MCV Jobs Weekly: BAFTA appoints first VP of games

David Gardner joins BAFTA, PQube hires Matthew Pellett and Mojang strengthens creative communications team.

BAFTA appoints first VP of games

General partner and co-founder of London Venture Partners David Gardner OBE has been appointed as the first vice president for games at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. 

As vice president, Gardner will play an integral role in advancing BAFTA’s global games strategy, increasing the organisation’s activity in the US, including a presence at GDC and E3, and creating an enhanced events programme focused on cross-sector debate. The global games strategy also involves providing more content to global games members across different platforms such as Twitch. 

Gardner stated: “BAFTA is a fabulous organisation that helps advance the art of gaming, film and television. It is unique in that it brings so many storytelling mediums together, and has established itself as a globally recognised charity for peer review, advancement and education. I view my role as helping to expand the game industry’s participation in this tradition and look forward to the breakthroughs that will follow from sharing our craft.”

PQube appoints Pellett

Matthew Pellett has joined video game publisher PQube as product manager. For the past three years, he’s been editor of Official PlayStation Magazine at Future Publishing, and prior to that he was editor of GamesMaster. He’s also worked on Xbox World 360 Magazine, where he joined Future as a staff writer in 2007. 

PQube’s head of marketing Geraint Evans commented: “Matthew brings with him a decade of experience, as one of the most successful editors in games media in recent times – we are very pleased to have him as
part of the PQube team. 2016 was PQube’s most successful year yet and Matthew will be bringing his knowledge and creativity to some very exciting new projects for an even bigger 2017.”

Stone joins Mojang

The makers of Minecraft have brought on Tom Stone as creative communications assistant to work on Mojang’s recently relaunched Minecraft website. 

He was previously games editor at Future Publishing’s Official Xbox Magazine, where he joined as staff writer in 2015. 

Stone said: “I still can’t believe Mojang, who usually exhibit sound judgement, are letting me write for Minecraft.net. We’ve got unrivalled insider access, how-to guides that’ll make you a Minecraft master and regular highlights from a building community so freakishly talented they could likely build a working fleet of hovercrafts in the time it takes me to put on a shoe.”