Kabam's worldwide studios chief quits to join Japan's Gree

Andrew Sheppard, head of worldwide studios at mobile game publisher Kabam, has resigned to join Japan’s Gree.

Re/Code reported that Sheppard left to join free-to-play mobile game maker. That’s a big deal since Sheppard has been at Kabam since 2009, first as chief product officer, and helped pioneer Kabam’s approach of blending art and science in metrics-based game development.

Sheppard’s games helped drive Kabam to revenue of more than of $360 million in 2013. It’s not clear what Sheppard’s role at Gree will be. Gree reported $1.4 billion in revenue in 2013, down from $1.5 billion the year before.

The news comes after China’s Alibaba Group made a $120 million investment in San Francisco-based Kabam. Sheppard helped set up six game studios around the world for Kabam.

Gree revealed that it is appointing Sheppard as its new chief operating officer. He will oversee game production at the company.

In a statement, Kabam spokesman Steve Swasey said:

· We wish Andrew well at his new opportunity

· Kabam is leveling up the position of President of Kabam Global Studios and has retained a leading international executive search firm to identify candidates

· In the meantime, Aaron Loeb is at full stride as Kabam Senior Vice President of North American Studios, which will soon release Marvel Contest of Champions and other games, and Kabam Co-Founder Mike Li continues to lead Kabam’s China Studio, which will soon release games based on The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings and Mad Max

· On Aug. 1 Kabam announced its collaboration with Alibaba, which include a $120 million investment by the Chinese ecommerce giant and raised Kabam’s valuation to more than $1 billion

· We could not be more confident in Kabam’s position in the industry and the outlook going forward