Vrabeck resigns from EA Casual

GameDaily reports that 17 year EA veteran Chip Lange has also been appointed with the task of overseeing the publisher’s relationship with toy and board games powerhouse Hasbro, as well as heading up EA’s Bright Light Studio. Harvey Elliot and Scott Walker will join Lange’s team, with former Casual label number two Russell Arons heading up marketing for the new division.

An EA spokesperson told GameDaily: “We've learned a lot about casual entertainment in the past two years, and found that casual gaming defies a single genre and demographic. With Kathy's departure, EA is reorganising to integrate casual games (development and marketing) into other divisions of our business.

“We are merging our Casual Studios, Hasbro partnership, and casual marketing organization with The Sims label to be a new Sims and Casual label, where there is a deep compatibility in the product design, marketing and demographics.”

Vrabeck, who also headed up EA’s online casual games portal Pogo.com, has left to seek new opportunities outside of the publisher.

The shock news comes in the wake of mass job cuts at EA.