Fox is going about the business of starting an ambitious effort in games. It announced on Tuesday that it was acquiring Aftershock, the remaining studio assets of Kabam.
And now it is filling in the gaps, promoting Rick Phillips as president of licensing and publishing for FoxNext Games. That shows the company will be continue to be serious about licensing even as it starts making some of its own games.
Phillips, who previously oversaw game licensing, will handle that task and other publishing duties alongside Aaron Loeb, who will run the studios of the former Aftershock teams. That includes two studios, one in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco. The Los Angeles studio is working on a mobile game based on James Cameron’s Avatar film.
“One of the appeals of working with Aftershock is that I’ve known Aaron for a number of years,” Phillips said in an interview with GamesBeat. “We have a great working relationship.”
Loeb and Phillips said they will run FoxNext Games together and report to FoxNext president Salil Mehta.
With FoxNext’s acquisition of Aftershock, Phillips adds responsibilities for marketing and distribution, and he will build out Fox’s publishing group, as well as continue oversight of Fox’s current games licensing business.
“Rick is an incredible asset to the quality and performance of our gaming business,” said Mehta, in a statement. “He was instrumental in identifying Aftershock as a strategic fit for Fox. His leadership, determination and wealth of experience will continue to be valuable as we continue to build FoxNext Games into an integrated game developer and publisher.”
Phillips said that Fox has worked with partners to release about seven to 10 games per year in the past, and it will continue to do so.
Games previously released by Fox include Family Guy: Another Freakin’ Mobile Game; Animation Throwdown: The Quest for Cards, The Simpsons Tapped Out, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, Ice Age Adventures, Angry Birds Rio, Sugar Smash: Book of Life, and Alien: Isolation.
FoxNext Games has about 80 people, and it will continue to hire more people. FoxNext also has a separate virtual reality group working on VR games.