Blizzard, Bungie, Epic, Xbox and More See New Leadership Moves

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A fresh round of games industry moves includes changes at Epic Games, Bungie, Xbox, Supermassive Games, Neowiz, and several other studios and publishers.

The biggest shift is Martin Keely leaving Blizzard Entertainment for Epic Games, where he’s now vice president and general manager of the Epic Games Store and Online Services. Keely spent more than seven years at Blizzard, most recently as SVP of Battle.net.

  • Joe Ziegler has left Bungie four months after the launch of Marathon. Del Chafe III is taking over as game director, working alongside creative director Julia Nardin.
  • Jared Palmer has left Xbox after serving as VP of engineering and has joined Cognition AI to lead engineering.
  • Nicholas Penwarden has departed Epic Games after 15 years. He was an engineering fellow and VP of engineering, with past roles tied closely to Unreal Engine.
  • Robert Henrysson is stepping down as CEO of Supermassive Games and as a partner at Nordisk Games.
  • Alexis Bonte will leave his role as CEO of Stillfront. He became CEO in October 2024 after joining the company in 2017 as group COO.
  • Chris Chung has joined Neowiz as head of its global business group. Chung was previously chief product officer at Wargaming and held senior roles at NCSoft.
  • Neil McClarty, formerly SVP of publishing at Jagex, has launched Kritiq, an advisory company focused on live-service games.
  • Tracey Johnson has been appointed chair of trustees for The British Games Institute, the charity behind the National Videogame Museum.

There were also several communications, production, and business-side appointments. Jonnie Bryant has joined Team17 as communications director after working as global PR director at Bethesda Softworks. Dylan Beale is now studio head of Larian’s Guildford studio. Cedrick Collomb, formerly CTO at Tencent Games Global and Electronic Arts, has joined Liquidnitro Games as CTO.

Nina Brown has also left her role as president of GDC Festival of Gaming. A GDC spokesperson told GamesBeat the team plans to continue building on the festival’s recent relaunch.