30th May: Gaming VC Bitkraft has announced that it’s promoted Carlos Pereira to general partner – which means he can legally sign deals on behalf of the fund and also has a fiduciary duty to Bitkraft’s investors. Meanwhile Jonathan Huang (previously SEA Capital and Temasek) becomes a partner.
Finally, reinforcing its commitment to web3 gaming, Bitkraft has hired a former director of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas Matt Halstead as a venture partner for web3 investments.
Recent Bitkraft deals include Beamable, Party Icons, Madworld, Forge and Bazooka Tango (Shardbound). It was also an early investor into Immutable, YGG and Sequence.
22nd May: NFT marketplace OpenSea has hired its first global gaming ambassador, former professional Fortnite gamer Kyle Jackson, aka ‘Mongraal’.
In web3 gaming, Jackson made a name for himself by landing the no.1 spot in Yuga Labs’ Dookey Dash tournament at the start of 2023, grabbing the top Key NFT prize. This he later sold via OpenSea for 1,000 ETH, worth $1.63 million at the time.
“Partnering with OpenSea was a no-brainer. I used it every day during Dookey Dash. It’s my go-to marketplace for NFTs, and I genuinely believe it has the potential to bridge web3 and gaming in a way that makes sense,” Jackson said in a statement.
7th April: US dev Azra Games has hired Kris Davis as its chief business officer.
Davis was previously Sony’s co-head of mobile, and had also worked as COO at Capcom Mobile’s Beeline Interactive and VP bizdev at Kabam.
His role is to beef up Azra’s operations as it works towards the release of its mobile character collection RPG codenamed Project Legends, currently scheduled for October 2025.
28th March: The Blockchain Game Alliance has appointed Yasmina Kazitani as co-president, a role she will take on alongside co-president Sebastien Borget.
Prior to the appointment, Kazitani had been a BGA board member since 2023.
26th March: Web3 game platform Ultra has appointed Maxime van Steenberghe as its new COO. The move is part of the company’s strategic expansion plans, which kickstarted with the appointment of CEO Gus van Rijckevorsel in December 2024. In January 2025, Ultra also hired Adrien Moser as its new head of acquisitions.
Maxime joins Ultra from Circle Strategy, a consulting firm founded by Gus.
25th March: Kakao Games’ blockchain game subsidiary Metaborah has appointed co-CEOs Lim Young-jun and Choi Se-hoon.
As for Lim Young-jun, he joined Kakao Games in 2021 and has been in charge of the business expansion of its web3 platform BORA. As the company co-CEO, Lim will focus on in-house dev and business expansion. Previously working for NHN, from 2018 he was the head of business at Ground X, a blockchain tech company affiliated with Kakao.
Choi Se-hoon started at Daum Communications in 2005, a company that merged with Kakao in 2014, and he became the CFO of Kakao Games and its European branch in 2013. Based on this experience, as co-CEO Choi will oversee the overall management of Metaborah.
6th March: CCP Games has appointed Stefán Þórarinsson as its new head of economy. Bringing his expertise in macroeconomics, the former Central Bank of Iceland economist is set to further advance EVE Frontier‘s in-game economy and player-driven financial system.
Stefán succeeds former lead economist for CCP Games’ EVE Online Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson.
“Virtual economies are no longer just systems of play; they are living, evolving financial systems that demand serious study,” commented Stefán Þórarinsson.
In conjunction with the news, CCP Games is also introducing some updates in a quest to analyze key aspects of the EVE Frontier economy. In effect from today, these include
- Monetary policy and inflation to better understand market behavior in a fully player-driven world,
- Trade dynamics to explore fluctuations based on player and NPC interactions,
- Assets and currency flows, and their impact on in-game economic activity, and
- Data gathering on player decision-making, financial speculation, and economic adaptation.
“Stefán Þórarinsson’s appointment advances our goal toward building a truly open financial system within a virtual world,” said CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson.
27th February: Sam “Inevitable” Steffanina has joined web3 AI-driven UGC gaming platform Farcade as its new CMO. A prominent KOL in the industry, Steffanina is a member of the Wolves DAO as well as hosting his popular Gamified podcast.
Commenting on his new role on X, Steffanina said, “I believe Farcade is building something really really special. On top of that I think I’m the perfect person to make it the Zynga of this cycle.”
30th January: Former Neon Machine CEO Mark Long has been appointed the new CEO of Unio, effective immediately. Best known for its Unioverse franchise, Unio is spearheading what it calls a “franchise as a service model for gaming”. Previous Unio CEO Tony Harman will remain an active contributor to the company taking up a position on its advisory board.
Commenting on his new role, Long said, “Unio is the biggest web3 gaming project you’ve never heard of. Our (free!) AAA content and UGC tools are miles ahead of the competition. And our Unio coin is already poised to power Unio’s transactions, rewards, and governance.”
