Code Wizards Group has appointed Catherine Bygrave as head of commercial, bringing in an executive with a decade at Activision across Call of Duty and Destiny to drive the company's next growth phase.

Bygrave joins from Sumo Games, where she served as business development director. Her CV also includes senior commercial and strategic roles at Gfinity, Humble Games and Sumo Digital.

"I have followed Code Wizards over my career and have always admired the team's ethos and performance," said Bygrave. "I am excited to be part of the team and support the business in its next phase."

Code Wizards Group CEO Stuart Muckley framed the hire as a response to industry-wide change. "I'm so excited to have Catherine joining our leadership team," he said. "The games industry has been changing over the last few years and Catherine is the perfect person to help Code Wizards Group reach the next level."

CD Projekt Red promotes from within

Michał Platkow-Gilewski has been promoted to VP of global communications and marketing at CD Projekt Red. He joined the studio as head of marketing in 2011 and has since held the roles of head of global communications, director of public relations and global communication, and VP of PR and communication. The promotion consolidates marketing and communications under a single leader with 14 years of institutional knowledge at the Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer.

Production leadership moves across major studios

Playground Games has appointed Daniel Smith as executive producer. Smith arrives from Turn 10 Studios, where he held the same title and oversaw large-scale product development and production operations. Before that, he spent nine years at Xbox Game Studios Publishing as a senior producer and games producer managing the Xbox publishing portfolio. His arrival adds Forza-scale production experience to the Forza Horizon studio as it continues work on projects including the Fable reboot.

Gero Micciché has been appointed lead producer at 2K and Hangar 13 Games. He previously worked as development director on Battlefield at Criterion Games, and held development director and producer roles at Electronic Arts, Codemasters and Gameloft. The hire strengthens production leadership at Hangar 13, the studio behind the Mafia franchise.

Bloober Team taps Techland veteran for horror imprint

Bloober Team has appointed Tymon Smektala as executive producer of its curated horror imprint, Broken Mirror Games. Smektala spent more than 13 years at Techland, most recently as franchise director, having joined the Dying Light studio in 2013 as a game designer.

"After more than 13 years at Techland, I'm taking on a new challenge: leading the imprint, shaping its creative direction and portfolio, and working with talented external studios to bring new perspectives on horror in gaming," said Smektala.

The appointment signals how Bloober Team intends to scale its horror business beyond internal development, using the imprint to source and produce titles with external studios under an experienced franchise leader.

Platform and mobile hires

Vik Agarwal has joined Roblox's product team. He was previously product leader at Meta and lead product manager at Zynga, with earlier product manager roles at Electronic Arts and Amazon Game Studios.

Zynga has appointed Daniel Loane as principal game designer. Loane previously served as senior game designer at Fortis Games, with senior roles at ZeniMax Online Studios, NetherRealm Studios and King.

What to watch

The pattern across October's moves is clear: studios are investing in commercial and production leadership rather than headcount growth. Bygrave's remit at Code Wizards Group and Smektala's external-development mandate at Broken Mirror Games are the two appointments most likely to produce visible output first. Studios with pending appointments can submit names, new roles and prior roles to [email protected] for inclusion in future round-ups.