Disney, Playdom look to former OnLive exec as head of social games

Former OnLive VP of games and media John Spinale got traditional game publishers interested in streaming their games, perhaps he has a trick or two up his sleeve for Disney. VentureBeat reports that Spinale has joined Disney as its head of social games, essentially taking over Playdom GM (and Disney Interactive Media Group co-president) John Pleasants's duties.

Spinale, now based in DIMG's Palo Alto-Calif. offices, will cover Playdom's day-to-day activities and report to Pleasants, according to VentureBeat. Before coming to Playdom, Spinale handled bringing dozens of new games and publishers on board to OnLive's video game streaming service--quite the feat, if you ask us.

"Playdom has an exciting road map for 2012 and beyond, and John will play an important role in bringing the magic of Disney to the world's most popular social media platforms," Pleasants said. "Social games are a key part of Disney's digital strategy, and will be a critical driver of DIMG's future success."

This news comes just after Business Insider's scathing report on the state of Disney and Playdom, citing nameless sources. One source even said, "Six top executives at the VP level or above have moved on in the last three months including Playdom's Co-COO." If those statements are to be true, then Spinale has quite a lot of work ahead of him. Spinale will have the golden opportunity to oversee Disney's long-awaited entry into social games ... aside from Gnome Town.

Is this the nudge that Disney and Playdom need to make even bigger waves in the social games space? What Disney franchise do you hope hits Facebook first?