The news comes after Neon Machine, the studio behind Shrapnel, recently announced several leadership changes including replacing Long with Ken Rosman as new CEO.
17th January: Saga Origins has appointed Fernando Vasconez as new head of gaming investments and partnerships. Former senior director of business dev USA at Samsung, Vasconez has decades of experience from the technology and games industry, and more particularly in mobile gaming, web3, and mobile cloud. He’s also been working for Rovio.
5th December: Web3 game developer Metacade has onboarded blockchain expert Anndy Lian to its advisory team. Lian has previously been an advisor in government relations, and partnership chief at crypto exchange Bybit. He has also been part of Hyundai DAC’s advisory board.
Lian commented, “Gaming is my passion, and I truly believe it’s one of the best use cases for crypto. Metacade embodies the drive to innovate, leveraging the power of AI to push the boundaries of onchain gaming. My strategy is simple: community is power, and money can’t buy it.”
3rd October: Building up towards the launch of Nyan Heroes, 9 Lives Interactive has enhanced its team with three key hires:
- Justin Randall – ex-Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Firaxis, Lionhead, Origin Systems, and Ensemble Studios – joins the team as new engineering director,
- Esteban Barten – ex-Activision Blizzard, ANWB, and Bitstamp – is new global marketing director, and
- Asimakis Reppas – ex-CCP Games – onboards as new economy director.
9 Lives Interactive CEO Max Fu commented, “We are excited for Esteban, Justin, and Asimakis to join us in our pursuit of creating an immersive, IP-driven shooter that will capture the imagination of players across the globe.”
“Their combined expertise in engineering, economy, and marketing at some of the biggest names in gaming will be invaluable as we enter the next phase of Nyan Heroes’ development.”
4th September: Web3 game discovery platform Earn Alliance has appointed Jeff Drobick as its new COO. As the former president and CEO of mobile game company Tapjoy, Drobick brings his wealth of experience of gaming engagement services, which will help Earn Alliance in its mission to scale.
“Tapjoy is literally the inventor of rewarded advertising that the web3 industry calls ‘questing.’ We have expanded Tapjoy’s novel approach to user acquisition with blockchain technology, enabling a transparent, safe and secure reward ecosystem”, commented Earn Alliance CEO Joseph Cooper.
2nd September: Blockchain game developer Blackmouth Games has appointed the company’s ex-CSO Sergio Reyes to new CEO. Reyes has previous experience from gaming and esports including companies Startupxplore, Warner Bros, and more.
Former Blackmouth CEO Joaquin Valverde takes the role as executive founder.
19th July: Random Games’ web3 gaming franchise Unioverse has hired Star Citizen co-founder Eric Peterson as new CCO. As such he will take charge of the company’s creative direction and oversee the games being developed and released via its Unioverse UGC platform.
In addition to working with game designer Chris Roberts on Star Citizen, Peterson also has extensive experience from working on titles like Wing Commander, Starlancer, and Conquest: Frontier Wars.
9th July: Web3 gaming analytics startup Helika has filled three key positions.
- Jeff Holek – ex-Gala Games, Virtual Human, and Humi – is the company’s new head of product.
- Louis A. Etchian – former head of dev at Budgeto – has taken the role as head of engineering.
- Mike Kang – previous head of APAC at Metagravity, VP of Biz Dev, and APAC at Mythical Games – joins Helika as new head of Korea.
1st July: South Korean game developer Nexon has appointed Dominic Jang as new CBDO, Vice President of Nexpace Limited, the company’s web3 subsidiary working on MapleStory N and MapleStory Universe. Prior to the role, Jang was Head of BD at Japanese gaming blockchain Oasys.
“Even during my years at Oasys, I was blessed to bring along Nexon as a partner for Oasys, who contributed to the project as an investor, as a validator, and beyond. As I work with various layers of people at Nexon, I have always been fascinated by Nexon team. At any level, the team has constantly given me an impression that they have one of the best teams in the field and now I am highly honored to join as the essential part of the team and work for the great thing together,” commented Jang on X.
15th May: Animoca Brands has appointed Olivia Song as new head of business development for Mocaverse. Song joins the Animoca team after 4.5 years as business dev lead at Avalanche Korea.
20th February: Shortly ahead of the recent announcement of BAYC-creator Yuga Labs acquiring NFT collection Moonbirds, former head of gaming business development at Polygon, George Yousling, was appointed new head of gaming BD at Yuga.
1st February: Animoca Brands Japan has appointed Kensuke Amo as Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to Animoca Brands, Amo was working at Coincheck where he created the first NFT marketplace for crypto asset exchangers and the first IEO in Japan.
