gaming
Bulletins

Oculus media director joins EA to tackle online abuse

Colum Slevin, a former Facebook executive, is now addressing toxicity in gaming at Electronic Arts.

The Electronic Arts logo displayed on a mobile phone screen.
Image: Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Oculus executive Colum Slevin has departed the virtual reality company as of this month for a new job at Electronic Arts, where Slevin will focus on online toxicity at EA's Positive Play Group. Slevin's served as the media director for augmented and virtual reality at Oculus, which involved overseeing narrative-driven live-action and real-time experiences build for AR and VR both from internal groups and third-party creators.

Slevin joined Oculus in 2015 from independent game studio Telltale Games, which specialized in making story-focused spinoffs of popular franchises such as "The Walking Dead." He announced his departure from Facebook last week on Twitter, and Monday morning he updated his LinkedIn profile to include his new role as senior director at EA's Positive Play Group.

Online toxicity is becoming a larger focus for more big game makers as more gaming products are centered around constant online interaction. EA has been building out its initiative, which it calls Positive Play, for the last couple of years to include better reporting and detection mechanisms and incentives within games that discourage toxicity and reward more positive interactions among strangers in multiplayer settings.

Nick Statt

Nick Statt is Protocol's video game reporter. Prior to joining Protocol, he was news editor at The Verge covering the gaming industry, mobile apps and antitrust out of San Francisco, in addition to managing coverage of Silicon Valley tech giants and startups. He now resides in Rochester, New York, home of the garbage plate and, completely coincidentally, the World Video Game Hall of Fame. He can be reached at nstatt@protocol.com.

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Bulletins