Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the video‑game sector can be a real challenge. That’s why we put together periodic round‑ups that capture the most noteworthy personnel moves.
If you know of a new appointment or a transition that belongs in this list, please forward the name, new title, company, and previous role to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Natalie Francis will assume the role of studio manager at Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment starting 1 October 2026.
Francis arrives with a rich background in studio leadership, having most recently served as chief development officer at Avalanche Studios. Earlier in her career she oversaw studio operations and development at DICE and held the position of studio operations director at Electronic Arts. "Massive Entertainment boasts an extraordinary legacy, built by incredibly talented people and a culture that cares deeply about craft and quality," Francis said. "I’m thrilled to build on that foundation and help create the conditions for the studio and its people to thrive in its next chapter." Christoph Hartmann, General Manager for Creative House 2, added: "Natalie's extensive experience bringing talented, multidisciplinary teams together around a clear creative and business vision makes her ideally suited to lead Massive into its next chapter.
Her track record of delivering ambitious player experiences while connecting long‑term strategy with operational excellence provides a strong foundation for the studio and its talented teams moving forward." Riot Games has promoted Allie Murdock to senior manager, game production. Murdock previously managed production on Valorant and, before joining Riot, was production director at Red Lens Games. Her elevation reflects Riot’s focus on strengthening its production leadership as the company expands its live‑service and competitive titles.
Gearbox Entertainment announced Kristen Quinn as its new lead sound designer. Quinn’s résumé includes stints as audio director, contractor, and consultant at Bonfire Studios as well as an audio director role at Polyarc, giving her a broad perspective on interactive audio pipelines and creative sound design.
Benjamin Liu joins Insomniac Games as lead VFX artist after serving as principal VFX artist and acting VFX director at Lightspeed LA. Liu’s expertise in real‑time visual effects will support Insomniac’s upcoming projects, which continue to push the envelope in terms of fidelity and spectacle. Fandom revealed three senior hires and a promotion of a long‑time veteran. Anita Butler has been named senior vice president, design & user research.
Butler previously held EVP of design and research at Nextdoor, was VP of consumer design at Twitter, and served as chief design officer at Strava, bringing deep user‑centric design experience to Fandom’s fan‑focused platforms. Damon Sicore steps in as chief technology officer and head of Fandom Labs; his background includes leadership roles at Wikipedia and Mozilla, where he oversaw the engineering teams behind Firefox, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Peter Scanlon becomes chief marketing officer, adding executive marketing experience from Google, Mozilla, and Monks.
Daniel Grunwell is promoted to senior vice president of engineering, taking charge of Fandom’s engineering and infrastructure organization. "Fandom has an incredible foundation – millions of fans who have spent years building knowledge and communities around the things they love," said CEO Jay Sullivan.
"Our opportunity is to build on that and give fans even more ways to connect, discover and participate. Daniel’s long tenure at Fandom brings a deep understanding of our roots, while Damon, Pete and Anita bring fresh perspectives and deep consumer and platform expertise. Together, we have the right team to build the next generation of Fandom." The New York Times appointed Jonathan Knight as chief games officer. Knight previously served as senior vice president, head of games, where he led the acquisition and integration of the wildly popular Wordle puzzle.
Scopely welcomes back Chase Shi as vice president, head of game product. Shi originally left Scopely in 2020 after serving as senior product manager, then moved to Jam City as director of product management and later to Blizzard Entertainment, where he directed product management for Diablo. His return signals Scopely’s intent to deepen its product strategy across its portfolio.
Scopely also adds Jonathan Marcelino as director of product. Marcelino founded and served as CEO of hybrid‑casual studio Ritmo Games, giving him hands‑on experience in building and scaling games from concept to launch.
Berkay Özer becomes head of studio at Fomo Games. Özer joined Fomo in 2022 as a product specialist and later led the product team before a brief stint at Loom Games as product manager in 2025.
His return to Fomo is expected to accelerate the studio’s roadmap. Arrowhead Game Studios appoints Peter Sydow as head of production. Sydow previously worked at Massive Entertainment and PlayerUnknown Productions as a senior producer, bringing valuable live‑service and multiplayer expertise. Blizzard Entertainment promotes Ryan Ngoon to game designer.
Ngoon began his Blizzard career in 2023 as a quest design intern, progressed to associate game designer in 2024, and now takes on broader design responsibilities. Epic Games adds Sarah Johnson as an art producer.
Johnson’s prior production roles at Bungie, Secret Dimension, Hangar 13, and Telltale Games give her a broad perspective on art pipelines across diverse genres. Asmodee names Brian Trunk senior vice president of Route to Market for the Americas. Trunk, a partner at Asmodee for over a decade, previously spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, most recently as vice president of commercial, digital games revenue, and the Wizards Play Network. He reflects, "I’m grateful for my years at Wizards of the Coast and for the people who challenged, taught, and shaped me into the leader I am today.
I’ve always believed the most successful businesses are built on great people, strong relationships, trust, and community. At Asmodee, those values combine with a shared love of games, making this move personal and central to how I want to lead here." Rovio promotes Wille Miljas to director of product marketing.
Miljas joined Rovio in 2024 as marketing lead after serving as head of marketing at Good Shepherd Entertainment and Redhill Games, and as senior marketing manager for planning and strategy at Next Games. Behaviour Interactive appoints Jameson Durall as senior design director on Blight: Survival. Durall previously worked at Insomniac Games as an advanced senior game designer on Marvel’s Spider‑Man 2, bringing high‑profile AAA design experience to the survival‑horror title. Epic Games promotes Matt Dobill to director of applied AI, while also serving as senior counsel on technology and tools.