In 2022, the company appointed him Managing Executive Officer and put him in charge of its NFT and metaverse business. In addition, Amo has contributed to the expansion of Animoca partner games The Sandbox and Otherside in Japan.
26th January: Previously best known for his work on Xbox Live Arcade, Greg Canessa has been appointed president and COO of Sequence developer Horizon Blockchain Games.
Prior to onboarding Horizon, Canessa was global director at Google, were he led operational and marketing functions for the company’s cloud gaming ventures.
17th January 2024: Axie Infinity-developer Sky Mavis has appointed its first Chief Financial Officer, Ellen Gormley. With over two decades in financial leadership roles, Gormley will define the company’s financial strategy including fundraising and investments, governance and day to day finance.
Prior to joining Sky Mavis, Gormely most recently led the financial team at DeFi network Radix, and before that she was Group Financial Director at web3 infrastructure company Bitfury.
7th December: Game developer nWay has announced co-founder Taehoon Kim is stepping down as CEO after 12 years to take on a new advisory role at its parent company Animoca Brands.
In a post on X, Kim commented “As I transition away from my CEO role, I am confident in leaving nWay in the very capable hands of our senior leadership and the Animoca Brands team. They will collaborate closely to ensure nWay’s continued success, including the development of Wreck League and other new projects.”
30th November: Dubai-headquartered Farcana has announced Carlos Rodríguez is joining the team as an active advisor and board member. Rodriguez is the founder and former CEO of one of the biggest global eSports teams, G2 Esports.
28th November: The Telos blockchain has announced Justin Edwards as its new Head of Gaming. Edwards has previously been at Jagex (RuneScape), Lockwood (Avakin) and most recently COO of Decentraland.
As Telos’ Head of Gaming, Edward’s role will be to expand its newly built gaming ecosystem, and focus on innovative ways to integrate gaming with web3 and community.
17th October: The Sandbox has announced Nicola Sebastiani as its new chief content officer. He was previously head of games business development for Apple App Store and head of content at Apple Arcade and most recently head of mobile at PlayStation Studios.
In this role, Sebastiani will oversee game publishing and in-house game production for The Sandbox’s partners, including more than 250 agencies and studios within The Sandbox’s Partners Program and over 400 brand partners. He will also drive adoption for creator tools such as Game Maker for experiences and VoxEdit for in-game assets.
In conjunction, the company has announced two other appointments:
- Mathieu Nouzareth, formerly The Sandbox CEO of North America, has been promoted to chief business officer, and
- Amit Kumar, chief growth officer, will assume the role of chief marketing officer.
19th September: Azra Games has appointed Justin Jones as VP of product design for its hero collectible RPG Project Legends. Jones onboards the Azra team with 15 years of experience from designing RPG, collectible and strategy games including Dragon Age, Game of Thrones, and EA’s Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.
6th September 2023: Singapore-based web3 venture builder Decentralised Gaming Ventures (DGV) has announced two strategic hires for its web3 gaming expansion across southeast Asia — Joseph Young as new chief investment officer and Alvyn Ng as senior marketing manager.
Joining from VC firm Hashed, Young has experience of managing gaming companies and will be in charge of the acquisition of web3 game studios and lead fundraising rounds, as well as enriching the team with his wider web3 experience.
Ng joins from Garena, where he successfully ran campaigns for one of the biggest-grossing games in the region.
3rd August 2023: US game dev WAGMI Games — which is working on mobile TD game WAGMI Defense — has announced two key hires.
Esteban Gil was previously senior product manager at EA leading strategy and liveops for Apex Legends Mobile. He also worked on Garena Free Fire and is a co-founder of RetroSHFFL, a Mexican esports and streaming production team. At WAGMI, he will oversee business strategy development, with a focus on driving consumer-oriented products.
Also joining is Brent Pease, who was previously director of operations at EA. At WAGMI, he will take a combined COO/GM role, overseeing operations with a focus on implementing key growth strategies.
20th July 2023: Following an open submission process and the voting of members, the Blockchain Game Alliance has elected six new people to its board. They are:
- Leah Callon Butler, Director at Emfarsis
- Yasmina Kazitani, Chief Marketing & Partnerships Officer at Interverse
- Christina Macedo, Co-Founder, COO at Ready gg
- Hideaki Uehara, Director Of Business Development at Square Enix Ltd
- Mariano Rubinstein, CEO and Co-Founder at Sura Gaming
- Alex Kosloff, Head of Business Development at Altura
- 19th July 2023: MYSTiC Games, the game studio behind recently launched roguelike web3 title Call of the VoYd, has appointed a new chief marketing officer to its team, Vishal Pandey.
With a background consulting at Deloitte and McKinsey, Pandey brings his vast experience as a growth marketing and revenue specialist to the team.
