Ins and Outs – May 2020’s industry hires roundup

Here are the highlights from the recent industry hires and moves, as published in MCV/DEVELOP’s May issue.

Astrid Johnson has left Rock Paper Shotgun’s video team to rejoin the freelance life. Johnson spent nine months as a video producer, having joined the team in July last year.

Alice Liguori is also leaving Rock Paper Shotgun, and has joined VG247 as a video producer. Ligouri has been a producer at RPS since September 2018, having joined the team following spending two years at PCGamesN. Also known as Grimsevers, Liguori is continuing to run her personal Twitch channel.

Replacing Johnson as video producer is Colm Ahern, who joins the RPS team after departing Videogamer.com in October last year, where he was editor. Speaking to MCV/DEVELOP, Ahern remarked: “I’m delighted to be joining Rock Paper Shotgun. Whilst history will prove his dislike of Sonic the Hedgehog is misplaced, Matthew Castle is one of the industry’s best, I’m looking forward to working with him for many years to come.”

Edge editor Nathan Brown is stepping down after ten years on the brand and five years in charge. Brown is embarking on a freelance career, within the games industry, and will be both writing and consulting. Tony Mott, editorial director of games at Future, praised Brown’s tenure in charge: “Nathan has produced some of the best issues of Edge in its 26-year history, and we’re proud of everything he’s achieved over the past
five years.”

Stepping into Brown’s shoes as editor is former deputy editor Jen Simpkins. Simpkins, the MCV Women in Games Awards 2018 Journalist of the Year, told us: “I am delighted to have this opportunity on the magazine I love so much, and at such an exciting time for the industry.”

Also at Edge, Chris Burke joins the magazine as associate editor, having previously written for the recently-shuttered Official Xbox Magazine and Loaded, among others.

Aaron Kornblum, former general counsel at Bungie and 14-year Microsoft legal team alum, has joined Improbable as general counsel. He will lead Improbable’s international legal team, reporting to Improbable CEO Herman Narula. Kornblum will be based out of Improbable’s London headquarters

Games developer and publisher Double Eleven have appointed Ian Ng as studio head of Double Eleven’s new Malaysian studio. The appointment coincides with the official opening of the company’s studio in Kuala Lumpur. Ng has held positions at Tap4fun, Ubisoft Singapore and LucasArts and is credited on over 20 titles spanning from mobile games to triple-A console games, including the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

 

 

 

 

 

Jagex has further strengthened the studio’s development team by hiring three new executive producers. First, Jesse America has been appointed executive producer of an unannounced online action role-playing game. America joins Jagex from Activision Blizzard King, where he held senior production roles working across the Candy Crush Saga Franchise and Call of Duty Mobile.

Second, Mario Rizzo  has joined Jagex as executive producer of an unannounced massively multiplayer RPG. Rizzo has been developing such titles for 17 years, having begun his career working at Sony as a producer on the EverQuest series & Star Wars Galaxies.

 

 

Finally, Jendrik Posche joins as technical executive producer with over three decades of experience in technology and production. In his new role, Posche will be working across the entire Jagex studio.

The Multiplayer Guys have added four new people to the team. First, Fabio Montagna  joins as creative director. Montagna spent seven months as director of product at The Business of Fashion, after working as head of product planning for PlayStation.

 

Additionally, Sergii Chornenkyi  joins the team as lead software engineer, having previously worked at Innovecs and EPAM Systems.

 

Matthew Casey joins the team as a senior software engineer. Casey was most recently a software development engineer for Amazon Web Services.

 

Finally, Steve Bedford also joins the team as a senior software engineer. “We’re really happy to welcome our three new engineers Steve, Matt and Sergii, and Fabio as creative director” said the Multiplayer Guys in a statement. “Luckily many of us work remotely anyway, so MPG can continue to operate business as usual.”