Here every Monday, we’ve got the biggest moves and promotions from across the mobile games business, all in one spot.
Recruiting right now? Sponsor this column and get your open roles in front of this site’s smart, creative readers. Email me for details.
Ubisoft London: As reported by gamesindustry.biz and VGC last week, the Hungry Shark maker and studio formerly known at Future Games of London is to close. There are 54 positions under threat at the studio, and Ubisoft Barcelona will now manage the Hungry Shark franchise going forward.
Homa: The French hyper- and hybridcasual publisher has hired Hector Pertegal Muñoz as its new product strategy lead.
Muñoz joins from King’s Barcelona studio, where he was product manager on Candy Crush Saga. He has also worked at Tilting Point and Socialpoint in marketing, strategy and ops roles.
Scopely: The Stumble Guys team has a new senior product manager, Nadav Michaeli. He joins from Plarium, where he spent just over five years working in monetisation, design and most recently as lead game economy designer on a forthcoming title.
Activision Blizzard: Former Belka Games bizdev and strategic partnerships lead Dima Mikhailov has been appointed manager of ABK’s global commercial mobile team. Mikhailov has also previously worked in editorial and partnerships within Apple’s App Store team and as an apps and games consultant at Google.
Wicked Saints: The maker of blended reality narrative game World Reborn has appointed Mitchell Smallman as its chief product officer.
Smallman joins after a stint at Pocket Burger, a studio he cofounded, and has previously worked as product manager at Space Ape and creative director at Netspeak Games.
Exient: The maker of Lemmings and Ultimate Sackboy has appointed John Chasoulidis Abela as its new head of design. Abela has previously worked at Hasoo as game director, Voodoo as studio director and as head of games at Green Jade Games.
Hutch: The racing specialist continues to hire with another three newbies. Gits Raj is the new QA embedded tester and is based in Hutch’s Canada studio, Fahad H. is now junior engineer in London and Melissa Ness joins as junior performance marketing manager in the studio’s Dundee office.
Ustwo Games: The Monument Valley maker has hired Hana Noelle as its new lead artist. Noelle joins having worked as a 3D artist at Sybo and Half Past Yellow.
Rovio: Rafael Lima has switched roles to become UX craft lead at the Angry Birds maker. Lima has been a UX designer at Rovio since 2021, and previously worked in similar positions at Next Games and Ubisoft RedLynx.
