Casual gaming specialist King.com is opening a new mobile and social game development studio in Barcelona, and has hired former Digital Chocolate executive Manel Sort to head its new team.

Manel can boast 12 years of experience in multi-platform game development, and most recently he served as VP and GM of Digital Chocolate, managing that company's own Barcelona studio.

"King.com is growing rapidly and is showing great innovation in cross-platform games, particularly with the new Bubble Witch Saga mobile app," explained Manel.

"I am looking forward to building a great team in sunny Barcelona to help the company build new casual social franchises."

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"King.com has quickly established itself in the casual social games space with more than 40 million monthly players and 3 billion monthly gameplays," added King.com CEO Riccardo Zacconi.

"We have been aggressively hiring the best talent in the industry to extend our growth into the mobile games sector, and Manel, with his phenomenal games-development talent and leadership experience, is perfect for leading our newest studio."

As well as aggressive hiring, King.com has also been making acquisitions as part of its march into mobile. 

Back in March 2012, the company acquired Swedish smartphone studio Fabrication Games, along with its talent, IP, and development tools.

King.com hopes that its Barcelona development studio will soon accommodate a staff of more than 40, and the company is currently looking to hire developers, producers, and artists for its new team.

[source: PR Newswire]