Dobill’s dual role underscores Epic’s commitment to integrating cutting‑edge AI into its development pipelines. Unity welcomes Joe Gabriel as senior technical production manager for AndroidXR. Gabriel previously led customer and developer success at Niantic Spatial and was senior developer relations manager at Niantic, positioning him to strengthen Unity’s XR initiatives. King promotes Erik Meurk to senior software engineer.
Meurk started as a Unity developer intern in August 2023, became an associate software engineer in early 2024, and has since contributed to multiple live‑service titles. Epic Games elevates Stéfanie Grandchamp‑Dubé to lead UX designer. Grandchamp‑Dubé joined Epic in 2023 after a senior UX stint at Behaviour Interactive, and will now guide user‑experience strategy across the company’s portfolio.
Rebellion signs Jack Anderson as a VFX artist. Anderson previously held the same role at nDreams and Interior/Night, bringing a strong background in cinematic effects. Blizzard Entertainment adds David Scarborough as senior manager of EMEA communications. Scarborough’s prior experience includes senior account director at Brands2Life, head of communications at Inflexion Games, and senior roles at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver.
King appoints Esther Lopez as principal VFX artist. Lopez first joined King in 2014 as a senior artist, rose to associate principal VFX artist in 2020, spent two years at Meta focusing on real‑time VR‑AR VFX, and now returns to bring that immersive expertise back to King’s flagship titles. She remarked, "Coming back to somewhere I know well, in a new role, is a rare kind of privilege.
King is where I grew up as an artist, and where some of my best memories were made, making this opportunity even more special. After almost four years at Meta building immersive experiences, I hope I can bring the best of that back with me." CD Projekt Red names Magda Marcinkowska production manager in marketing.
Marcinkowska previously acted as publishing operations director at Techland, giving her a solid foundation in game publishing logistics. Newzoo hires Linh Lai as accounting assistant after a six‑month internship. Lai says, "The experiences I’ve gained throughout these six months have helped me better understand not only how individual accounting processes work, but also how they connect to the wider business.
I’m excited to take on more responsibility, deepen my accounting and finance knowledge, find more ways to make our accounting processes even more efficient, and contribute more to the team as I grow with Newzoo." Kokoon Games adds Tommi Virolainen as senior game programmer. Virolainen previously worked as a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior programming roles at Lightneer, strengthening Kokoon’s technical capabilities. CD Projekt Red appoints Christopher Holtorf as senior quest designer. Holtorf came from Intrepid Studios where he served as senior narrative designer, bringing strong storytelling chops to Red’s RPG efforts.
1Up Ventures welcomes Amir Satvat as a general partner. Satvat previously served as business development director at Tencent Games and founded Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a resource that helps job‑seekers enter the industry. He explained, "I wanted to feel a more direct connection between the things I could influence and do with a team and putting people back to work.
I wanted to see more people's dreams of making games come true because of something I did. I also hoped I could work in a setting focused on smaller studios, because I love games of that size so much, and in a setting built around community first. My final wish was to work with colleagues who share the same values and integrity I try to hold myself to.
In accepting the team’s invitation to join 1Up, I am seeing all of these wishes realised. 1Up is a very important player in the games ecosystem, and I want to see its unique approach to games investing survive for as long as possible." Supercell announces the departure of Lasse Seppänen after seven years.
Seppänen joined as a producer in 2019, later becoming head of game production services and general manager for Supercell London. He said, "Now it’s time to follow my passion for creating new game IPs again.
I’m staying in the UK, and in 2027 I’m planning to start my own studio once again – more on that when the time is right." Take‑Two Interactive appoints Giles Derrington as director of global affairs UK. Derrington previously led public affairs for TikTok in the UK, bringing a strong media‑relations background to the publishing giant.
Kepler Interactive promotes Jess Pearce to senior people partner. Pearce joined Kepler as a people advisor in 2022 and moved up to people partner in 2024, now overseeing talent strategy across the indie publisher.
PlaySimple Games elevates Shreya Godha to producer after her time as associate producer. Epic Games names Kelly Ekins director of communications. Ekins previously served as senior director of global PR for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program, and before that led marketing for media and entertainment at Unity following a stint at Warner Brothers Games Montreal.
Housemarque co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen steps down after 31 years. Kuittinen co‑founded the studio in 1995 after merging Bloodhouse and Terramarque.
Reflecting on his tenure, he said, "Looking back, I feel immensely fortunate. We had the luck of being in the right place at the right time during three decades of incredible industry growth, allowing us to stay fiercely independent for 26 years before finding a home within the PlayStation Studios family. We have been planning this leadership transition carefully behind the scenes. On 1 July, Sami ‘Haxu’ Hakala officially stepped into the managing director role, and I have continued supporting him and the leadership team until today to ensure complete operational continuity and stability.
Housemarque’s strategy and creative vision are in exceptional hands." Tripledot Studios’ Lion Studios names Tamara Feiman as CEO. Feiman started at Lion in 2020 as EMEA business development lead, later becoming publishing general manager. She noted, "I joined Lion six years ago. Since then, I've had the privilege of growing alongside the company through its biggest successes, challenges and transformations.
But what has always made Lion special is how we work with our partner studios. Together, we've taken risks, learned quickly and turned great ideas into games played by millions. And Lion has never been about one person.
I'm fortunate to work alongside an incredible team across publishing, growth, product, engineering and market intelligence, as well as our talented studio partners around the world." Sega of America brings on Heather Sangria as community manager. Sangria previously worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and handled digital strategy and community management at Undead Labs. Activision Blizzard promotes Emily Rose Chen to senior product manager for Call of Duty. Chen joined the company as a financial analyst in 2020 and moved into product management before this promotion.
Activision Blizzard also elevates Scot McCarron to senior director of product management for Call of Duty. McCarron, who joined in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises, has overseen multiple title launches and now leads the broader product strategy for the franchise.