The Swedish development collective Thunderful Games, perhaps best known to gamers for their recently released Xbox game The Gunk, has made another key hire in Kathrin Strangfeld who will join their senior management team. Strangfeld will take the role of Vice President of business management and transformation, and will have the responsibility of overseeing the operations at Thunderful Games.
Strangfled joins the company coming off of a 14-year stint at PlayStation, with three and a half years being spent as the global senior manager and European lead for corporate strategy and development, a title I cannot imagine fits on a door. Additionally, during her tenure at PlayStation, she held several business development roles.
The appointment of Strangfeld coincides with several changes in positions at Thunderful games, one of which is that the company will now be led by chief games officer Agostino Simonetta. Previously Simonetta was a former PlayStation and Xbox director, before being hired by Thunderful back in June as chief strategy and investment officer.
Another recently hired employee, Callum Underwood, joined the company when the consultancy firm Robot Teddy was acquired back in October, has now taken on the role of vice president of investment. Tom Beardsmore, who was CEO of Coatsink when it was acquired in 2020, has now become vice president of strategy and business. the COO of the same company, Eddie Beardsmore, how now been moved to vice president of studios. Finally, Dieter Schoeller who was the CEO of Headup Games which was acquired by Thunderful in 2021, continues to run the company publishing, now as vice president of publishing.
Thunderful completed a successful IPO (Initial Public Offering) back in 2020, which has helped the company to grow immensely through its various acquisitions. It has also allowed Thunderful to purchase Swedish studio Station Interactive, as well as Spanish developer Stage Clear Studios.
The Gunk was a solid game that makes me curious to see what kind of games we will see from the various studios of Thunderful Games in the future. Only time will tell, but based on their hiring it appears they might be looking to grow beyond their Indie roots.
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