The arrival of Pagano will fill the vacancy at the top of EA's management structure: the giant US publisher lost its VP of European publishing, Javier Ferreira, in January, while Tim Harrison (formerly European marketing director) left late in 2008.

Pagano is an experienced hand having been with Buongiorno since the early part of the decade, eventually becoming the firm's regional MD for UK and International.

He told ME he is keen to develop the community dimension of EA's repertoire. He should know a bit about this, having whelped develop social media services for Buongiorno such as Peoplesound.