Games Studio Leadership & Advisory
Two heads are better than one.
Senior leadership, executive coaching and strategic advisory for games studios. Founded by Rich Barham — 20+ years at Blizzard, Riot, ZeniMax and IO-Interactive.
Games Studio Leadership & Advisory
Two heads are better than one.
Senior leadership, executive coaching and strategic advisory for games studios. Founded by Rich Barham — 20+ years at Blizzard, Riot, ZeniMax and IO-Interactive.
About Ettin
Ettin Consulting was founded by Rich Barham — one of the most widely experienced leadership figures in European games. Rich was part of the core team that built Blizzard Entertainment Europe from four people to more than a thousand. He has held senior leadership roles at Riot Games, ZeniMax, and IO-Interactive, and founded and ran his own studio as CEO.
The name comes from the two-headed giant of legend — a creature with two minds working as one. That's the model: Rich works with your studio, not at arm's length from it. The second head at the table. The perspective your team can't give you from inside the problem.
Engagements are direct, honest, and grounded in real experience at every tier of the industry — from billion-dollar enterprises to founder-led studios of twelve.
Philosophy
These aren't values on a wall. They're the things Rich has tested, broken, rebuilt, and refined across twenty years and four of the most demanding organisations in games.
There are no natural leaders. There are people who have been developed and people who haven't. The skill of leading people can be learned, practised, and improved — and the studios that treat it that way outlast the ones that don't.
The best leadership combines radical honesty with genuine care for the person receiving it. Honesty without kindness is brutality. Kindness without honesty is condescension. The narrow road between them is where great cultures are built.
You cannot hire someone into a culture. As studios grow, the founding culture has to be made explicit, codified in specific behaviours, and actively transferred to every new person who joins. This is harder than it sounds and more important than almost anything else.
The studios that make it through scaling aren't always the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones where someone decided that developing people to lead was not a nice-to-have — it was the work that prevented every other crisis.
Services
Every engagement starts with a conversation — no proposals until we both know there's a fit.
Embedded, part-time leadership as your fractional Studio Director, COO, or VP-equivalent. One to two days per week over three to six months. Senior leadership at the level of Blizzard or Riot — without the full-time cost or the twelve-month notice period.
A focused two-to-three week assessment of your leadership team, culture, and organisational health. Interviews, observation, and a prioritised action plan. A fast, lower-risk entry point that consistently surfaces what teams have been unable to say out loud.
One-to-one coaching for founders, studio heads, and senior leaders navigating the transition from maker to leader. Sold as six-session packages. Direct, experienced, and honest — the person who tells you the truth about how you lead, and helps you do it better.
Monthly advisory retainers for studios that need a trusted senior sounding board. Or single engagements for investors and publishers needing an experienced operator to assess studio leadership before a deal — or during the difficult period after one.
Who We Work With
Founders and studio CEOs who are exceptional at making games but navigating the harder work of leading organisations — and who want honest, experienced support from someone who has been in that seat and will tell them the truth.
Scaling studios of 20–200 people that have outgrown their original structure and need a senior leader — fractionally — to help build the leadership infrastructure, culture, and processes that let great work keep happening.
Investors and publishers who need a trusted, experienced operator to assess studio leadership health, provide bridge leadership during a transition, or advise on portfolio studios facing people and organisational challenges.
Approach
No pitch deck, no proposal. We talk. Rich wants to understand what you're actually dealing with — and be honest about whether this is a fit before anything else happens.
Every studio is different. Before any diagnosis or direction, time is spent genuinely understanding the people, the culture, and the history. The presenting problem is rarely the real one.
You'll hear what Rich actually thinks — informed by twenty years at the highest levels of the industry. Including the things that are uncomfortable to hear. The second head at the table earns its place by being honest.
The value isn't in the strategy document. It's in what happens after — the difficult conversations, the structural changes, the leadership habits that take months to build. Ettin stays engaged through the work, not just the diagnosis.
Contact
If your studio is facing a leadership or organisational challenge — or if you're an investor who needs a trusted perspective on a portfolio studio — reach out directly. No forms. No funnels. Just a conversation.
A note on how Rich works
Ettin takes a small number of engagements at any one time. This is deliberate. The work requires genuine attention — the kind that isn't possible when you're spread across too many clients.
If the timing isn't right, Rich will say so. If there's a better fit elsewhere, he'll say that too. The second head at the table only earns its place by being honest.
The first conversation is always free, always direct, and always worth having.