Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the gaming sector can be a real challenge, which is why we publish periodic round‑ups that capture the most noteworthy moves. If your organization has recent staffing changes that you think belong in this list, please forward the name, new title, new company, as well as the previous role and employer to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Natalie Francis has been named studio manager for Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment, a role she will assume on 1 October 2026. Francis brings a wealth of senior‑level experience to the position.
She most recently served as chief development officer at Avalanche Studios, where she oversaw multiple high‑profile projects. Earlier in her career she led studio operations and development at DICE and held the title of studio operations director at Electronic Arts, giving her a deep understanding of both creative pipelines and operational efficiency. "Massive Entertainment boasts an exceptional legacy built by extraordinarily talented people and a culture that values craftsmanship and quality," Francis said in a statement.
"I’m thrilled to build on that foundation and help create the conditions for the studio and its teams to flourish in the next chapter of our journey." Christoph Hartmann, General Manager of Creative House 2, added: "Natalie's extensive background in uniting multidisciplinary teams around a clear creative and business vision makes her uniquely qualified to steer Massive into its future. Her proven ability to deliver ambitious player experiences while aligning long‑term strategy with operational excellence provides a solid platform for the studio and its talented staff moving forward." In other Riot Games news, Allie Murdock has been promoted to senior manager of game production.
Murdock previously managed production on the flagship title Valorant and before joining Riot she was production director at Red Lens Games, where she led several cross‑functional teams. Gearbox Entertainment has welcomed 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 a previous role as audio director at Polyarc, where she helped shape the auditory identity of several acclaimed titles. Benjamin Liu joins Insomniac Games as lead VFX artist.
Liu formerly served as principal VFX artist and acting VFX director at Lightspeed LA, contributing to a number of high‑budget visual effects pipelines. Fandom announced three senior hires and a promotion for a long‑time veteran.
Anita Butler has been appointed senior vice president of design & user research, arriving from Nextdoor where she was EVP of design and research, and earlier she held VP of consumer design at Twitter and chief design officer at Strava. Damon Sicore steps in as chief technology officer and head of Fandom Labs, bringing leadership experience from Wikipedia and Mozilla, where he oversaw the engineering teams behind Firefox, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Peter Scanlon has been named chief marketing officer, adding executive marketing experience from Google, Mozilla, and Monks.
Additionally, Daniel Grunwell has been promoted to senior vice president of engineering, taking responsibility for Fandom's engineering and infrastructure organization. "Fandom sits on an incredible foundation – millions of fans who have spent years building knowledge and communities around the things they love," said CEO Jay Sullivan.
"Our goal is to expand those connections, give fans more ways to discover and participate, and leverage the deep expertise of leaders like Damon, Pete, Anita and Daniel to build the next generation of Fandom." The New York Times has named Jonathan Knight its chief games officer. Knight previously served as senior vice president and head of games, where he led the acquisition and integration of the viral puzzle Wordle.
Scopely sees the return of Chase Shi as vice president and head of game product. Shi originally left Scopely in 2020 as senior product manager, then served as director of product management at Jam City before moving to Blizzard Entertainment where he directed product management for Diablo. Scopely also appoints Jonathan Marcelino as director of product. Marcelino previously founded and ran hybrid‑casual studio Ritmo Games, giving him hands‑on experience in both design and business.
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 briefly moving to Loom Games as product manager in 2025. Peter Sydow joins Arrowhead Game Studios as head of production, after senior producer roles at Massive Entertainment and PlayerUnknown Productions.
Blizzard Entertainment promotes Ryan Ngoon to game designer. Ngoon started at Blizzard in 2023 as a quest design intern, progressed to associate game designer in 2024, and now contributes to larger design initiatives.
Epic Games adds Sarah Johnson as an art producer. Johnson’s background includes producer positions at Bungie, Secret Dimension, Hangar 13, and Telltale Games, giving her a broad perspective on art pipelines. Asmodee appoints Brian Trunk as senior vice president of Route to Market for the Americas.
