GreenScreen Interactive came onto the scene today, emerging as a publisher with Ron Chaimowitz, the founder of GT Interactive, as its chief officer. In addition to announcing the formation of the company, Chaimowitz spoke with Newsweek about another, more controversial member of the GreenScreen team as well as the company's acquisition of two casual game publishers.
The controversial addition to the team is the founder of Take-Two and former CEO Ryan Brant, who is currently serving five-years probation for the stock options-backdating scandal at Take-Two. Brant is barred from running a public company, so he is joining GreenScreen in a somewhat nebulous capacity. Chaimowitz explained further:
"Did I have concerns? Yes." Chaimowitz told Newsweek. "Did I think it was a major obstacle? No. I think that what Ryan brings is a tremendous creative and strategic vision for product. The areas that will Ryan will focus on will be in those areas. He will not--and he's not allowed to be--on the board. He's not an officer of the company. We'll deal with any particular issues that come up from an SEC perspective as we go forward, but we're fairly confident that they will be non-issues given the role that he'll play in the company."
The focus of the new company is clearly, for the moment, on casual games given the nature of the two companies that GreenScreen has acquired:
Along with the announcement, GreenScreen said it had acquired casual game publishers Destination Software and Zoo Digital Publishing. The publishers will be merged under GreenScreen's casual label Zoo Games and continue to focus on the "emerging mass-market sector," creating new and licensed family-friendly games.
Currently the company website is nothing more than a logo with an e-mail address attached. In the days to come, I expect that more announcements about excitingly casual games or casually exciting games will be issuing forth from the newly-formed digital domicile.
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