Mobile game streaming startup nabs former Apple, Google game czars

Mobile game streaming startup Mobcrush publicly rolled out the welcome mat for a pair of high-profile new hires today: former Google Play Games exec Koh Kim and one-time Apple App Store games guy Greg Essig.

This is chiefly notable because it evinces Mobcrush's strong push to dominate the nascent market for mobile game livestreaming, which has no clear leader. While Twitch is the market leader in livestreaming PC and console games, it doesn't (yet) offer a great solution for natively livestreaming mobile games.

Mobcrush's streaming platform (which is now in beta testing on iOS and Mac OS X with plans to eventually roll it out to Android and Windows phones) is superficially akin to Twitch, but its mobile client offers additional features for livestreaming mobile games and chatting with viewers.

With these two new hires, the company seems intent on expanding its platform; Kim is perhaps best known to game developers for spearheading Google Play's expansion into Korea, while Essig spent quite some time overseeing the Games section of Apple's App Store before briefly signing on to lead business development at F2P publisher FunPlus.

“Our team is excited to have Greg and Koh join and lead our business development efforts, and further establish our leadership position on iOS and Android, as well as establish our global reach that includes the key mobile markets of Asia, Europe, and Latin America,” stated Mobcrush chief Royce Disini in a press release announcing the new hires.