Another former EA executive, Gerhard Florin, heads for social games

Alright, now this is just getting awkward. EA has lost yet another former executive to social games, and not to its own social games division, Playfish. Gerhard Florin, formerly executive VP of international publishing for EA, has joined French social games publisher Kobojo as chairman of its board of directors, Gamasutra reports. In fact, Kobojo, who just raised a sweet $7.5 million in April, made the position just for Florin, who left EA in 2010 due to family concerns. This is the third time this month that a former EA executive has reportedly joined a social games company.

Kobojo enjoys a 3.4 million monthly players, with PyramidVille, its Egyptian-themed mega hit, accounting for 1.5 million of that, according to AppData. A press release says that Florin will largely focus on bringing Kobojo to an international audience, and help localize its titles for other Europeans from its headquarters and a new studio in Spain.

"I am really happy to join the board of Kobojo, as the company reminds me strongly of EA Europe in its very early days," Florin said. "Kobojo has the same potential to be as successful in Europe as Electronic Arts has been. We want to make Kobojo the European leader in social gaming." Well, now that Zynga has made several footholds in Europe including Germany and London, Florin and Kobojo have their work cut out for them.

[Image Credit: Kotaku]

How do you think Florin will do to bring Kobojo to the forefront of social games in Europe? Do you think EA will feel anything for this loss? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.