Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s mobile and social games division saw the exit of yet more of the company’s top minds: Tim LeTourneau and Steve Parkis. Both are leaving the game maker to join Dragon Story developer Storm8, a game developer seen as the next big thing in the time ahead.
Similar roles at Storm8
Tim LeTourneau will be the new chief creative officer, and Steve Parkis will be the president of games at Storm8. At Zynga also, LeTourneau and Parkis held similar positions supervising the development of the Farmville and Zynga Poker franchises.
At present, Storm8 has a player base of 400 million active players, and LeTourneau and Parkis are being brought in the company to expand the number of players even beyond in the $21 billion mobile-gaming industry. Before working with Zynga, LeTourneau worked at Electronic Arts for almost two decades, while Parkis worked initially for Disney.
Storm8 aims for largest mobile games network
Storm8 chief executive Perry Tam said, “Since our founding nearly six years ago, our goal has been to build the largest mobile-games network by delivering the highest-quality mobile gaming experiences to players around the world.”
Tam added that the expansion of the executive team shows their commitment to this mission and also enhances the performance of Storm8. The CEO further said that Tim’s and Steve’s combined creativity and operational leadership will offer the skills required for enhancing Storm 8.
LeTourneau said that he loves creating and launching games even after 20 years in the business. He added that his new company brings a great opportunity for him to join “a leader in the mobile market with a differentiated network focus and diversified gaming portfolio.”
Parkis said that he is happy to share Storm8’s spirit of fun and commitment to give an extraordinary gaming experience across a broad network of users.
Unending woes for Zynga
Other Zynga employees have also left the social game maker to join Storm8. Just a year ago, the company hired Zynga Inc’s chief strategy officer, Terence Fung, after his departure from the FarmVille developer.
Zynga is one of the pioneers in developing social games, but recently the company has been struggling to expand into the mobile platform. FarmVille from Zynga was a rave on Facebook, but it failed to allure players into its mobile version for smartphones and tablets. Zynga’s gloomy prospects have encouraged some top notch executives to leave the company.
