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October 2026's Movers and Shakers: Mojang, Xbox, Scopely, Ukie, Skydance, and more

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October 2026's Movers and Shakers: Mojang, Xbox, Scopely, Ukie, Skydance, and more

To keep you up to date with the latest movers and shakers in the mobile games industry, we've put together a regular roundup of the latest hires, promotions and, in some cases, exits.

If you've recently joined a company or bagged a big promotion, or you're an employer that's just made a hire, drop us an email at news@pocketgamer.biz.

Maria Angelidou-Smith has been appointed CEO of Mojang and Minecraft, set to take over starting October 19th.

She will report directly to Xbox leadership and brings experience from Meta, having formerly worked across events, creators, search and monetisation. She led Facebook Groups, used by more than 1.8 billion people per month.

More recently, Angelidou-Smith spent the past year as chief product officer at Reddit.

She is expected to bring her knowledge of building products to Minecraft’s continued development.

Kayleen Walters has been appointed as president of XP by Xbox, heading up a new division focused on expanding its franchises beyond games.

She has joined the company from Mojang, a fellow company within Microsoft, where she helped to grow consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business. Walters was also executive producer of the 2025 film A Minecraft Movie.

Earlier in her career, Walters spent 13 years at Lucasfilm working on the Star Wars IP across films, products and partnerships.

Her appointment was announced alongside Angelidou-Smith’s as part of Xbox’s plans around Creator and Connection.

New chair and head of platform relations at Ukie and Devolver Digital

Playstack CEO Harvey Elliott is the new chair of Ukie after joining the board in 2025.


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