XSOLLA PRESS KIT
XSOLLA BOILERPLATE
Xsolla is a global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the video game industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. As an innovative leader in game commerce, Xsolla’s mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, with offices in Berlin, Seoul, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, and cities around the world, Xsolla supports major gaming titles like Valve, Twitch, Roblox, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Take-Two, KRAFTON, Nexters, NetEase, Playstudios, Playrix, miHoYo, and more.
For additional information and to learn more, please visit: xsolla.com
XSOLLA LOGO
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XSOLLA MEET THE EXECUTIVE TEAM
CHRIS HEWISH
Xsolla Interim CEO (March 2020 - Current)
OVERVIEW
Chris Hewish, the esteemed Interim CEO of Xsolla, is a decorated Interactive Executive and Studio Head. He brings a wealth of experience driving operations and shaping go-to-market strategies across every facet of the video game industry. His distinguished career spans leadership roles in multi-team studios and international interactive business units, managing over 300 employees at notable companies such as Activision, DreamWorks Animation, Survios, Skydance, and Xsolla.
An ardent gamer at heart, Chris channeled his passion into forging a successful career in game creation. His direct experience entails designing and producing over 50 games, amassing more than $1B in sales. This impressive feat underscores his rare and effective blend of creative flair and business savvy, consistently keeping him ahead in a perpetually evolving industry. His formidable triple-threat skill set harmoniously blends a developer's design and production capabilities, a publisher's strategic company understanding, and a media executive's brand and marketing proficiency.
In terms of work initiatives, Chris is an action-oriented team leader with over a decade of experience in development. He has a proven track record in building, rejuvenating, and leading cross-disciplinary internal game teams ranging from 5 to 150 individuals. His expertise extends to managing co-developments involving multiple teams and companies, with team sizes that have expanded into the hundreds.
Financial acumen is another one of Chris's strong suits. With 15+ years of full P&L ownership within public and private companies, he adeptly manages project-specific budgets from concept through to live operations. Moreover, he creates robust financial models for strategic planning and publishing.
As a producer and vision holder, Chris carries a decade of experience as an Executive Producer and Creative Executive on triple-A and double-A games. He assumes full responsibility for the vision and roadmap, implementation, and management of greenlight processes and setting and enforcing milestone schedules.
Chris's work embodies various experiences, developing games in every genre and platform. He is skilled at utilizing a variety of business models, including free-to-play (f2p), paid, ad revenue, and combinations of all three. His cross-disciplinary expertise has led him to build and operate Publishing, Marketing, Business Development, and Licensing departments for major game and media companies. He has also designed and produced award-winning games across all platforms, including Console, PC, Mobile, and VR.
Embodying the spirit of a multi-hat entrepreneur, Chris has successfully kick-started two game companies from the ground up, reflecting his dedication, foresight, and exemplary leadership skills in the gaming industry.
BERKLEY EGENES
Xsolla CMO (March 2020 - Current)
OVERVIEW
Berkley Egenes serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Xsolla, where he specializes in creating and marketing game commerce solutions aimed at helping partners reach more players and generate more revenue. Known as a mastermind behind successful partnerships, collaborations, and campaigns, Berkley is adept at elevating brand awareness, perception, and experience in the global marketplace.
With over 22 years of marketing and product integration experience, Berkley's unique talents are instrumental at Xsolla. His journey from the esports industry to Xsolla is noteworthy. Most recently, he played a crucial role in building the Ghost Gaming brand, driving sponsorship sales, media relations, and social presence, and establishing its online store before its eventual acquisition. As their Head of Marketing and CMO, Berkley implemented numerous campaigns to engage fans and activate brand partnerships featuring gaming pros and creators across various games and on three continents.
Berkley is a veteran of the agency and global brand marketing, having led organizations focused on enhancing engagement and delivering results at the intersection of brands and technology. His expansive career has seen him represent many blue-chip organizations, including NEXT VR MERIDIAN, Alcatel/TCL, VIZIO, Kellogg's, AB-InBev, NASCAR, IBM, Walmart, and CVS. He graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree in marketing and a certificate in international business. He later earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame.
Berkley's work initiatives are reflective of his vast experience and expertise. With two decades spent in brand marketing, partnership development, and strategically integrated consumer engagements, his knowledge spans various fields. These include esports, video games, sports, entertainment, mobility, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, food & beverages, consumer electronics, virtual & augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and healthcare.
