Thunderful Group appoints Massive Entertainment founder as its new CEO

Thunderful Group has named Massive Entertainment founder Martin Walfisz as its new CEO.

Walfisz is the permanent successor to former CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson, who stepped down in August last year with Thunderful preparing to enter the "next phase" of its growth plan. Sigurgeirsson, who took on a new position within Thunderful's game division, was temporarily replaced with acting-CEO Anders Maiqvist.

At the time, the Swedish conglomerate–which owns multiple development studios and has published titles including Planet of Lana and Steamworld Build–said it has a "large number of promising projects" in development.

The company has turned to Walfisz as it seeks to expand, with Massive founder having established and grown the studio to 150 employees during his 12 years at the helm. Today, the company is owned by Ubisoft and leads development on The Division franchise.

More recently, Walfisz was tapped by Nordisk Film to establish an M&A division called Nordisk Games that focused on investing in game companies around Europe. During his tenure, he provided strategic support to the leadership teams of companies including Supermassive Games Avalanche Studios, and MercurySteam.

Walfisz is currently a Thunderful board member and will begin his duties as CEO "no later than September 1, 2023."

"Thunderful is a very exciting company that I have been following since its inception. To be asked to lead the group as CEO is both an honor and a big responsibility," said Martin Walfisz in a press release. 

"I look forward to working with the talented people of Thunderful to capitalize on, and develop, the business potential, creativity and passion that exists within the group. Thunderful is on an exciting growth journey, and I’m convinced that we’ve only seen the beginning."