Storm8 lands Zynga’s former vice president of product

One of Zynga’s ex-employees has joined a new company.

Mobile gaming social Storm8 announced today that Pablo Paniagua is its new head of product. Paniagua was formerly the vice president of product at FarmVille developer Zynga. He left Zynga in August 2013. While there, he led product for the social hit CityVille.

The mobile market is huge and growing. Market researcher Newzoo expects it to be worth $25 billion in 2015. These moves from one company to another are part of the complicated quest by hundreds of companies to get a piece of the lucrative mobile pie.

The self-funded Storm8 has more than 50 million monthly active players and created more that 45 mobile games on iOS and Android, including Candy Blast Mania, Bingo!, and Dragon Story. The company is based in Redwood City, Calif.

Mike Minotti

Mike Minotti has been with GamesBeat since 2012, starting as an intern. Based near Youngstown, Ohio, he now manages GamesBeat's editorial team. He's also a prolific podcaster, appearing on multiple shows covering the gaming industry.