, Frogster will release an action-oriented online game that requires sophisticated tactical combat skills. Unlike traditional point-and-click MMO games, players will have direct control over their characters in combat due to the game’s innovative non-targeting combat system. ‘RaiderZ’ sets itself apart with its detailed and atmospheric game environments, an epic background story and impressive boss opponents. Frogster is currently planning to unveil the title as a free download starting in the second half of 2012.
More information can be found on www.raiderz-europe.com.
Seth Iorio
CEO | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG | Managing Director and COO | Frogster Online Gaming GmbH
Seth Iorio assumed the role of Managing Director and COO at Frogster Online Gaming GmbH at the beginning of October 2010, taking over responsibility for the technical and customer-focused areas of customer care, community management, payment and fraud management, localization, programming, and IT. In January 2011, he was appointed to the executive board of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and has held the position of CEO since 1 January 2012. Seth Iorio is also a member of the executive board as COO at Frogster’s parent company Gameforge AG.
Prior to his start at Frogster, Seth Iorio, who holds a diploma in business management, was VP Business Development and authorized representative responsible for Customer Communications and Marketing at Gameforge. In 2000 he founded Rabbit Software AG which he led as CTO. Following this, he was active as an IT consultant for companies such as Victoria Versicherung AG and as project leader for United Internet.
Tobias Haar
Member of the Executive Board | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG
The supervisory board appointed Tobias Haar to the executive board of Frogster with effect of January 1, 2012. In this position, he is responsible in particular for the activities of the foreign subsidiaries, licence contracting, and the legal and administrative business areas. Tobias has led the joint Legal Department of Frogster and Gameforge since September 2011 as General Counsel. In addition to his positions at Gameforge and Frogster, he is Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of G.A.M.E., the German Computer Game Industry Association in Berlin. The legal graduate, lawyer and legal informatics specialist specialises in national and international economic and IT law as well as mergers and acquisitions and recently coordinated the legal and administrative aspects of the takeover of Frogster by Gameforge. He came to the Gameforge group in 2008, after many years of professional experience as a lawyer in a leading international law firm as well as in the private sector.
Dominic Scheve
Vice President Finance | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG | Managing Director and CFO | Frogster Online Gaming GmbH
Dominic Scheve came to Frogster in 2006 holding a university diploma in business administration. After completing his postgraduate degree as Master of Business Administration (MBA) successfully, he works as Vice President Finance at Frogster Interactive Pictures AG since spring of 2009. As of October 2010 Dominic Scheve has taken responsibility as Managing Director and CFO at Frogster Online Gaming leading the fields of finance and controlling.
