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John Earner said to have left Playfish for Accel Partners

Highly respected GM of London office reported as latest boss to ditch EA's social arm

John Earner, the highly respected general manager and vice president of Playfish's London office, has reportedly left the company to join venture capitalists Accel Partners.

According to a report from TechCrunch Earner will leave Playfish today and begin work at Accel immediately.

Earner has previously worked at Sony, where he designed the microtransaction system in use on Home. When he joined Playfish in 2008, Earner had a big hand in the development of both Restaurant City and Pet Society, both big earners which helped to turn the head of EA and inspire the publisher's acquisition of the company.

During his time at the London office, Earner oversaw both the FIFA Superstars and Sims Social projects. Sims Social has gone on to become the largest and most successful of the company's social projects.

If Earner has indeed left, then he will be the latest in a long line of influential figures to move on from Playfish in the last few months - a series of departures which has left Kristian Segerstrale as the only surviving executive from the original team.

Senior staffer Barry Cottle left for Zynga just weeks ago, and a pair of Playfish co-founders, Sami Lababidi and Sebastien de Halleux left in March, although they retain advisory consultant roles.

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