Videogame firm sets expansion

The expansion of 3G Studios, a Reno videogame developer into 9,450-square feet at 300 E. Second St. helps clear the way for the company to boost its staff and handle new contracts.

The move was dictated in part by a decision by the law firm Jones Vargas to lease the 15th floor of the building across Second Street from the Reno Aces Ballpark. The law firm will move in next spring, and 3G Studios will surrender 1,200 square feet.

However, 3G will lease an additional 2,740 square feet on the 14th floor, increasing its base of operations to just over 9,500 square feet in the building owned by Basin Street.

The move benefits 3G, President James Kosta says, because its evolving business model the company is negotiating contracts with several well-established game titles and television shows to turn them into a social media experience will require 3G to add up to 30 additional employees by Christmas. The company seeks to hire additional programmers and Web developers. It currently employs about 25 people and 10 contract personnel.

"Jones Vargas needed just a little bit extra to complete their plans, so Basin Street took great care of us to offer to help us expand downward," Kosta says.

The game developer will keep its test lab on the 15th floor but will expand its recording studio for sound effects and music recording for video games on the 14th floor, as well as provide more space for its technology team, Kosta says.

The company started out providing gaming titles to Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Wii game consoles, but Kosta says 3G Studios is evolving from a retail video game developer into an online and social media game developer. The company has been signing licensing agreements for intellectual property with entertainment franchises and large movie and television studios to bring familiar titles to social Web gaming.

The success of the company's 2009 title "Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum" for the Nintendo Wii prompted 3G to delve into the largely ignored casual gaming market, Kosta says.

"We are looking to help companies bring their successful franchises into the social media audience and the casual game audience rather than the hard-core gamers," Kosta says.