New games publisher and developer New Tales established

New Tales, a new games publisher and developer formed of Activision, Blizzard, LucasArts, SEGA, Sierra, and Ubisoft veterans, has announced its establishment.

The Paris-based studio will create new intellectual properties through its own internal studios, as well as provide publishing services on a global scale to external game developers through “fair partnerships.”

The company’s founders, which have an average of 22 years of experience in the games industry, have worked on franchises such as Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Crash Bandicoot, Diablo, EverQuest, Half-Life, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Star Wars: Jedi Knight, Sonic the Hedgehog, and World of Warcraft.

Its founding staff includes:

• Cedric Marechal (president and CEO) – Has almost three decades of experience within the industry working for companies like Blizzard, Vivendi Games, SEGA, and Cryo, and having previously served as international senior vice president of Activision Blizzard.
• Benoit Dufour (chief operating officer) – A former international vice president of Activision Blizzard who also worked at Vivendi Games.
• Delphine Le Corre (chief growth officer) – Previously senior director EMEA at Blizzard and also worked at Vivendi Games.
• Emmanuel Obert (chief content officer) – Former EMEA director at Blizzard after an initial career at Ubisoft.
• Kim Gresko (senior adviser of game development) – Former composite artist at LucasArts and co-founder of Blue Silver Studios.
• Ray Gresko (senior adviser of game development) – Previous global chief development officer at Blizzard and co-founder of Blue Silver Studios.
• Julia Humphreys (senior adviser of game development) – Former Overwatch production director at Blizzard and senior producer at Seven Studios.

“We have formed a team of passionate gamers with an unrivaled degree of experience, having grown some of the biggest IPs and player communities,” said New Tales president and CEO Cedric Marechal in a press release. “Gaming has rarely seen such an exciting time, fueled by tons of innovation and creativity. However, the frequency of new releases keeps rising rapidly, reinforcing the need for great international publishing. New Tales is a one-stop-shop publishing solution where we’re going to work with developers, as one united team, dedicated to maximizing success. We are also building our internal production capabilities to develop our own games and IPs. We are looking forward to joining forces with people who share our values and passion!”

New Tales is already working with partners “who share the company’s ambition and values,” while also developing its own production capabilites around its first intellectual property.