Facebook appoints new games tsar

New Corp's online gaming boss Sean Ryan has moved to Facebook, where he will occupy the newly-created role of director of Game Partnerships.

Ryan, who was also a former CEO at LiveJournal and Meez, will manage Facebook's partnerships with third-party gaming studios.

Ryan has been at News Corp for a mere five months, with the Wall Street Journal also reporting that talks with Facebook had predated his EVP and GM of Games position at Rupert Murdoch's media giant.

The new games tsar will work under Ethan Beard, the social network's director of the Facebook Developer Network. Ryan is also likely to work closely with Facebook's largest developers, including Zynga.

Ryan will be replaced at News Corp by Marking Fun founder John Welch, whose firm was acquired by News Corp under Ryan's stewardship.