He exhibits an imaginative approach to campaign ideation, program management, and creative delivery, coupled with a knack for negotiating and managing brand ambassador roles for personalities from various industries. Berkley has a proven ability to develop and maintain long-term partner relationships and demonstrates a remarkable aptitude for driving annual revenue growth, exceeding profitability targets, and minimizing costs.
Berkley is an accomplished content producer of live-action and animated commercials, branded video content, and lifestyle photography. He also excels in media strategy and planning for various platforms, including television, SEO/SEM, digital & online media, and out-of-home advertising. His digital web and CRM creation and social management skills are evidenced in his proficiency with tools such as Shopify, Sprout Social, Craft CMS, Adobe AEM, Drupal, Magento, Mailchimp, and Hubspot. Moreover, Berkley has developed multicultural campaigns catering to Hispanic and African American consumers.
In line with his cross-disciplinary expertise, Berkley has built and operated Publishing, Marketing, Business Development, and Licensing departments for major game and media companies. He's also designed and produced award-winning games across all platforms- Console, PC, Mobile, and VR. He has successfully started two game companies from scratch as a testament to his entrepreneurial spirit. His ability to thrive in fast-paced and dynamic environments sets him apart in his field.
XSOLLA Q&A
We live in the digital world, and video games are gaining immense popularity. Furthermore, video game commerce companies play a huge role in selling video games to users to foster this growth. They help game developers identify the missing elements in the game, rectify them and market the game optimally to increase the game developers' sales and revenue. This allows developers and video game companies to spend less time in back-end operations and sales and more time connecting with game players and understanding their views about the game.
Xsolla is a global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the industry. As an innovative leader in in-game commerce, Xsolla's mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch, and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms.
What was the motivation behind starting Xsolla?
From the beginning, we've been on a mission to democratize the business of video games, so game makers can focus on making great content. At Xsolla, we want to level the playing field so developers of any size have the tools to maximize their business globally and at scale. We saw how hard it was for developers to develop direct-to-consumer relationships with their players, so we stepped up and provided everything anyone would need to run their own games business, just like they were one of the biggest companies in the world.
There are other reputed companies in the market. How are you a better service provider?
Xsolla helps game developers and publishers of all sizes (indie to enterprise) get their games into the world and monetize them. Xsolla provides the tools to create a successful game with our all-in-one platform connecting developers to new marketing channels, funding, investment opportunities, IP holders, and more. Additionally, the blog includes a wide range of free books covering industry topics related to the business of video games, including game sales practices, payment methods and processing, marketing materials, and more.
We provide several funding solutions where we connect developers with potential investors or publishers, but Xsolla doesn't make any investment advice. We're providing a variety of ways that developers and investors can come together through several different programs. First, there's Funding Club. Whenever we encounter an exciting game concept or demo, we share it with over 100 accredited investors and publishers in our Funding Club.
We then step back and let them figure out their deals without us, as we're not making any recommendations or taking a fee. This is simply Xsolla doing its part to help developers get the connections they need to succeed. Then we have our recently announced Accelerator program, where Xsolla provides some early funding to promising games and connects them with advisors via a traditional accelerator program. In this case, the investment is our own. But what's likely most interesting in this conversation is our Game Investment Platform, a marketplace connecting developers with accredited investors who can self-direct investments into specific games via the platform. We have several safety mechanisms to ensure that investors don't over-invest in any single game and can recoup their investments across multiple games. Investments can also be structured to release milestones, providing minimal exposure throughout development. It's similar to slate financing against revenue streams.
How do you market your services?
We have a great marketing team that is active globally. We employ various marketing techniques, such as paid advertising and social media, but what works for us are events and partnerships with industry associations. We invest significantly in our presence at events and key industry partnerships, far beyond our competitors. You'll find Xsolla at one or more video game events every week of the year. We also hold quarterly Release Weeks, employing a thunderclap approach to announcing all the great new things we've been working on.
What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?
The future is looking great for Xsolla. We've significantly expanded our market over the past year and are continuing to find traction, helping game makers go direct to consumers. Since we're only focused on the video game industry, we continue to add features to our products that are uniquely designed to help this particular customer. This includes new products on the horizon that further support our partners in developing better direct relationships with their players across all platforms.
XSOLLA PR CONTACTS
Any questions, reach out to our PR team!
Global PR Contacts:
Global Director, Public Relations
Derrick Stembridge (d.stembridge@xsolla.com)
Communications Manager
Sara Rozycki (s.rozycki@xsolla.com)
