RuneScape developer Jagex has made a number of new hires as the company continues to expand.
Former Insomniac Games director of gameplay programming Chris Pfieffer has joined the firm as its new director of product management, where he will work on developing a strategy for driving long-term player retention for new titles.
With 20 years of experience in the industry, Pfieffer previously helped work on the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance series, as well as being an executive producer for Kabam and Wargaming.
Next to this, Thomas Hopper has been taken on as a senior producer for third-party games. Possessing 13 years of experience in live operations, he previously held roles at Blizzard Entertainment and Bethesda Game Studios.
EA and PlayStation former commercial manager Stuart Bottell will come onboard as a platform partnership lead too, helping to position Jagex as the publishing partner of choice for third-party developers of living games and extend audience reach.
Finally, Robert Fox-Galassi will take over as the new lead product manager across Jagex Partners projects. Most recently, he spent time at Wargaming as a product manager and senior game designer.
“Crucial role”
“Each of these new hires brings a wealth of industry experience in developing high-quality games and in overseeing the kind of high-performance third-party development teams we are and will be working with in the future,” said Jagex Partners vice president Jeff Pabst.
Jagex CEO Phil Mansell added: “2021 is proving to be yet another important year for us in terms of recruiting, with new additions to the Jagex Partners’ third-party publishing team just one part of a concerted effort to build capabilities across the company.”
“These new hires will play a crucial role in Jagex’s further growth by accelerating the development of new and existing games for wider global audiences.”
Last month, Jagex announced the expansion of its team with industry veterans across its products, analytics and data science department.
