Activision Blizzard president joining Bored Ape company to build metaverse

Activision Blizzard president and COO, Daniel Alegre, is departing the publisher to join NFT company Yuga Labs.

The news was buried in an SEC filing, where the Call of Duty publisher explained Alegre "plans to leave for another opportunity upon completion of the current term of his employment agreement," which expires on March 31, 2023. As detailed in a separate press release, Alegre will then join Yuga Labs as CEO.

Yuga Labs said Alegre's appointment will help it realize its "ambitious vision for blockchain gaming, metaverse development, and community-building."

The web3 company is best known for launching the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of NFTs in 2021, and earlier this year raised $450 million in seed funding at a valuation of $4 billion.

In a press release that's heavy on spiel and light on details, the company said it's now working on creating a "gamified metaverse inspired by MMORPGs" called Otherside, which was revealed in March 2022 and will be powered by Yuga's own cryptocurrency, ApeCoin. 

Yuga believes Alegre's experience working in video games and tech will allow it to more effectively scale up that project.

"We are thrilled to have [Daniel] join the team to help with our vision of a truly interoperable metaverse. Daniel has held one of the highest level roles at one of the largest gaming companies in the world," said Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow.

"He brings valuable experience across entertainment, e-commerce, and global strategic partnerships—all of which are critical aspects of an immersive web3 world built by creators and for creators."

Alegre, meanwhile, said he believes Yuga's pipeline of products and partnerships represents a "massive opportunity to define the metaverse in a way that empowers creators and provides users with true ownership of their identity and digital assets."

He departs Activision Blizzard with the company in the middle of a protracted merger with Microsoft, which is attempting to purchase the U.S. publisher for $68.7 billion.