Kristian-Segerstrale
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EA's Digital EVP and Playfish co-founder departs
Kristian Segerstrale has left Electronic Arts, where he served as the head of the EA Digital team and was responsible for overseeing most of EA's games-as-services, including Sim City Social. Segerstrale had joined the company as a co-founder of Playfish, which EA picked up about four years ago for $300 million. The division has been leaking executives, with two of Playfish's other co-founders leaving last year.With Segerstrale's departure, EA Digital will be transferred under the direction of good old Peter Moore, who will now oversee all of EA's revenue groups, including Global Publishing, Global Media Solutions, Worldwide Customer Experience, and Mobile and Social Publishing. That's a lot of responsibility already, but you know Peter – he can always do Moore.
Playfish: Tougher for start-ups to get hold in Facebook
If you, like us, are in the development stages of a cross-generational, cross-media Facebook game that combines user photos, restaurant reviews and adorable animals then back off or we'll sue you. But we'd also caution you to heed the warnings of Kristian Segerstrale, who runs EA-owned social developer Playfish. He says that it's difficult for new games to have the kind of explosive growth they enjoyed when Facebook first got into games. The blame can largely be laid at the feet of Facebook policy changes that prohibit games from pushing status updates to the walls of non-players, making advertising and recognizable brands more important than ever. "Companies without franchises will be in an increasingly precarious position," Segerstrale told Develop. "If on the one hand you have Harry Potter and on the other you have 'The Wizard Adventure,' consumers will choose the one they recognise." ... Great, now Playfish has stolen our game's name. You can all expect to hear from our lawyers.
