Former ID@Xbox director joins Thunderful as strategy and investment boss

Thunderful Group has hired former ID@Xbox director Agostino Simonetta to head up its gaming division.

Simonetta will start work as the chief strategy and investment officer for the Swedish company’s games business on July 1.

In the past 12 months, Thunderful has acquired UK-based studio Coatsink, German game publisher and developer Headup, developer Station Interactive (which has contributed to the LittleBigPlanet series), and Swedish studio Guru Games. It is also the owner of publisher Rising Star Games.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 2014, where he worked as director of global partnership management for ID@Xbox, Simonetta spent five years at PlayStation Europe as senior development account manager, and four years at Sega Europe as executive producer.

“It has been a pleasure and an honour to work with the ID@Xbox team, collaborating as part of the leadership group there and supporting developers all over the world in both pursuing and achieving their dreams,” said Simonetta.

“For me, Thunderful represents an opportunity to take all the experience I’ve amassed over the last 20 years and plug it into a publisher that has developers and their goals at their heart. Thunderful is also a great opportunity for me to continue to both help and support independent developers all over the world.”

Thunderful CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson commented: “We are game developers at heart, and we went into publishing with a vision of making sure we always put the wants and needs of game developers at the centre of what we do. That runs right through our own games, the studios we’ve acquired, and the appointments we’ve made in the business.

“I’ve known Ago for a long time. He’s known throughout the industry and has those vital connections with the kind of talented studios we want to work with. Bringing him on board says everything about what we’re shaping Thunderful to be: the developer’s publisher.”