Disney Forms Rebel Arts

files/pictures/picture-35.jpgPaul Villadolid, a former senior vice president at Walt Disney Television, and Larry Hess, a former software engineer at special effects house Digital Domain, have formed Rebel Arts, a technology and software developer with a proprietary server platform designed to handle massive multiplayer online games. The technology is designed to handle in excess of 100,000 simultaneous users. Strategic partners AMD and Linux NetworX are providing Rebel Arts with critical support, including the AMD-760 MP dual processor chipset and Linux NetworX's Evolocity cluster server system. "We're completely focused on making massively multiplayer gaming a viable business for game developers and, in short order, expanding the inventory of quality games for dedicated gamers," said Villadolid, CEO, Rebel Arts. "Until now, the cost of building out and maintaining the server back-end necessary to support a massively multiplayer game has been enormous -- a huge roadblock for most game publishers interested in venturing into massively multiplayer gaming. Our VAST System perfects the business model for subscription-based, massively multiplayer games by providing a cost-effective and performance efficient platform for operating these games. With movie studios all looking to develop strategies to converge their content with interactive entertainment on the Internet, massively multiplayer games will very likely be the answer to the studio's prayers. These subscription-based games have the potential to sign up millions of subscribers for games based on popular film titles. With the average life span for a single game approaching five years or more, these games represent a significant new revenue stream for the film industry." In addition, Rebel Arts will provide Rebel Arts Data Centers, which will enable publishers to outsource their game hosting and control their system costs. Rebel Arts Data Centers provide year-round on-site staffing of system administrators, full technical support, and complete management of customer service, billing and collection services. The new company will be based in Calabasas, California.