Kris Davis and Olivier Courtemarche have been appointed to the roles of co-head of mobile at PlayStation Studios, following Nicola Sebastiani’s decision to leave his position as vice president and head of mobile earlier this month.
Both Davis and Courtemarche joined the company in April 2022. Davis assumed the role of senior director and head of mobile business development, following a successful stint as vice president of business development at Kabam.
Courtemarche joined PlayStation in the role of head of mobile product, following nine months in the role of product manager at Meta. Prior to this, he acted as director of product at Zynga, senior product manager at Disney, and product manager at Electronic Arts.
PlayStation have been making concerted steps to increase their mobile presence in recent years, with Sebastiani’s appointment kicking off a series of key hires. The company also acquired its first mobile studio, Savage Games Studios, in 2022.
A move to mobile
PlayStation has long been one of the biggest names in console gaming, but mobile gaming’s affordability and accessibility makes it the platform of choice for millions of gamers worldwide. As such, PlayStation has been making concerted efforts to increase its mobile footprint, and has noted its intention of bringing some of its first party titles to mobile, with the bestselling Horizon franchise rumoured to be among them.
Whereas Nintendo sees mobile as a means to market its console offerings, both Sony and Microsoft realise its potential as a money maker in its own right, with Microsoft claiming its ongoing attempts to acquire Activision Blizzard are due to the strength of its mobile division. At present, however, Nintendo ironically enjoys the most favourable position in the mobile market, while Sony and Microsoft are seemingly working on establishing a strong foundation on mobile before they begin developing wholesale.
Earlier this year, rumours began circling that Sony is considering an acquisition of Take-Two Interactive.
