M&A, Investments and Exec Appointments
Electronic Arts (EA) will be taken private in a $55bnall-cash buyout by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) alongside Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. The group will acquire 100% of EA’s shares, with PIF rolling over its current 9.9% holding into the deal.
Blizzard Entertainment has appointed Walter Kong, former General Manager of Overwatch, as its new SVP and Head of Live Games/Mobile.
Robloxhas appointed Vlad Loktev as Chief Creator Ecosystem Officer of its Creator division. Loktev is a former Partner at Index Ventures and GM and VP Product at AirBnB.
Embracer Group has appointed a new board of directors for the Coffee Stain Group, including Jacob Jonmyren as Chair, Anton Westbergh as CEO, Sara Börsvik, Henrik Tjärnström, Kicki Wallje-Lund and Embracer co-founder Lars Wingefors as board members.
Wizards of the Coast hires a new Studio Head and Game Director, Michael de Plater, bringing his experience from EA, Warner Brothers Games and Ubisoft, to name a few.
Kids learning app developer Lingokids has raised $120m to accelerate its growth while investing in AI to scale quality. The investment was led by spearheaded by Bullhound Capital and General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund.
Supercell made two high-level hires recently. Sabrina Carmona moved from over three years as General Manager, Farm Heroes Saga at King to take over as General Manager, Clash of Clans. Also, Ishai Smadja has been appointed as Head of Business and Operations following two years as General Manager at Moon Active.
Relax Gaming has appointed Antonia Svensson as its new Chief Commercial Officer. Svensson previously served as CCO at Yggdrasil Gaming before moving to Light & Wonder as General Manager for Malta.
Appcharge, a Tel Aviv-based payment platform provider for mobile game publishers, has made two changes to its financial management team: Nadav Hollander steps up to CFO following over two and a half years as VP of Finance, and Paul Bowen joins as CRO from StreamElements, where he has also been CRO for three years.
Industry News
Mobile game advertising software developer AppLovin’s shares have surged after its inclusion in the S&P 500. In July, the company sold its mobile games business to Tripledot for $400 million in cash plus a 20% equity stake.
Roblox reached a record peak of 4m concurrent users In August, a 45% increase from July’s 32.7 million, driven largely by the breakout success of Steal a Brainrot and Grow a Garden, which have both drawn massive player engagement.
Epic Games, creator of Fortnite, has announced the launch of its new content marketplace Fab, which will open directly into the Epic Games Launcher, streamlining downloading and management of games libraries for users.
According to Newzoo, the global games market is expected to grow 3.4%year on year to $188.8bn in 2025. The global player base is projected to reach 3.58 billion, representing over 60% of the online population, though growth is slowing as the market matures. Mobile leads with 3 billion players (83%), followed by PC with 936 million (26%) and console gaming with 645 million (18%).
Apple has released a new Games app as part of software updates across all devices with iOS 26. This long-requested feature provides users a central hub for gaming across their Apple devices.
Merge Mansion, and its developer Metacore are both celebrating their five-year anniversaries. Merge Mansion has been downloaded 60m times, and earned $700m in revenue.
Hiring Trends
The transition from hyper to hybrid casual games with more emphasis on IAP based monetization is natural but also far from straightforward. Hiring the right product and game design leaders to make this transition is only part of the battle; the cultural shift to longer development cycles, bigger teams and deeper games is significant.
The real question is whether these games will be given the time and investment to succeed in a crowded market. New titles take longer to generate ROI, and when pressure mounts, it’s tempting for companies to stick with what they know best.
See also
Mobile Games Intelligence: August 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.