Yuga Labs Hires Chief Gaming Officer to Further Web3 Gaming Push

Yuga Labs has hired Spencer Tucker as its first Chief Gaming Officer, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection announced Friday. 

At Yuga, Tucker will supervise the development of the firm’s Web3 gaming projects, starting with Yuga’s “Otherside” metaverse. Earlier this year, Otherside made waves on Ethereum when it saw a massive surge of transactions and $561 million worth of NFT land sales within 24 hours. 

Tucker comes from mobile gaming companies Scopely and GREE, where he worked as President of Games and Senior Vice President of Product, respectively. 

On Linkedin, Tucker said he was “super stoked” to be joining Yuga, which also owns the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFTs. 

“I believe the future of gaming will be powered by player ownership, social collaboration, and creative expression,” Tucker wrote. 

In a statement, Yuga CEO Nicole Muniz said gaming is one of the company’s biggest priorities, calling it a “main focus” going forward. It's notable for the NFT company, which owns the top four Ethereum NFT collections of all time, according to OpenSea data.

Yuga still has a small team considering its $450 million seed round, bringing the company to a staggering $4 billion valuation. The firm has hired roughly 60 employees so far this year and aims to scale up to 100 total staff by the end of 2022.