Climax hires in big guns for LA studio

Developer Climax has announced the appointment of a new head for its Los Angeles studio, with FunCom founder and former Looking Glass Studios boss Erik Gloersen coming on board along with a number of other key hires.

Gloersen, whose 18 year track record also includes stints at Infogrames and Electronic Arts' Los Angeles studio, has overseen work on titles ranging from the Thief series and System Shock 2 at Looking Glass to GoldenEye: Rogue Agent at EA.

He joins Climax from Turbine, where he was a studio manager, and comes as the LA studio ramps up a recruitment campaign - which has also netted a number of other high-profile members for the creative team.

They include lead artist Vanessa Miles, formerly of EA Los Angeles, lead designer Jeremy Parker, who worked on the Spider-Man titles for Treyarch, and former EA and Ion Storm designer Matt Sophos.

"Climax LA has all the components of a successful studio," according to Gloersen. "Great technology, talented and creative staff and a consistent track-record for delivering games on-time and on-budget."

"My vision for Climax LA," he continued, "is to further elevate the studio from its current 'premier' status into one of the industry's elite developers. The initiation of an aggressive recruitment campaign and our focus on creating unique gameplay experiences that are polished, tuned and then polished some more will no doubt ensure we're able to cream off the very best talent our industry has to offer."