As the newest member of our Scopely leadership team, Charity will begin to build a team in the area, which we believe will be a high growth, exciting games market over the next decade and beyond.
With nearly two decades of experience, Charity’s mentorship will be invaluable to the talent joining us, and we’re excited for her to develop the workforce from the ground up. Let me tell you more about Charity:
As a creative lead of the MMO “
Club Penguin,” the world’s largest virtual world for kids, Charity helped propel the game from launch to 300M+ global users. Following its acquisition by
The Walt Disney Company, she continued to develop immersive digital and in-person experiences for a decade at Disney. Charity has helped start successful gaming and technology businesses and worked alongside innovative teams at Pixar, Lucasfilm, Disney Imagineering, Marvel, Lenovo, the UFC, and more.
Charity most recently led
Electronic Art's UK-based Criterion Studio as General Manager, overseeing such games as “Need for Speed” and co-development of “Battlefield.” Charity is also a certified executive coach, has studied circus arts and comedy, and is an amateur poet, songwriter, and author. My favorite fun fact about her is that she hopes to live in a treehouse one day.
But before the treehouse, Charity will make her mark in one of the fastest-growing games regions.
89% of the MENA population identify as a “gamer” – the highest per capita ratio globally. What’s more, over 50% of residents are under 25, highly tech-savvy, and passionate about gaming.
We see an incredible opportunity to invest in this emerging market and passionate talent base to build the best games possible. Our partnership with
Savvy Games Group also uniquely positions us to make an indelible impact on the region. I’ve visited Riyadh a number of times since we joined the Savvy Games portfolio and continue to be inspired by the incredible excitement that surrounds all things games. Saudi Arabia is
the only country in the world with a national games strategy, and we’re excited to help build the local ecosystem and create even more job opportunities for games professionals.
Our presence in Riyadh will have its own identity:
Mirai, a Scopely company, designed to foster and cultivate the future of the MENA games landscape. We will aim to accelerate the growth of local talent new to gaming through training and development, and the areas where they can have the most impact will start to take shape as we build our team and our portfolio expands.
WHY “MIRAI”?
Scopely’s identity has long been connected to the
Japanese art of origami, which shows up in our Scopely S icon. Just like games, origami has limitless permutations, exemplifying precision, innovation, transformation, quality, and craftsmanship. Origami represents the ability to “unfold a world,” how each individual chooses, which deeply connects to our Scopely vision and goals. Based on these roots, we chose the name “Mirai” for our new team as it means “future” in Japanese.
Charity has already demonstrated in our numerous conversations why she’ll be an exceptional leader for the next generation of talent in Saudi Arabia. When reflecting on the opportunity, she said: