Apple reportedly poaching gaming PR execs from Nintendo, Activision

“Apple is reportedly hiring several PR executives from several gaming companies, including Nintendo and Activision,” MacNN reports.

“Unnamed sources have told MCV that Rob Saunders, Nintendo UK’s former head of PR, departed his position to fill a newly created position at Apple,” MacNN reports. “The executive is said to be coming on board to work with PR for gaming content on the iOS platform.”

MacNN reports, “Aside from Saunders, Apple allegedly convinced Nick Grange, Activision Europe’s PR director, to jump ship and join the iOS team.”

Read more in the full article here.



  1. Once again MAC is wasting its time and money playing catchup to Microsoft’s 10-year lead in tablet innovation. The fact is wthout Microsoft’s DirectX support MAC’s gaming initiative is going nowhere. All the good games are on PCs.

    Had lunch with Toby from IT today at Arbys. He’s new. We split the 5 Sandwiches for $6 deal. He ate four of ’em. He said until MAC figures out stylus input, adds a slide out keyboard, adds a removable battery and gets the ability to run Microsoft Office I-Pads won’t be coming to our office any time soon. Thank goodness.

    These are pretty basic features that should have been in the first I-Pad. It just shows the insurmountable lead in tablet computing Microsoft has built for themselves. Instead MAC is messing with games? Whatever. Buh-bye MAC.

      1. It’s OK Steven, I think just about everybody gets caught by Zune Tang their first time (I know I did). And I think there are quite a few that never catch on.

        Lunch at Arby’s with Toby… stop my sides hurt already!

    1. Lunch at Arbys with Toby from IT, hilarious stuff, you’re getting better with age Zune Tang. Those who cry for the sarcasm font, probably appreciates the prerecorded laugh tracks (with or without the CC) on TV.

  2. I always wondered, why does Apple ignore it’s own Desktop System so much in terms of Graphics performance?
    Mac OS X has a half a decade old OpenGL stack, with a crippled OpenGL3.0 stack and no support above that.
    Even Windows has OpenGL 4.1 since a good while ago.

    Seeing as DirectX 10 & 11 wipes the floor with the newest Windows OpenGL drivers, macs have the real crippled (times two) stuff.

    Now compare that to Apple’s newest favorite Kid, iOS, where Games like Infinity Blade are fluidly playable on iPhone 3GS with a 600MHz CPU; everything is as efficient as possible, and Game devs battle each other for attention in the app store.

    Just great, Apple…

    People always bash Cider about the bad performance, but Cider can’t make something out of nothing. If the OS doesn’t supply performance, then nothing can tap into that.

    1. Cider is translating DirectX calls to OpenGL, there is of course a huge speed loss while doing that.

      I think the reason for better graphics drivers on Windows is that there is still a gaming market and AMD and Nivida try to make cards and drivers for that audience. The graphics you can do on a normal Mac are still much better than on the average game console (which were introduced 5 or 6 years ago) and OpenGL on Mac is much more reliable, while many Windows PCs have massive problems with graphics drivers.

  3. Finally, Apple is catching up to its rivals with a more diverse selection of executives. This addition of Puerto Rican executives should really make a difference! (Although I am a bit confused as to why the head of Puerto Rico would be in the UK. Or why he would have a last name Saunders for that matter. No doubt Rob is short for Roberto.)

  4. it took the iPod Touch to wake Jobs out of his slumber regarding the importance of more “time wasters… and revenue…” from games.

    OS X desktop is primarily to work… All the others have games because they are used by people who wait in lines… transportation… between classes, etc. They want to kill time… and refuse to carry anything more than a Tablet or Smart Phone sized gaming device.

    1. oh and those who dont want games can have their Netflix, mobile Cable subscription… or hmm a book… does anyone read an actual book if they have one of these tablets around?

  5. I hope one of these execs convinces Apple that the iPad would be very well off with a bluetooth xbox-style gamepad controller. Many games suffer from the touch screen for the controls. Games such as NHL2K11 would be much better with a gamepad. It wouldn’t hurt to offer such a product. It would be an optional accessory for us gamers who don’t like the touch screen for some games but love our iPads.

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