DC Gaming Industry Shuffle

I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that National Geographic had made its move into the gaming industry.  The new division called National Geographic Games (NGG) plans to publish and develop games for game consoles, the web and mobile devices.  Paul Levine will lead the new division as well as NGV’s Maps and Mobile businesses. Chris Mate, former Take2 Interactive and Bethesda Softworks executive, has signed on as vice president and general manager for NGG and will oversee and manage the group’s daily global operations.   NGG will join a growing game industry in the DC area that includes Bethesda Softworks, Big Huge Games and Firaxis.  Two smaller gaming startups, Social Gaming Network and Jam Legend recently left the area for the bay area.  You win some you lose some I guess.  But the formation of NGG and departure of two startups isn’t all that is happening in the DC gaming space.  Big Huge Games was recently acquired by Agoura Hills California based THQ.  And with the this shuffle at Big Huge Games you’e got to wonder if someone there is going to leave to follow in the footsteps of the founder who left Firaxis to found the company.  Could these potentially be the sparks that ignite the DC gaming community?  Can we expect to see more gamin startups launching in the DC area soon? So what kinds of games do these companies make?  According to the Washington Post Big Huge Games will be shifting their focus (post acquisition) from PC games to Wii games.  As a Wii owner I personally look forward to seeing more game titles there in the very near future.  Bethesda Softworks creates titles for game consoles, PC’s and mobile devices.  Their most recent title is Fallout 3, which portrays the beltway from a slightly different point of view…more.But game tiles aside, a community would not be complete without a scandal, right?  Well, we’ve had one of those too.  According to Venture Beat and Valleywag, one of the most successful Facebook application (Mob Wars) developers of all time left one local startup (Freewebs) and is now being sued for a number of concerns over whether or not his success had something to do with what he was doing and what he learned before he left.  He left for the bay area too.Got all that?  Yeah, there has been a lot of activity in the gaming community.