Disney adds Blizzard and Ubisoft veterans to its games leadership team

Disney Games has expanded its leadership team with the appointment of former Blizzard and Ubisoft veterans.

It has also promoted a number of long-serving gaming executives, including boss Sean Shoptaw.

The strengthening of the team follows February’s announcement that Disney has partnered with Epic to build a new games and entertainment universe connected to Fortnite.

Ray Gresko, formerly chief development officer at World of Warcraft studio Blizzard, has joined Disney Games in the new role of senior vice president of product and development.

He’ll work closely with the Epic team developing the new universe, which will let users “play, watch, shop and engage” with content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Avatar.

During his time at Blizzard, Gresko co-led the development of Overwatch and Diablo 3, and created the initial playable prototype for Hearthstone.

He also previously worked at LucasArts, where he served as lead programmer on titles including Star Wars: Dark Forces and Star Wars: Jedi Knight – Dark Forces II.

Bjorn Tornqvist has joined Disney Games as vice president, technology, having previously spent nearly 20 years in technical leadership roles at Ubisoft and its Swedish studio Massive.

During this time, “he led global teams on innovations like Ubisoft’s Scalar technology, as well as the seamless multiplayer interactions in The Division”, and “pioneered streaming and multiplayer technologies with Just Dance Now, where he also served as Creative Director”.

After nearly a decade running the Marvel Games team, Jay Ong will now lead Disney’s global games licensing business across all franchises, with Haluk Mentes stepping up to succeed him as the head of Marvel Games.

Gresko, Tornqvist and Ong will report directly to Disney’s head of gaming, Sean Shoptaw, who has been promoted to executive vice president.

“Under the leadership of Sean and Jay, Disney’s games business is perfectly positioned to deliver world-class storytelling in this medium,” said Disney consumer products president Tasia Filippatos.

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“We’re grateful to every member of the Disney Games team who has contributed to our success, and who will help shape the future of this industry through genre-defining entertainment.”

Disney’s partnership with Epic was announced alongside the news that the company was investing $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in the Fortnite maker.