Edmondson brothers take charge at Thumbstar

UK industry figureheads Martin and Gareth Edmondson have both been appointed executive roles at mobile games firm Thumbstar.

The brothers have both led the Ubisoft Reflections studio in separate spells, though were recently united at the Newcastle outfit for the recent Driver project.

However, last week it emerged that Gareth had quit the group as its managing director. Ubisoft said the departure was his choice.

Gareth (pictured) has now been appointed CEO of Thumbstar, a Liverpool headquartered mobile games outfit. Martin, meanwhile, has been hired as chief creative officer.

Thumbstar is placing considerable faith in the brothers by opening a dedicated Newcastle division. The second studio will develop game content, IP and other mobile games content for business partners.

Gareth said he is “very excited by the prospect of what we can create together at Thumbstar, not only by adding our own internal development team, but by expanding our network of 3rd party developers and using high quality content to grow our distribution channels even further”.

Martin was one of the original investors in Thumbstar when the studio formed in 2008.

He said: “I am very proud to have been involved with Thumbstar since its formation, and I’m now particularly looking forward to getting back to my primary passion for original IP creation in such a dynamic and rapidly growing space.”

Martin Kitney, the chief operations officer at Thumbstar, said the Edmondsons “add a powerful new dimension” to the company.