Donna Williams is the president and chief operating officer of Los Angeles-based Meteor Games, a new and innovative game development studio committed to bridging the gapsbetween the engaging nature and broad appeal of web-based gaming, the community-focused elements of today’s exploding social networks, and the fun and depth of traditional massively multiplayer online games. Williams manages the daily operations, creative direction, marketing execution and overall business strategy for Meteor Games. The company’s first product, which is currently under development, is based on an entirely new intellectual property designed by Williams andrenowned web-based game developer, Adam Powell.
Prior to launching Meteor Games, Williams and Powell created and co-founded Neopets, in 1999. Thevery first web based multiplayer game of its kind, Neopets isrecognized as the online phenomenon that helped start the social networking and web-based gaming craze. At Neopets, Williams was responsible for overall site direction and content planning, including game concepting, design and execution. In addition, she was directly responsible for the management of all licensing efforts,where her innovations extended the Neopets brand into new, previously untapped offline markets, including a popular Neopets trading card game from Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast; two video games from Sony – Neopets: The Darkest Faerie (PlayStation 2) and Neopets: The Wand of Wishing (Sony PSP); a deal with Warner Bros. for a Neopets movie in 2009; the official Neopets magazine from Beckett Publishing; several fast food kid’s meal promotions; as well as promotions with General Mills, Bubble Yum and many others.
Williams and Powell guided Neopets from launch through a period of unprecedented growth where today the franchise reaches more 45 million users worldwide and is translated into 11 languages. Neopets was sold to MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, in 2005 for $160 million and remains one of the largest and most popular destinations for kids and teens on the Internet.
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