Mark Kern

Mark Edward Kern, also known as Grummz, is a former video game executive. He worked for Blizzard Entertainment from 1997 to 2005 and was a co-founder and CEO of Red 5 Studios during the development and promotion of the video game Firefall.

Mark Kern
Mark Kern in 2011
Education	University of Rochester (BA) Boston University (JD)
Occupations	Game developer Game designer
Employer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment (1997–2005) Red 5 Studios (2005–2013)
Known for	World of Warcraft, Firefall

Kern is a graduate of the University of Rochester and received a Juris Doctor degree from the Boston University School of Law. Kern has been described as right-wing due to involvement in online activism against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and in support of Gamergate.

Early life and education

Mark Kern attended college at the University of Rochester, earning a Bachelor of Arts in cognitive science in 1992.^[1] He earned a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law in 1995, where he specialized in intellectual property and was a co-founder of the university's Journal of Science and Technology Law.^[2]

Career

Blizzard Entertainment

Kern joined Blizzard Entertainment in 1997, initially serving as an Associate Producer for Starcraft. His roles expanded to include Producer of StarCraft 64,^[3][4] Producer of Diablo II,^[5] and Team Lead for World of Warcraft.^[6][7] Kern departed Blizzard in 2005.

Red 5 Studios

In 2005, Kern co-founded the game development company Red 5 Studios alongside three other former Blizzard employees. He played a significant role in the development of the game Firefall and became CEO of the company in 2008.^[8]

Controversies and departure from Red 5 Studios

Kern faced allegations of overspending on promotional campaigns for Firefall. Notably, he devised a marketing strategy involving a Firefall-themed e-sports bus intended as both a mobile promotional tool and a server for LAN competitions during the game's beta phase. The project, estimated at $3 million, also included the establishment of a dedicated video production team with costly equipment.^[9] Red 5 employees described Kern as being prone to extended absences and having an "erratic, impulsive, and very disruptive" leadership style.^[10]

In 2013, Kern was removed from his position as CEO by the Red 5 board of directors.^[11] He referred to his time at the company as his own "Kobayashi Maru".^[9]

MEK Entertainment and later work

Kern founded the studio MEK Entertainment in 2014. The company raised $1 million in seed funding for an Oculus Rift virtual reality MMO.^[12]

In 2016,^[13] Kern began seeking crowdfunding for Em-8er, a "spiritual successor" to Firefall.^[14] Kern did an interview with YouTuber Upper Echelon in Sept 2024, claiming that about 600K has been raised so far for Em-8er.^[15]

Online activism and later activity

Kern speaking at GDC 2011

Kern has been involved in right-wing activist causes. In response to the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act in 2012, Kern initiated a lobbying group named League4Gamers.^[16][17][18]

In 2016, Kern became involved in the Nostalrius petition to convince Blizzard to consider reviving vanilla servers for World of Warcraft.^[19] Following the Blitzchung controversy in which a Hong Kong eSports player was penalized by Blizzard for voicing support of the Hong Kong anti-national security law protests during a Blizzard streaming event in 2019, Kern quit playing World of Warcraft^[14] and called for a boycott of Blizzard.^[20]

During the online backlash and criticism against the Canadian narrative development studio Sweet Baby Inc. around unsubstantiated claims of "forcing" diversity,^[21] Kern railed against efforts to increase awareness of diversity and related progressive causes in March 2024, claiming a "coordinated effort to insert diversity politics into games".^[22][23]