Former Epic Games Leader Ben Board Joins CodeDev Group as CEO of The Performance Guys

This is a press release posted alongside our usual editorial content.

CodeDev Group today announced the appointment of Ben Board as CEO of its
optimisation division, The Performance Guys.

Board enters his 30th year in the industry, after spending nearly nine years at Epic
Games, managing the Unreal Engine games business in the UK and then across
Europe, during the height of Fortnite’s global explosion.

His career spans key leadership roles at some of the industry’s most legendary
studios and platforms, including writing gameplay for Bullfrog Productions
(Theme Park World), leading the scripting team on Lionhead’s original Fable,
running product teams at BossAlien (CSR Racing), and managing technical
developer relations for Microsoft Xbox 360.

In his new role as CEO of The Performance Guys, Board will lead the studio’s
mission to solve one of modern game development’s most critical bottlenecks:
performance optimisation. He joins CodeDev Group’s Senior Leadership Team:
CEO Myke Parrot, COO Andy Norman, and Chair Rik Alexander, to globally scale
the technical offering at The Performance Guys.

“Generally, this is the right time for co-dev. Big studios are increasingly relying on
the best outside specialists,” said Board. “Specifically, I’ve seen time and again that
poor performance is everywhere and its impact can be existential, but great
optimisation skills are not common, even at big studios. I haven’t seen a pure
specialist that bets its house on solving that problem alone – so The Performance
Guys have a very clear and powerful offering.”

“Optimisation is The Performance Guys craft, but that’s not an end in itself – what
the client is really asking us to add to their product is quality. Faster frames make
better games, and help scores and sales. To truly optimise the quality of your
game’s shipping performance you must apply the right thinking from the earliest
stages, lay the strongest foundations, make informed choices, build effective tools,
identify the most critical challenges, and hang the loudest canaries from the most
acoustically central beams in your production’s coal mine.”

The addition of Board marks a major milestone in CodeDev Group’s ambitious
growth strategy. Operating with a team of more than 60 senior specialists across
its three divisions – The Unreal Guys (Unreal Engine co-dev), The Performance
Guys (cross-engine optimisation), and the recently announced Full Spectrum
Interactive (full-dev for small-to-AA games) – CodeDev Group provides expert-led,
sustainable scaling for the industry’s most ambitious projects.

“Ben is a true industry heavy-hitter whose reputation and technical authority
speak for themselves,” said Myke Parrot, CEO of CodeDev Group. “He understands
game development from every angle – from coding engine scripts to managing
developer relations for the world’s biggest platforms and engines. Bringing Ben in
as CEO of The Performance Guys sends an unmistakable message to the market:
if your game has a performance problem on any engine, we have the best team
on the planet to fix it.”

“If The Performance Guys got a fancy Latin tattoo, it would say Succedo cum
succedis: I succeed when you succeed,” added Board. “CodeDev Group has built a
team with huge heart, serious technical firepower, and ambitious goals. After a
wonderful era at Epic, I’m buzzing to lead The Performance Guys, build strong
long-term client relationships through the difference we make to products, and
help our team dedicate themselves to doing the best work of their careers.”