Jared Gerritzen, the creative studio head of Zombie Studios, has departed the studio to become Major League Gaming’s new Vice President of Publisher and Developer Relations.
During his eight year tenure at Zombie Studios, Gerritzen was involved in the production of the Blacklight games, the most recent one being 2011’s Blacklight: Redemption, a free-to-play FPS. His most recent work with Zombie was the survival horror game Daylight, which was released little more than a month ago to mediocre reviews, and Phantom Army, a cel-shaded free-to-play shooter.
Prior to that, Gerritzen was a level designer at Monolith, the developer behind Gotham City Imposters and the F.E.A.R. series.
Yesterday, he made the announcement of his departure via Twitter, stating :”This is my last week at [Zombie Studios]. Its been a great 8 years. I’ll miss the devs and all our games. I get to be a fan of Blacklight again.”
Major League Gaming, which hosts professional gaming tournaments throughout North America, announced their new hire along with his new responsibilities on its official website:
Gerritzen will help publishing partners and game developers leverage MLG: Play, the largest cross platform online gaming tournament system with 9 million registered users across the globe; the MLG API that enables established and independent developers to track gameplay functionality; and MLG’s Agora Games division’s Hydra Studio that provides cross platform support, online services and tools for console, PC, iOS, Android, and Unity3D game developers and publishers.
Gerritzen himself said that he was”excited to join the MLG team to help evangelize the brand within the industry and introduce new and existing partners to the power of MLG and eSports to extend the livelihood of their games and better engage with their communities.”
In a week, MLG will be hosting the first ever MLG X Games Invitational at Austin, Texas, where eight Call of Duty: Ghosts teams will compete over the course of three days.