SGN promotes COO to CEO role to lead mobile gaming expansion

SGN, one of the top game publishers on the iPhone, has given its chief executive title to No. 2 executive Randy Breen.

Founder Shervin Pishevar remains at the company as executive chairman at the company. Breen is a former Electronic Arts and LucasArts game veteran who joined the company in the middle of last year as chief operating officer.

SGN has made its name doing unique games for the iPhone that take advantage of its touchscreen and tilt controls. Among its hits are the flight combat games F.A.S.T. and Skies of Glory, both of which push 3-D graphics to the limit on the iPhone.

SGN started out as a Facebook game publisher, but shifted much of its focus to the iPhone in 2008 But it has fallen far behind others such as Zynga, Playfish and Crowdstar on Facebook and has bet heavily that the iPhone will soon become as lucrative a platform. SGN has already had 15 million downloads on the iPhone and iPod Touch, putting its games on one of every three mobile devices that Apple makes.

SGN is planning to expand to the Android and tablet computer markets this year, Pishevar said. SGN raised $15 million in a round of funding from Greylock Partners and others. SGN has expanded to more than 100 employees in Palo Alto, Calif., China and Argentina.

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