Jeff Hilbert steps down as co-CEO at DDM video game agency he cofounded

Jeff Hilbert has stepped down as co-CEO at game-related talent agency Digital Development Management. He will continue on as a board member and active advisor, but he will now also pursue some other opportunities on his own.

The company will now be run by Joe Minton, the longtime president of DDM. That’s a big change for a talent agency that has had a lot of success in matchmaking in the game industry, putting developers together with publishers or investors.

“I’ve been an agent for over 25 years and am ready to step away from ongoing management activities to focus on some large partnerships on behalf of DDM as well as a few personal projects,” Hilbert said in a statement. “DDM has a strong executive team that has been running the company for all intents and purposes for some time, and I’m glad to now make this official.”

DDM said that the team has been preparing for the change for the past year.

“Jeff and I built DDM from a couple clients, and just the two of us into the leading agency in the business with over $580 million of deals secured from seven worldwide offices,” Minton said in a statement. “I’m thrilled for Jeff that the company’s solid footing allows him to pursue additional endeavors.”

Minton and Hilbert cofounded DDM in 2005. We recently interviewed Hilbert about taking Western games into China.

Besides Minton, the rest of the staff includes team members Maarten de Koning and Ben Judd.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.