Playdom's Ethan Fassett Brings Social Gaming Chops To OpenFeint

Former Playdom executive producer Ethan Fassett has been named the new senior vice president of product at mobile gaming network OpenFeint, the company announced Thursday. In his new role, Fassett will focus on bringing Facebook game developers to mobile platforms, and will leverage his free-to-play expertise to drive new player acquisition to the network. "Ethan truly understands social games, the social networks they need to be successful, and the tools game developers need to properly engage and monetize their players," said OpenFeint CEO Jason Citron in a statement. Fassett drove community engagement and monetization at Playdom's San Francisco office, and was a key figure in the launch of Market Street, which peaked at one million daily active users. Prior to that Fassett worked at Gaia Online, where he helped to launch the site's virtual goods store. "Game developers are looking for an engaged social graph and communication tools tailored around the unique community needs of those players," said Fassett. "As a game-centric social network, OpenFeint is uniquely positioned to deliver on both and I’m excited to expedite the transition of web-based social games to mobile." OpenFeint was recently acquired by Japanese mobile social gaming network Gree in a $104 million deal.