Activision Blizzard is losing its president to a bunch of NFT apes

Activision Blizzard president and COO Daniel Alegre will be leaving the company on March 31, 2023, to pursue another venture that involves the world of NFTs, he announced today.

Alegre, who’s worked for Activision Blizzard since 2020, will be going to Yuga Labs, which is the company behind the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, as its CEO. He will be replacing Nicole Nuniz, who will still stay with Yuga Labs as its partner and strategic adviser.

“Since exploding onto the scene with Bored Ape Yacht Club in 2021, Yuga Labs has quickly made a name for itself through a powerful combination of storytelling and community-building,” Alegre said.

Alegre also pointed out that he’s joining Yuga Labs for the purpose of innovating the “future of the internet,” while suggesting that this is an opportunity to “define the metaverse.”

“The company’s pipeline of products, partnerships, and IP represents a massive opportunity to define the metaverse in a way that empowers creators and provides users with true ownership of their identity and digital assets,” he said. “I look forward to working with the passionate, creative team at Yuga to innovate, inspire, and shape the future of the internet together.”

Alegre will be joining Yuga Labs early next year, which is also the company’s target launch window for its virtual world project known as “Otherside.”

“When it comes to the metaverse, we’re competing with giants,” said Greg Solano, Yuga Labs co-founder. “In order to catapult Otherside and our other ambitious projects to new heights, we’ve known for a long time we wanted to bring in someone with a proven track record of building at the highest possible level.”

As for Activision Blizzard, the company is being targeted by an FTC lawsuit that aims to block the massive acquisition deal by Microsoft due next summer.