'Thrilled': Nordisk Games founder Mikkel Weider to become new CEO of Yorkshire's everplay
Wakefield-based independent games developer everplay has appointed an experienced new chief executive.
Mikkel Weider will start the role at the company from January 1. He founded Nordisk Games in 2016 and under his leadership the company grew to having 1,300 employees across Europe and the United States.
He is currently a partner in Delphi Interactive, chair of Outlast Games, and a board member of M2 Animation and NASDAQ-listed Trophy Games.
He has previously held board roles for other industry business including Avalanche Studios Group, Supermassive Games, Raw Fury, Starstable, and Trustpilot, and senior roles with both Bookatable and Match.com.
Mr Weider said: “I am thrilled to be joining everplay, whose iconic games I’ve grown up playing and enjoying. I strongly believe in everplay’s strategy of building market-leading labels focussed on clearly defined genres and audiences. The resulting diverse portfolio of great games, with a healthy mix of first-party and third-party IP, drives immense levels of expertise and synergies within each vertical.
“I look forward to formally joining the business in January and harnessing the tremendous knowledge, skills and passion across the group, and maintaining the business’ growth trajectory.”
The announcement follows the departure of previous chief executive Steve Bell in May, who left his role with immediate effect. The change saw Frank Sagnier, who had been non-executive chair of the board, appointed as interim executive chair.
Mr Sagnier will revert to his previous post as non-executive chair once Mr Weider joins the company.
He said: “We are delighted to welcome Mikkel to everplay and are confident his extensive gaming and M&A track record will be invaluable to our business over the coming years. Mikkel understands and shares the group’s clear strategic vision, and is joining everplay at an exciting time, with the business in a strong position and delivering positive momentum.
“Mikkel has the right credentials to accelerate growth and take everplay to the next level. I look forward to working with Mikkel and will continue to be closely involved as non-executive Chair.”
Shares in the company rose by five per cent in early Thursday trading following the announcement.
The firm’s last set of results saw it report revenues of £72.4m for the first half of 2025, with gross profit of £33.7m.
Its StoryToys brand has had recent success with a new LEGO Bluey game which launched in August with pre-orders of over 800,000 and reached the number one iPad app position overall in six countries including the US when it came out.