Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Who owns Zeitgeist Games?


"My name is Dustin. I am the CEO of IMI Labs, LLC, a virtual world development studio and parent company of Zee Gee Games. I was previously the CEO of Zeitgeist Games, Inc, which I sold in 2008"
The above quote is taken from Dustin Clingman's website. I was a bit surprised by this. Granted, Clingman has not been taking part in the promotion of Blackmoor products for a long time. His last post on the MMRPG forum was made on March 10th, 2008, a little over a month after the announcement of the publishing agreement with Code Monkey Press:

"Oviedo Florida -- Zeitgeist Games announced today that it has completed a publishing agreement with Code Monkey Publishing, LLC to assume production of it's existing and future role playing gaming products. "We're very excited to be working with Code Monkey" said Zeitgeist Games President Dustin Clingman. "We've had an outstanding relationship with CMP for years and this is a very natural progression. They're going to be able to give all of our products and customers the proper attention that they deserve -- these are exciting days!"
Clingman further detailed the publishing plans going forward saying that existing products in the Dave Arneson's Blackmoor line would go to print in rapid succession and that the company had already begun work on a revision of the Core Campaign materials for D&D 4th edition while it continues to support its existing d20 products."
One question that arises is what happened to Arneson's shares in the company. From what I understand, Arneson was also a part owner of Zeitgeist Games, something which most likely was what made the publishing of Blackmoor possible in the first place. Had Arneson previously sold his shares to Clingman? CEO or not, Clingman introduced himself as President of Zeitgeist Games as late as November 2009.

While the quote from Clingman's website states that he sold ZGG, but is the owner of Zee Gee Games, the Zee Gee Games Website states that this is the same company that simply changed name:
"Introducing ZeeGee Games!
07/08/2009

Zeitgeist Games becomes ZeeGee Games. Same great people, new easier to pronounce name! Check back for more information!"

 I guess the gaming industry is a complicated place!





-Havard

2 comments:

  1. Havard,

    The assets of Zeitgeist Games were sold to IMI Labs last year. While the acquisition is being completed (read: while we wait to get paid for the sale), the company continues to exist. I remain the President of Zeitgeist Games.

    As part of the transition, the entire staff of Zeitgeist, including myself, moved over to IMI Labs. I originally joined as the Director of Business Development and was appointed CEO late this year.

    So to answer your question, the shareholders still own Zeitgeist. I am still Zeitgeist's president.

    My regular day job is with IMI Labs.

    Does that clarify the situation?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for commenting on this Dustin! We are keeping our fingers crossed for ZGG and the chance of seeing more Blackmoor or related products :)

    ReplyDelete

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