Rovio GM Patrick Liu departs for Spotify

Rovio’s general manager Patrick Liu has left Rovio Stockholm to join music-streaming service Spotify as a senior product owner, after taking the role in March this year.

He’s being replaced by Reginaldo Valadares, who has been promoted from his previous role of Head of Production.

"Rovio Stockholm has excelled in performance this year and brought Angry Birds 2 all teh way to its peak top grossing position in the US: #23 in iOS Games," said Rovio’s Wilhelm Taht.

"Patrick, as Oskar before Patrick, has done a tremendous job taking the studio and its products to where they are now. Now it’s time to pass the Rovio torch to the heavyweight industry studio executive Reginaldo Valadares, who has over 17 years of experience running game studios."

Lui joined Rovio as Creative Director in 2012, after joining the mobile giant from Battlefield developer DICE. His new role at Spotify is his first job outside of the games industry in 11 years.

In a statement to PocketGamer.biz, he said: "I can safely leave Rovio Sweden as Angry Birds 2 is doing better than ever before, and I already have a successor that’s taken over. I’m super hyped about all things happening at Spotify, pioneering what is to come. As Luke Cage says: always forward."