NewsCorp appoints games boss
Sean Ryan is new EVP and GM of Murdoch's production unit
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has hired Sean Ryan as the executive vice-president and general manager of its Digital Games division.
While no concrete plans have been revealed, the new unit is to focus on social and mobile games, following NewsCorp's acquisition of Spymaster developer Irata Labs in May. The San Francisco studio currently boasts just three staff, though this is likely to increase as Ryan builds the new division.
Ryan will report to IGN boss Roy Bahat, though the games media and games production units will operate independently of each other.
Prior to NewsCorp, Ryan was a roaming industry consultant, having previously been CEO of online avatar firm Meez, as well as formerly heading up Rhapsody (formerly Listen.com) and LiveJournal.
While this is its first foray into the social networking games goldrush, NewsCorp has a history of dabbling in online trends, having picked up (and reinvented) the likes of MySpace and IGN in recent years.