Matt Casamassina leaves IGN, becomes Apple’s ‘game manager’

Best known for his editorial work covering Nintendo for IGN, Matt Casamassina has just revealed in a blog post that he has left the popular games site to set up shop as Apple’s new Global Editorial Games Manager for the App Store.

“In a nutshell, I will be leading the charge for games on the App Store, so whether you browse through iTunes,iPhone, iPod Touch oriPad, the games content you see will be handpicked and organized by me and my team. I couldn’t be happier,” says Cassamassina. “Anybody who has read my work through the years will know that I’ve long been a hugeNintendofan, but if there is one company that could entice me away from covering Mario and Zelda it’s the one owned by Steve Jobs.”

If Apple has one true competitor in the handheld gaming market, it’s Nintendo. Hiring an expert on the competition to handpick which games should be showcased makes perfect sense. Whether or not this means a radical revamping of how games are presented in the App Store will be coming remains to be seen. Hopefully Casamassina will shed a little more light on what his new role at Apple means for iPhone gaming when his new job kicks off next month.

Jim Squires

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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.