REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., May 14, 2012 – Ernst & Young LLP today announced that Dr. Lars Buttler, Founder and CEO of Trion Worlds, was named a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2012 program in the Northern California region. The award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. The winners will be announced at a special gala on June 2nd at the Fairmont San Francisco.
Prior to founding Trion Worlds, Inc. in 2006, the publisher and developer of games and original entertainment for the connected world, Buttler was the Vice President for Global Online at Electronic Arts, where he led EA’s strategy for online games and services and ran EA’s Online Studio, home to the pioneering Ultima Online MMOG franchise.
Rift™, Trion’s award-winning first title, launched to critical and consumer acclaims in March 2011 and showcased the company’s dynamic online platform, establishing its long-term vision to revolutionize games. Players activated more than one million Rift accounts in less than four months, and its North American and European revenues surpassed $100 million in 2011. Rift, which recently launched in Korea and is slated for launch in China later this year, has set a new industry standard for massively multiplayer online role-playing games, proving that gamers are embracing original, high-quality IPs and rich, dynamic game experiences built for the new online generation.
Trion’s next two games aim to showcase the company’s operational agility and the strength of its technology platform. End of Nations™, the highly anticipated massively multiplayer real-time strategy game and Defiance ™, a collaborative project with Syfy to simultaneously produce a TV show and an online action game in the same universe, with merging storylines and the ability to mutually impact events and consequences across the mediums.
Trion recently announced an $85 million round of strategic growth equity financing from world-class backers, in addition to its initial round of funding of $100 million, and plans to launch an initiative which comprises both a consumer platform and a full-scale publishing and development platform based on the technology fueling its own games. The platform is built to host the future of premium games with end-to-end capabilities and customized services for discrete partners.
Now in its 26th year, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Program has honored the inspirational leadership of such entrepreneurs as Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Michael Dell of Dell Inc., Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, Fred Smith of FedEx, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Richard Schulze of Best Buy, Andrew Mason of Groupon, Mindy Grossman of HSN, Inc., Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn, and many more.
Sponsors
Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored in the United States by SAP America and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
In Northern California sponsors include ManpowerGroup, The Big Picture, Smart Business Network, Inc., ADP, RoseRyan, Scherzer International, Orrick and Barney & Barney.
About Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year®
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 140 cities in more than 50 countries.
About Ernst & Young
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Contact
Katie Uhlman
Trion Worlds
650.394.1240
katie@trionworlds.com
Craig Sinel
47 Communications
323.658.1200