Alex Garden
Alex Garden is the CEO of Vancouver-based game developer Relic Entertainment, which he co-founded with Luke Moloney in 1997. In February 2005, he founded the company iVALET Systems Inc. to develop an advanced parking system. In July 2005, he co-founded Klei Entertainment, a Vancouver-based video game development studio, with Jamie Cheng. On November 3, 2006, Alex Garden joined Nexon to run Nexon's North American game development studio, Nexon Publishing North America. In October, 2009, Alex Garden joined Microsoft to work in their games division, Microsoft Game Studios. On April 23, 2014, Zynga announced that Alex Garden was hired to become President of Zynga Studios with a start date of May 5, 2014. On 13 April 2016 Alex Garden returned to Relic Entertainment as CEO. In 2016 Garden founded Zume Pizza.
History of Sega
In 2005, Sega sold Visual Concepts to Take-Two Interactive, and purchased UK-based developer Creative Assembly, known for its "Total War" series. In the same year, Sega Racing Studio was also formed by former Codemasters employees. In 2006, Sega Europe purchased Sports Interactive, known for its "Football Manager" series. Sega of America purchased Secret Level in 2006, which was renamed to Sega Studios San Francisco in 2008. In early 2008, Sega announced that they would re-establish an Australian presence, as a subsidiary of Sega of Europe, with a development studio branded as Sega Studios Australia. In the same year, Sega launched a subscription based flash website called "PlaySEGA" which played emulated versions of Sega Genesis as well original web-based flash games. It was subsequently shut down due to low subscription numbers. In 2013, following THQ's bankruptcy, Sega bought Relic Entertainment, known for its "Company of Heroes" series. In 2008, Sega announced the closure of Sega Racing Studio, although the studio was later acquired by Codemasters. Closures of Sega Studios San Francisco and Sega Studios Australia followed in 2010 and 2013, respectively.