Media Room - In the News - 2007

BreakAway plays the name game with its own moniker

The following is an excerpt of an article by Scott Dance
Originally published November 8th in The Baltimore Business Journal

Video game developer BreakAway Ltd.'s business isn't all fun and games, but the company is changing its name to higlight that aspect in an effort to drum up work in the defense industry.

It may appear contradictory, but officials at the Hunt Valley company -- now known as BreakAway Games -- say an emphasis on their experience in developing video games is valuable in catching the eye of government and military organizations.

CEO Doug Whatley said the company once thought its "gaming" label made it a less serious contender for government work, but that has changed.

"Even a few years ago we saw it as an impediment to some of the deals we are trying to do, we always felt a little false because we were always in our heart a game company," Whatley said. "Then time moved on and people were more and more looking for a gaming company."

The company was formerly known as BreakAway Games, but switched to a more neutral moniker as it ramped up its work with the federal government in 2000 and 2001, said Josh Johns, a company spokesman. Paul Mauritz, BreakAway's executive vice president for corporate development, said the company had the impression that the Department of Defense didn't want "guys in ponytails" from gaming companies dealing with generals.

But with the growth of gaming communities like Second Life and other massive multi-player online games, there is more attention on gaming technology from across the business world, company leaders said.

Gaming companies are valuable to the defense industry because it's expensive and difficult to start from scratch to develop the technology they provide, said Helen Worth, spokesman for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, which does a lot of defense-related research. The companies' technology is often ahead of what defense contractors can put together, she said. The lab and BreakAway are in talks on a partnership they expect to announce in December, BreakAway officials said.