There’s been a big shakeup at the head of Sony’s mobile gaming division, with vice president Nicola Sebastiani stepping down from the role to pursue “a new, undisclosed opportunity.” In its place are heavyweights from Meta and Kabam as co-heads.
Sebastiani, who was brought under the Sony umbrella in 2021 along with developer Savage Game Studios, had about eight years of experience at Apple and was a key figure in Sony’s drive for the future of the mobile gaming market. Mobilegamer.biz confirmed that the reason for their departure remains a mystery.
But with Sebastiani gone, who is his replacement? The first is Olivier Kurtmanche. Before taking on this new role, he was a Product Manager at Meta, specifically Head of Content for their Horizon social platform. That means bringing music, sports and streaming experiences into Meta’s VR virtual world. Prior to that, they also worked at Zynga for 6 years, mostly as product directors.
Jumping ship as co-head of Sony is Chris Davis. No, not a pianist. This Kris Davis worked at PlayStation for over a year as Head of Mobile BD before stepping up to a new co-lead role following Sebastiani’s departure. Before Sony, Davis spent nearly eight years at Kabam.
For those unfamiliar with the world of mobile gaming, Kabam is responsible for a slew of popular mobile titles, including Transformers: Forged Battle, Marvel: Contest of Champions, Star Wars: Rise, and more. It has been a very important developer in the mobile space for some time.
So while Sebastiani obviously leaves some big shoes to fill when he heads off to his new venture, you have a new pair with a chunky CV capable of fitting your foot in a big shoe. Together they need to try to build PlayStation in the mobile space. Right now, all the company really has is Remote Play, a feature that requires you to own a PlayStation console and lets you stream select games to your mobile device. However, not many are tailor-made for mobile platforms!
What do you think of this new change in the leadership of Sony’s mobile gaming division? Do you think this duo will do well? And what about Sony’s mobile plans? Let us know what you think below!
