Radical Development

Vancouver's Radical Entertainment has set up a development studio in San Francisco's China Basin. Radical's recently released games include Powerplay '97 (another version to will be released shortly) and The Divide: Enemies Within.

Radical's CEO Mike Ribero, former vice president of sales and marketing at Sega of America, seeks to position Radical as not only a production house but a publishing house as well.

The company has signed a five-year lease for the 25,000 square feet space. Currently Radical employs 150 people in Vancouver and hopes to add another 50 Vancouver employees and have 75 people working in its China Basin facility. This staffing should be complete by the end of September.

To finance the operation, Radical is seeking investment by a major software entertainment company. Some are speculating that a deal with Disney is close to being inked, but Radical would neither confirm nor deny this.

Radical's strength is sports games and it has recently hired Tim Dunley, formerly of Sega; Scott Rohde, a well-known Sega Sports producer and public relations expert; and Dave Dempsey, who spent ten years working at EA Sports before a brief stop at Sega. They will all work out of the San Francisco facility.

Radical expects to announce its plans for the joint venture at the end of August.