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Next Games: The Netflix-owned studio has hired Bart van Paassen as principal game designer, who returns to Next after a stint as lead game designer at EA Helsinki. He’s also previously worked in game design at Rovio, Recoil and Bohemia.
Savage Game Studios: Alex Sou has joined the PlayStation-owned studio as senior product manager. Sou moves from the same role at Wargaming, and has also previously worked at Soil Games, Gree and Aeria.
Naavik: There are two new hires at the research and consultancy firm this week. Former EA and League of Geeks game designer Jordan Phang has now joined full-time as consulting partner, having already worked with the Naavik team for some time. And on the content side, Nick Statt has joined as managing editor. He’s a journalist with experience working at CNET, The Verge and most recently Protocol.
Adinmo: There are four new appointments to the in-game ad firm’s board this week. Nick Button-Brown and Alex Carloss are both now non-executive directors.
Button-Brown is an investor and ex-EA, Crytek and Improbable exec; Carloss is a fellow investor and advisor who has held senior roles at EA, Paramount Pictures and Google.
The two new members of the advisory board are Tiffany Keller and Rich Robinson. Keller is currently director of product at Scopely, and is a former product director on Sybo’s Subway Surfers. Robinson is currently entrepreneur in residence at Animoca Brands.
King: Hannah Clarke has joined King’s Barcelona studio as product lead, moving from lottery firm Camelot, where she handed digital instant games.
Moon Active: The Coin Master maker has hired Elharar Polina as UI monetisation lead artist. Polina moves over from an eight-year spell at Jelly Button, where she was most recently art director.
Sumo Leamington: Former Future Games of London product manager and The Next Hype founder Aaron Morley is now lead product manger at Sumo’s mobile studio in Leamington.
Northern Stars: The Pixel United-owned studio, based in Helsinki, has a new QA lead. Maxim Shnyrev joins after a spell at Seriously as producer, and prior to that was in QA and production at Rovio and Wargaming.
Hutch: The racing specialist has a new licensing manager in the shape of Matt French, who joins from Topps International. French has previously worked in licensing at Mercedes’ F1 team.
Playtika: The casual and social casino game-maker has promoted Tracy Kaye to VIP expert.
