In the video game industry, titles can hit and can miss; people also come and go. After all, change is a good thing. This is why Patrick Liu, general manager at Rivio Stockholm has left the nest of the Angry Birds to fill in the shoes as product owner at Spotify.
Liu left his role at DICE to join Rovio in 2012, his role at Rovio then was creative director. Before Rovio, he was senior producer at DICE handling Battlefield 3. Another step on Liu's career also provided an opportunity to fill the empty shoes.
Reginaldo Valadares will be filing up Liu's position at Rovio, as reported by Gamasutra. Valaderes was a Studio Head at Glu Mobile and Aeria Games, he was also Product Lead at Wooga. As for Liu's message to Rovio: "It's time to pass the Rovio torch to the heavyweight industry studio executive Reginaldo Valadares, who has over 17 years of experience running game studios."
PocketGamer.biz also reports that Rovio Stockholm is doing fine this year. They have successfully brought Angry Birds 2 up to number 23 in iOS games. The original game Angry Birds, was inspired by Crush the Castle. The game's gimmick has been applauded for its superb mixture of comedy, fun play, and of course, affordability. The popularity went on and created a lot of spin-offs and merchandise which made Rovio lots of revenue.
What's in it for us?
Well, sometimes in careers, you just don't get lucky and pick the 'one' right away. Such as what Liu is currently doing, he gracefully exits a company and joins the next one to create wonderful outputs. Also if you notice, Spotify is not a gaming company, after 11 years Liu has stepped out from his comfort zone to face new challenges. Oftentimes, it is in the uncomfortable zone that we push more on our efforts and eventually reap success.
PocketGamer.biz posts that the last time Liu gave in to his instincts, making a leap of faith, like this one, was from console game dev to PC game dev, and ultimately to mobile game dev in 2012. So if you feel stuck with current work right now, feel free to stick your head out, lots of uncomfortable zones are to be explored and conquered.
