EA’s Ben Cousins to run new Ngmoco Sweden studio

Ben Cousins, the former studio head at British outfit EA Easy, has joined mobile games group Ngmoco.

Cousins, who left EA in March, is now tasked with running and raising Ngmoco’s new Stockholm-based studio. Much of the studio’s work will be focused on building content for the social gaming platform Mobage.

Mobage is a mobile social games platform owned by Japan-based firm Dena, which in October 2010 acquired Ngmoco for $400 million.

Cousins is behind EA’s successful foray into the free-to-play games market, and is responsible for Battlefield Heroes, which to date boasts around 7m users.

“Ben Cousins has spent his whole career innovating,” said Ngmoco boss Neil Young.

“From pioneering downloadable content for handhelds to helping spearhead bold moves into free-to-play gaming for core games franchises, he brings a keen understanding of delivering great freemium games and triple-A game development to Ngmoco. We’re thrilled to have him leading ngmoco Sweden.”

Cousins made it clear he was still interested in social games after leaving EA Easy.

“The games industry is at an inflection point,” he said.

“These platforms are bringing hundreds of millions of new gamers into the fold, and at the same time existing core gamers are discovering the innovation, immersion and connectivity they bring. I’m excited to participate in helping shape what we believe is the future of games.”