King.com Opens New Development Studio; Hires Former Executive Producer at Electronic Arts and Playfish, Catharina Lavers Mallet

- New London Studio Investment Focuses on Extending the Company's Leadership in Casual Social Games Category

SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON, May 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- King.com, the world's leading casual social games company, today announces that it is to set up a development studio in London. King.com also announces that it has hired Electronics Arts and Playfish veteran, Catharina Lavers Mallet, to head up the new studio. Catharina most recently was an executive producer at Electronic Arts, spearheading key new games development there, and will now head King.com's new games studio in London. Over time, the studio is expected to have over 40 employees working on casual social games titles.

"King.com has become the global leader in the casual social games space – becoming the second largest games developer on Facebook with three billion monthly gameplays and over 12 million daily active users. We are now building out our development capacity to deliver further compelling titles," said Riccardo Zacconi, co-founder and CEO, King.com.

Catharina Lavers Mallet joins King.com to head up the London-based social games development studio. She joins the company from Electronic Arts where she was an executive producer and was previously at Playfish (joining Electronic Arts as part of their Playfish acquisition). Prior to this, she held several executive leadership roles across several European-based corporations. Catharina holds a masters in business from Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan School of Management – and a bachelor of arts from Harvard University.

"I am thrilled to be setting up a new studio for King.com. I am excited by the company's vision to be number one in the casual social games category, and have been very impressed by the team and the original IP they have built," said Mallet. "I am completely addicted to their latest game, Candy Crush Saga, and am looking forward to helping further build on the company's momentum."

To become a part of the King.com community and get a taste of some of the world's most popular games, please visit us at http://about.king.com.

About King.com:
King.com is a worldwide leader in casual social games with over 38 million unique players and more than 3 billion games played per month globally. King.com offers over 150 exclusive games in 14 languages through its premier destination, King.com (www.king.com), mobile devices, Google+, and Facebook, where it is a top 10 Facebook developer and has over 12 million daily active users. The company is the exclusive provider of online games for leading global portals, websites and media companies. King.com has offices in London, Hamburg, Stockholm, Milan, Romania, Malta and San Francisco. For more information, please visit http://about.king.com.

Media Contact:

In the U.S:
Paul Brady
Consort Partners
king@consortpartners.com
Tel: +1-646-491-2777

In Europe:
Paul Durman
Consort Partners
Tel: +44-7793-522-824

SOURCE King.com