Former Facebook director joins Gaikai

Cloud gaming service Gaikai has announced its first senior management appointment will be Michael Bowen, the former director of technical operations for Facebook.

Bowen will join the company as VP of operations, taking responsibility for managing the worldwide, server-based technology as it is readied for a 2010 launch.

He has worked with Facebook since 2008, prior to which he spent five years at Sony Online Entertainment overseeing the launch of over 20 MMO titles.

"Gaikai has a lot of interesting challenges to overcome, very advanced video compression, highly optimised servers, low latency proximity network design etc. We've been searching the world for key experts, Michael has the perfect combination of game knowledge from Sony Online and massive scaling knowledge from Facebook, we're very excited to have him join our team,” said CEO David Perry.

"Gaikai has one of the most innovative services on the Web I’ve seen and I'm excited as well as honored to join the team," added Bowen, "I'm looking forward to playing a part in the next big gaming revolution."

Gaikai is currently running a closed beta in Europe ahead of an expected worldwide release this year.

The company was last month reported to have raised investment funding of $5 million.

GamesIndustry.biz also understands that former Sony Online Entertainment director of service architecture Colin Dupre has also joined the company.