Creator of “The Walking Dead” franchise Skybound Entertainment has tapped Activision Blizzard vet Kaleb Ruel as vice president of marketing for its in-house video game studio.
During his tenure at Activision Blizzard, Ruel was a key part of the record-breaking launch of “Diablo IV,” which marked the fastest-selling game in Blizzard’s history at $666 million in sales within its first five days. Ruel led a high-profile marketing push for the game featuring collaborations with Halsey, SUGA of BTS and Megan Fox.
Prior to Activision Blizzard, Ruel was head of US marketing at Spotify from 2017-2021.
Ruel is Skybound Entertainments’s seventh major executive hire in 2024, following additions at the Robert Kirkman and David Alpert-founded company including Gregg Sulak as CFO and Chris Paulson (a fellow Activision Blizzard vet) as executive vice president and general manager of games publishing (formerly VP of Product at Activision Blizzard).
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The growth comes at a time when many gaming companies are cutting employees, with widespread layoffs and studio closures affecting Microsoft’s Xbox and Activision Blizzard, Sony’s Playstation, EA, Take-Two Interactive, Epic Games and Riot Games, among others.
“I loved working with Kaleb previously, and I’m thrilled to have him join me at Skybound,” said Chris Paulson, EVP and GM of games publishing. “Kaleb’s experience building great marketing teams in gaming, music streaming, and consumer retail will help accelerate Skybound’s publishing capabilities. We share a vision that successful games are defined by their community of players and great marketing is about building that community. Kaleb is assembling a world-class marketing team to deliver that vision for Skybound Games.”
