Ethan McKinnon, pioneering gaming YouTuber, is joining metaverse development studio MELON as Game Director. McKinnon has developed games independently, created game content for a wide range of companies and organizations, and played a part in turning Minecraft gameplay into a YouTube content mainstay.

McKinnon’s mix of hands-on game expertise and executive experience is the perfect fit for MELON’s growing brand and artist clientele and for the studio’s primary platform, Roblox. “I’m excited to be a part of MELON, a company that is leading the charge in the metaverse,” McKinnon says. “We’re working with some of the largest brands in the world and being able to create unique experiences for the Roblox community that haven’t been achieved in this space yet is cutting edge!”

McKinnon went from pushing a favorite game studio to let him and his fellow players create mods, to playing key roles in the gaming industry. He has worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies including Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Booze Allen Hamilton, USAA, and Microsoft. As a gamer and independent creator, he and his family established one of the first popular channels on YouTube for gameplay, racking up half a million subscribers, and later branching successfully into Twitch.

All of McKinnon’s skills and creative instincts will come into play at MELON, the leading development studio for branded experiences in Roblox that just leaped into its first original game, Jump Kingdoms. With clients as varied as Chipotle and the NFL, and artists including Ava Max and KSI, MELON has built the places and events that bring in millions of visitors and result in significant virtual goods sales on the bustling game platform.

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“Ethan knows all sides of the game, from playing them passionately to creating them for major corporations,” explains Devon Thome, MELON founder and CEO. “I’ve had the pleasure of watching Ethan grow in the industry for a long time, and I’m honored to finally have him joining MELON. People with his level of expertise and attention to quality are rare.”