M&A, Investments and Exec Appointments
Scopely has acquired a majority stake in Istanbul-based Pixel Flow developer Loom Games just months after it launched its debut title, in a deal which values the company in excess of $1bn.
Daniel Svärd has been appointed as the new COO at Rovio Entertainment, bringing experience from roles at DREST, King and Betfair.
Asha Sharma, formerly COO at Instacart and a VP at Meta, has been named EVP and CEO of Microsoft Gaming. She will be taking over from Phil Spencer who will be retiring after 38 years with Microsoft. Additionally, Matt Booty is being promoted from his previous role as President, Game Content Studios to EVP and Chief Content Officer, while Xbox President and COO Sarah Bond also leaves the company.
Nexon has created a new role, Executive Chairman, which will be filled by Patrick Söerlund, in addition to his current role as CEO of Embark Studios.
According to reporting from Reuters, Chinese tech giant and TikTok owner ByteDance is in advanced negotiations to sell Mobile Legends: Bang Bang developer Moonton to Savvy Games Group in a deal valued between $6bn and $7bn.
Krafton has announced the appointment of their head of Krafton AI, Kangwook Lee, to a new role as Chief AI Officer.
Former Zynga president of publishing and Match Group CEO Bernard Kim has joined Unity’s Board of Directors as an Independent Director. This comes as former Unity CEO and founder David Helgason leaves the board, having stepped down as CEO in 2014.
Ayush Singh has been promoted within Homa from GM & Senior VP, Product and Analytics to Chief Product Officer and Group GM – RPG.
John Rosenblatt has joined Supercell as VP of Global Marketing for Clash of Clans. He was previously Publishing Director EMEA for Amazon Games for almost four years.
Harriet Hughes has been hired as Portfolio Director at Team17, following roles at Thunderful Group, Playstack and Royal Caribbean International.
Bryan Brandt has taken on the role of Vice President, General Manager at Scopely, following more than five years at Kabam.
Outfit7 has appointed Artem Kadykov as the new VP of Marketing.
Moving up from Director of Player Services, Damian Finan has been announced as the new Vice President of Player Services & VIP at Huuuge Games.
Emily Wang is now a Partner, CFO and COO at Griffin Gaming Partners, after two years as a partner and COO.
Former Co-Founder and CTO at Ready Player Me, Rainer Selvet, has recently been appointed as Director, Games Engineering at Netflix.
Industry News
Unity’s shares closed at $18.36 on February 17th, bringing them close to an all-time low and marking a 59% decline since the start of 2026. The company’s stock is now down 91% from its November 2021 peak of $201.12, with recent pressure linked to investor concerns around Google’s Project Genie and Unity’s latest financial results.
Roblox generated nearly $4.9bn in revenue in 2025, up 36% year-on-year, while bookings rose 55% to $6.8bn. The company said titles including Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot helped drive record engagement and spending across the platform, with creators collectively earning more than $1.5bn over the year.
Gryphline’s gacha RPG Arknights: Endfield has generated $46m in its first month on mobile, with its most lucrative day generating spend of $4.2m.
According to Adjust’s Annual Mobile App Trends 2026 report, app installs increased 10% in 2025, session duration increased by 7%. This growth was led by casual games with 19% increase in installs, and 37% increase in sessions.
AppLovin saw their share value drop 40% this year, despite strong financial results, including 2025 Q4 results being up 66% year-on-year to $1.66bn.
Sega’s operating income is down 55% to $129.3m as it takes a $200m impairment loss on Rovio Entertainment.
Hiring Trends
Scopely’s recent investment into Loom Games – valuing the company at $1bn – is a welcome good news story amidst a lot of negative sentiment in the industry.
It shows that talented teams can still do great things even in a market that is less forgiving than it ever has been.
It’s tempting if you read your LinkedIn feed to think that the mobile games industry is in a bad state as candidates understandably vent about layoffs and the challenges of finding work.
It’s worth remembering that we’re in a market where a lot of new and established mobile games companies are quietly growing, and an exciting new generation of mobile games companies are emerging.
Our mobile games growing companies report gives a useful overview of the fastest growing early-stage mobile games companies in Europe.
No Latency
No Latency provides long form analysis of the systems and strategies underpinning the games and broader technology ecosystem;
See also
Mobile Games Intelligence: September 2025
Interview with Miniclip President and Founder Rob Small
Interview with Joe Burridge, Head of Talent for Play Ventures
About Neon River
Neon River is a boutique executive search firm that helps technology and digital companies hire exceptional leadership talent. We work across VC-backed scaleups, PE-owned businesses, and global tech companies, bringing deep sector expertise, high-touch service, and a track record of delivering outstanding candidates quickly and effectively.