Former EA exec joins Oculus VR to help developers

Electronic Arts veteran David De Martini is now Oculus VR’s head of worldwide publishing, a representative for the company confirmed to Polygon today.

De Martini previously served as EA’s senior vice president of global online and e-commerce. In that position, he was responsible for services like the digital distribution service and social network EA Origin as well as the EA Partners program, which produced games like Bulletstorm, the Rock Band series and the upcoming Titanfall.

De Martini told Gamasutra that he’ll be working with developers at Oculus VR much like he did at EA.

“What I’m doing at Oculus, it’s not particularly different from what I did for seven years at EA as part of the EA Partners program,” De Martini said. “I’m figuring out how to partner effectively with big developers, small developers, all the way down to the individual who just wants to make something great for the Rift.”

Earlier this month, Oculus VR announced that it raised $75 million in funding, in part to create a consumer version of the virtual reality headset. Though the consumer version doesn’t yet have a release date, De Martini said that the announcement is a signal that could bring developers aboard.

“I think what you’re going to see is with last week’s announcement on continued investment, every piece of news that comes out of this headquarters and comes from this team adds more certainty that this thing is launching in the foreseeable future,” he told GamesIndustry International. “And as that certainty demonstrates itself, I think you’re going to see the EAs of the world, the Activisions of the world, along with all the other independent developers jumping on board. There’s just so much momentum. Their core audience, hardcore gamers, are so behind this platform that they have to respond to the cry from the community to get great content on the platform.”