“The future of gaming is to make it more player-led and to give players ownership of the games they love so much, and MYSTiC GAMES will be the studio to build that bridge between Web2 and Web3 gaming. I’m thrilled to be a part of a team leading the charge in making that happen”, comments Pandey.
- 14th July 2023: Pixelcraft, the developer behind the Gotchiverse gaming ecosystem, has announced that it has hired Andy Tudor as its new game director.
Tudor has previously worked at the likes of Electronic Arts, Slightly Mad, and PlayStation on games ranging from Need For Speed, Project Cars, 24: The Game and Test Drive.
- 7th July 2023: Swedish soccer game Goals has added two new board members. Ebba Ljungerud was previously CEO at PC gaming publisher Paradox, while Oskar Gabrielsson was CEO at EA’s internal studio DICE.
He joins from Polygon where he helped build out the Polygon Labs teams as well as working at Polygon Ventures. Prior to this, Bryson-Haynes worked at blockchain consultancy firm DigitalX and in investment banking.
Currently Merit Circle is building its Beam gaming infrastructure on Avalanche, working with a small number of games such as Trial Xtreme.
- 20th June 2023: Previously COO of web3 gaming infrastructure provider Stardust, Atif Khan has been hired by web3 infrastructure provider Thirdweb as its new veep of gaming.
The rising comes as Thirdweb launches a division specifically to focus on servicing game developers, which Khan will lead. Prior to Stardust, he was head of mid-market & in-app ads for global gaming at Meta.
Thirdweb raised $24 million on a $160 million valuation in August 2022, with VCs including Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Shopify.
- 4th May 2023: Previously game product lead at Sky Mavis for Axie Infinity and before that Pokémon GO product manager at Niantic, Philip La has joined US studio Roboto Games as director of product.
Roboto Games is currently working on Foragers and Fighters, a “bite-size survival/crafting MMO”. It raised $15 million in funding in November 2022 from the likes of a16z crypto, Animoca Brands, Makers Fund and Merit Circle.
- 28th April 2023: Yuga Labs has hired Mike Seavers as its new CTO, replacing Kerem Atalay, who will remain with the company as a close strategic advisor. Seavers will start work on 22nd May.
Since 2021, Seavers was EVP of Development at Epic Games, where he led the development teams behind Unreal Engine, Fortnite and the Epic Games Store. Prior to Epic, Seavers was CTO at Riot Games, supporting League of Legends, Valorant, and Legends of Runeterra.
“There have been rare moments over my career where I felt like a new technology was creating a true paradigm shift for the world,” said Seavers. “I recognize that web3 is one of those moments, and I am absolutely thrilled to join Yuga Labs to help usher in a new era of the internet that impacts the world for the better.”
- 24th April 2023: AlterVerse Inc has hired game designer Rafal Nowocien. Previously he worked at CD Projekt Red on titles such as The Witcher, although over his career Nowocien has worked on over 70 games.
For the AlterVerse MMOG, he will be working on everything from game mechanics and item/weapon economies to player progression and designing in-game quests.
AlterVerse is currently working on releasing its F2P Sky City central hub with a closed beta expected soon.
It’s hired Jin Oh as a partner. Oh is the former president of worldwide publishing Riot Games, as well as CEO of Garena and MD of Blizzard. He’s worked on titles ranging from Starcraft and WoW to Free Fire and Valorant.
Jonathan Huang joins as a principle. Based in Singapore, Huang previously worked on investments at Sea Capital and Temasek.
Bitkraft has also promoted founding team member Jasper Brand to partner. He recently worked on deals such as Frost Giant Studios, Inworld AI, and Theorycraft Games. Meanwhile Justin Swart is promoted to principal. He works on Bitkraft’s web3 team, with a particular interest on Africa, and led the recent deal with Carry1st.
- 12th April 2023: Sky Mavis’ veep, products (games) Philip La has announced his departure on Twitter. He joined the Axie Infinity developer in March 2022 from Pokemon GO developer Niantic Labs.
No reason was provided for La’s decision but the Sky Mavis community has been fulsome in its praise for his work on Axie Infinity: Origins and other titles, including the Builders Program.
La hasn’t said what he will doing next, other than to state he’ll be “taking some time-off to decompress before starting at my new gig”. You can follow him on Twitter and Substack.
- 3rd April 2023: Yuga Labs’ new CEO Daniel Alegre has finally joined after serving out his notice period as chief operating officer at Activision Blizzard. His appointment was first announced in December 2022.
“As a lifelong gamer, I truly believe the game industry is going to be transformed by placing ownership in the hands of players. There are already massive vibrant markets around in-game items in games like Counter-Strike, and web3 technology is the perfect solution to enable game asset ownership in a scalable and connected way across an enormous universe of games and player communities,” Akhavan commented.