Welcome to our new and improved regular article where we round-up the week’s big movers and shakers across the mobile games industry.
The focus of this weekly article will be to compile all of the big job appointments and departures in one easy to read place, alongside some standouts from our own jobs board and some useful articles for those job seeking at this time.
You can also catch up with all of the job news from our previous column.
Movers and Shakers
Nexon nominates former TikTok CEO Mayer to join its board of directors
South Korean-Japanese games firm Nexon has nominated Kevin A. Mayer to join its board of directors.
In March 2021, during Nexon’s annual shareholders’ meeting, Mayer’s position as a board member will be taken to a vote.
Keywords Studios brings in Fumiko Okura to head up Tokyo studio
Services and development giant Keywords has snapped up Fumiko Okura as general manager for its Tokyo studio.
The firm has announced that the development vet was hired on November 1st, 2020.
Lab Zero vet Zaimont suspended from work on Guilty Gear
The founder of Lab Zero Games Mike “MikeZ” Zaimont has been suspended from working on the Guilty Gear series.
The developer was hired to work on netcode for Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R over at Arc Systems Works at the request of Team French Calibust.
Retro Studios hires Marisa Palumbo as it looks to remodel Texas HQ
Retro Studios has hired Blizzard and Rockstar Games veteran Marisa Palumbo to be its new lead producer.
Palumbo worked for Rockstar for almost 10 years as a producer, working on games such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto V, LA Noire, Manhunt 2 and Red Dead Redemption.
Acquisitions
Embracer acquires A Thinking Ape and 11 other games studios
European games giant Embracer Group has announced the purchase of 12 studios and a PR company.
The THQ Nordic parent has snapped up: Thinking Ape, IUGO Mobile Entertainment, Nimble Giant, Mad Head Games, Snapshot Games, 34BigThings, Zen Studios, Purple Lamp, Quantic Lab, Flying Wild Hog, Coffee Stain North, England’s Silent Games PR as well as influencer relations agency Sandbox Strategy.
Epic acquires facial animation firm Hyprsense
Fortnite maker Epic Games has picked up real-time facial animation company Hyprsense.
“We are proud and excited to bring our character animation technology into the Epic Games ecosystem,” said Hyprsense co-founder and CEO Jihun Yu.
Jobs board
Senior Multiplayer Game Designer (Square Enix) – London, UK
QA Engineer (AppLovin) – Herzliya, Israel
Gameplay Programmer (Ubisoft) – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Data analyst (Ubisoft) – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Production Director (Mi’pu’mi Games) – Vienna, Australia
Full Stack Engineer (Embark Studios) – Stockholm, Sweden
Head on over to our Jobs Board for a variety of roles now on offer.
If you have any jobs news you would like to share, please feel free to drop a mail to matthew.forde@steeelmedianetwork.com.
