Recruitment

Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada and Little King's Story creator Yoshiro Kimura have both left Grasshopper Manufacture after less than a year working with the No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw developer. Wada was Grasshopper's chief operating officer, while Kimura was the company's chief creative officer. Neither has yet commented on the reasons behind their decision to leave.

Last October, Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada and Yoshiro Kimura, the brain behind Little King's Story, left Marvelous Entertainment and joined Goichi Suda's studio Grasshopper Manufacture. Now, Siliconera reports that both men quit Grasshopper last month, without having released a single game.

MCV reports that Fergal Gera, former head of entertainment at UK supermarket Asda, has been appointed SCE UK's managing director and vice-president of SCEE. He replaces Ray Maguire, who left Sony after 17 years of service in April.

Ryan Payton, one of Halo 4’s creative directors, has left Microsoft's 343 Industries to establish his own development studio, Camouflaj. Having previously served as a producer on Metal Gear Solid 4, Payton joined Microsoft to help create the new Halo trilogy, focusing largely on story and developing the fictional universe with franchise director Frank O'Connor. "I had a great run at Microsoft," Payton told Kotaku. "I don't regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn't creatively excited about the project anymore. The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don't think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavour through." He added: "I think time is the most valuable thing we have and I've decided that I'm not going to waste one more day working on something that doesn't speak to my values.” Payton is currently working on two unannounced titles of his own. "Some people say I'm crazy, but I want to make a game that one billion people play at once, and it's something that hits them harder than a great book or film.”

Reuters reports that Sony has appointed Philip Reitinger, formerly director of the US national cyber security center, as its chief information security officer. Kaz Hirai announced the new position in May, in the aftermath of the attack on PSN that resulted in the personal details of over 100 million users being compromised. While Hirai said at the time that the incumbent would report directly to chief information officer Shinji Hasejima, instead Reitinger is to report to general counsel Nicole Seligman.

The publisher has promoted former VP of business and legal affairs Clinton Foy to chief operating officer, and charged him with leading its continued expansion into mobile and social games. President and CEO Mike Fischer told Gamasutra: "One of the key new responsibilites of the COO role will be to shape and drive more aggressive business development initiatives in free-to-play, social, mobile, browser and emerging platforms. Clinton’s valuable experience makes him uniquely qualified to lead our organisation in these important areas." Square Enix will hold a 30-minute presentation on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show which will focus exclusively on its efforts in the social and mobile sectors.

Square Enix plans to grow the staff count at Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Thief 4 developer Eidos Montreal from 330 to 680 over the next three years, La Presse Affaires reported Thursday (via Montreal Gazette). It said the publisher intends to add 100 new employees by the end of 2012 and the remainder by 2015, making it the city’s third largest studio behind Ubisoft Montreal and Electronic Arts Montreal. Following negotiations with the Quebec government, Square Enix has reportedly been assured a $2 million subsidy from Investissement Québec to facilitate the growth. The news comes a week after the publisher launched the critically acclaimed Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which debuted atop the UK all formats chart on Tuesday.

Google has confirmed plans to close social game and apps developer Slide. Acquired for around $200 million a little over a year ago as part of what was then speculated to be wider efforts to build Facebook rival Google+, the studio was formed in 2005 by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, who is to leave Google. Slide-created apps and games like SuperPoke! Pets, Top Fish and Photovine, the last of which was only released last week, will reportedly be retired over the coming months. “Max has decided to leave Slide and Google to pursue other opportunities, and we wish him the best,” a Google spokesperson told AllThingsD. “Most of the team from Slide will remain at Google to work on other opportunities.”

Andrew Stalbow, previously senior vice president of mobile at Fox Digital Entertainment, has joined the Angry Birds developer as general manager of its North American division. Stalbow has worked with the firm before, on the movie tie-in Angry Birds Rio, and said: "I saw first-hand the power of the Angry Birds brand during the collaboration…I'm looking forward to helping grow Rovio's business and the franchise by building partnerships with the entertainment industry, the biggest consumer brands and the latest digital distribution platforms."

Atari has appointed a number of new executives as it continues to expand into the mobile and social gaming arenas, hiring Robert Mattes as chief financial officer, Owais Farooqui as senior VP of digital publishing, and Maria Pacheco as VP of mobile. Offering 20 years of senior level financial management experience and “in depth experience from various online and micro-transaction business models”, Mattes will be responsible for Atari's finance, accounting, IT and various administrative functions. Farooqui, who joins from tournament games company King.com, and Pacheco, who most recently served as vice president of marketing for Vivendi Games Mobile, will be “charged with developing and executing a cohesive mobile, social and online strategy for the company designed to best leverage Atari’s legendary gaming franchises for a new generation of gamers across online, smartphones and tablets”. Atari CEO Jim Wilson said: “As we continue to evolve our business, Owais and Maria will be instrumental in helping us build the digital vision and strategy for the overall Atari brand. Robert is accomplished financial executive who brings a significant background to address our continued expansion into emerging platforms. His financial transaction experience will also be important as Atari continues to grow.”

TechCrunch reports that Jeremy Verba, a general manager at social gaming titan Zynga, has left the company, and been appointed CEO of dating site Eharmony. Verba, who has also joined Eharmony's board of directors, had been with Zynga since December 2009, and was a founding general manager of Treasure Isle, which was launched in April 2010 and drew 4.3 million users in its first week. At Eharmony he will replace Gregory Waldorf, who resigned earlier this year after five years at the helm of the matchmaking service.

The publisher has announced a new structure that will see Frank Gibeau, formerly EA Games president, become president of EA Labels, which contains EA Sports, EA Games, EA Play, and Mass Effect developer BioWare. Barry Cottle is to head up EA Interactive, but the biggest mover is Peter Moore, who has been promoted to chief operating officer. Writing on the company's website, CEO John Riccitiello said: "I think it's a great reflection on EA that we are able to tap so much world-class leadership from within our own ranks. The depth of talent and leadership in this company is inspiring."

Silpheed, Gungriffon and Grandia designer Takeshi Miyaji, who founded Gamearts with his brother when he was just 19, has died at the age of 45. G-Mode, the company he founded in 2000, announced that its CEO passed away on July 29 and that Ryu Okoriyama, former CEO of Gaia Holdings, will take his place.

Disney Interactive has announced that Bill Roper, former VP of Blizzard North and CCO of Cryptic Studios, has been appointed as vice president of the Marvel franchise. Alex Seropian, Disney's senior vice president and general manager, said: "We are pleased to have Bill join our team. With 17 years of experience in the worldwide gaming industry, we are confident that Bill has the creative vision necessary to help guide the next wave of development and product for Disney Interactive's Marvel Games."