The last co-founder of The Sims Social maker Playfish leaves EA

The game maker that brought you Pet Society and The Sims Social has finally said goodbye to its last co-founder. Playfish co-founder Kristian Segerstrale follows former co-founders Halleux and Sami Lababidi and left the company. Most recently tasked with overseeing EA's transition into free-to-play and social, Segerstrale's departure was addressed by EA CEO John Riccitiello in a statement.

Segerstrale was welcomed into EA when the company acquired Playfish for a cool $400 million back in 2009, and opted to stay behind when his fellow co-founders left in early 2011. Since then, the studio has released (and shuttered) a number of games including The Sims Social, SimCity Social, Monopoly Millionaires, RISK: Factions and more.

But since the release of SimCity Social, not much has been heard from the studio. For an area of the games industry that sees studios release new games every few months, especially from the largest companies such as EA, that fact is disconcerting. With that, Ricitiello says (via TechCrunch) that Sergestrale looks to reenter the world of startups. Whether that move will be within games remains to be seen.

[Via Joystiq]

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