Black Rock hires Glancey as franchise design director

Disney’s Brighton, UK-based Black Rock Studio has scored a racing development personnel coup: the studio has hired Criterion Games’ former creative manager Paul Glancey.

Glancey takes the role of franchise design director on Black Rock’s second new racing IP for 360 and PS3, currently being developed alongside new off-road racer Pure.

Glancey started out his games career as a staff writer on beloved UK games magazine ZZAP! 64 in 1988. He later became associate editor of Computer and Video Games and then Editor of MegaTech, also contributing to Mean Machines, Nintendo Magazine and Sega Saturn magazine.

After ten years writing about games, Glancey move into developing them. He joined Eidos as senior product evaluator in 1998. In September 2000, he joined Criterion as creative manager where he worked on Airblade and the Burnout series of games. He had a significant hand in the design of Burnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Revenge and recent release Burnout Paradise.

Glancey commented on his new role: "It’s a stellar opportunity for me to work with a team that has such a great track record in the racing genre and has such a passion for pushing the genre further."

Tony Beckwith, VP & GM of Black Rock Studio added: "Having worked on Burnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Revenge and Burnout Paradise, Paul has a great pedigree in racing game design and development and is a valuable addition to our studio."