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Report: EA loses another social gaming head
by Eric Caoili [Social/Online, Business]
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January 27, 2012
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Electronic Arts' social games subsidiary Playfish has reportedly lost John Earner, its London headquarters' general manager and vice president, who is joining venture capital Accel Partners.
Earner's departure follows weeks after the resignation of Barry Cottle, another key executive at EA. Cottle led the publisher's EA Interactive mobile, social, and casual online group, which recently restructured as he left to join FarmVille/CityVille developer Zynga.
And last March, two of Playfish's co-founders, former CTO Sami Lababidi and EA Interactive VP Sebastien de Halleux (previously Playfish's COO), also left the company, though both continue to serve as consultants for EA.
When EA acquired Playfish for $300 million in late 2009, Earner was the vice president of product management at PlayFish, and helped build titles like Pet Society and Restaurant City, which are still two of Electronic Arts' most popular games on Facebook.
As he was promoted to general manager of the London studio, he oversaw development for FIFA Superstars and The Sims Social -- the latter of which is Electronic Arts' biggest title on Facebook, and has the fifth largest audience on the social network out of any game.
Earner is leaving Playfish today, and will take on an entrepreneur in residence role at Accel Partners, according to a report from TechCrunch.
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