Trunk has been a partner at Asmodee for over a decade and spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast in senior commercial and regional leadership roles. Rovio promotes Wille Miljas to director of product marketing. Miljas joined Rovio in 2024 as marketing lead, previously heading marketing at Good Shepherd Entertainment and Redhill Games, and serving as senior marketing manager for planning and strategy at Next Games. Behaviour Interactive names Jameson Durall senior design director on the upcoming title Blight: Survival.
Durall previously worked at Insomniac Games as an advanced senior game designer on Marvel’s Spider‑Man 2. Epic Games promotes Matt Dobill to director of applied AI, while also serving as senior counsel on technology and tools.
Unity adds Joe Gabriel as senior technical production manager for AndroidXR. Gabriel formerly led customer and developer success at Niantic Spatial and was senior developer relations manager at Niantic. King promotes Erik Meurk to senior software engineer. Meurk started as a Unity development intern in August 2023, became an associate software engineer in early 2024, and has since taken on increasingly complex engineering challenges.
Epic Games promotes Stéfanie Grandchamp‑Dubé to lead UX designer. Grandchamp‑Dubé joined Epic in 2023 as a senior UX designer after a similar role at Behaviour Interactive. Rebellion welcomes Jack Anderson as a VFX artist. Anderson previously held the same position at nDreams and Interior/Night, contributing to several high‑profile visual effects projects.
Blizzard Entertainment adds David Scarborough as senior manager of EMEA communications. Scarborough’s prior experience includes senior account director at Brands2Life and head of communications at Inflexion Games, as well as senior roles at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver. King appoints Esther Lopez as principal VFX artist. Lopez began at King in 2014 as a senior artist, rose to associate principal VFX artist in 2020, spent two years at Meta developing real‑time VR‑AR VFX, and now returns to King, describing the move as a rare privilege.
CD Projekt Red hires Magda Marcinkowska as production manager in marketing. Marcinkowska previously acted as publishing operations director at Techland.
Newzoo brings Linh Lai on board as accounting assistant after completing a six‑month internship. Lai says the experience helped her understand how individual accounting processes fit into the broader business and she looks forward to taking on more responsibility.
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. CD Projekt Red appoints Christopher Holtorf as senior quest designer.
Holtorf previously served as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios. 1Up Ventures welcomes Amir Satvat as a general partner. Satvat formerly was business development director at Tencent Games and founded the community‑focused resource Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC) to help job seekers in the industry. Lasse Seppänen announces his departure from Supercell after seven years, during which he progressed from producer to head of game production services and general manager of Supercell London.
He plans to launch his own studio in the UK in 2027. Take‑Two Interactive names Giles Derrington as director of global affairs UK, after previously heading public affairs for TikTok in the UK. Kepler Interactive promotes Jess Pearce to senior people partner. Pearce joined Kepler in 2022 as a people advisor and became a people partner in 2024.
PlaySimple Games promotes Shreya Godha to producer. Godha previously served as associate producer at the studio. Epic Games appoints Kelly Ekins as director of communications. Ekins came from Unity, where she was senior director of global PR for the Games and Made with Unity program, and before that she led marketing for media and entertainment at Unity after 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 following the merger of Bloodhouse and Terramarque.
He praised the studio’s independent run and noted that Sami "Haxu" Hakala has taken over as managing director. Tripledot Studios' Lion Studios names Tamara Feiman as CEO. Feiman began her career at Lion Studios in 2020 as EMEA business development lead, later becoming publishing general manager.
She emphasizes the collaborative spirit with partner studios that has driven Lion’s success. Sega of America hires Heather Sangria as community manager. Sangria previously worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and as digital strategy and community manager at Undead Labs.
Activision Blizzard promotes Emily Rose Chen to senior product manager for Call of Duty. Chen joined the company in 2020 as a financial analyst and later moved into product management. Activision Blizzard also promotes Scot McCarron to senior director of product management for Call of Duty.
McCarron has been with the company since 2018, initially serving as product marketing manager for emerging franchises before taking on broader product leadership responsibilities. These appointments, promotions, and departures illustrate the dynamic nature of talent movement within the video‑game industry, highlighting how experience across development, production, marketing, and technology continues to shape the sector’s evolution.