King.com today announced it hired former Digital Chocolate Vice President and General manager Manel Sort to head a new game development studio the company is establishing in Barcelona.

Sort has over 12 years of experience in the video game industry and led development on more than 60 titles across several platforms. Most recently he was working out of Digital Chocolate’s Barcelona office, where he led development on iOS titles such as Galaxy Life Pocket Adventures, MMA Pro Fighter and Millionaire City. King.com plans to staff their new Barcelona studio with more than 40 employees who’ll work on mobile and social game titles.

Riccardo Zacconi, co-founder and CEO of King.com said that they’ve been aggressively hiring the best talent in the industry as they grow into the mobile games sector, and that Sort is a perfect fit to lead their new studio. Recently, Zacconi told us his company is planning to double its workforce by the end of this year.

King.com is hiring aggressively as Zacconi said – Sort is King.com’s second high-profile hire in the past couple of months, with Catharina Mallet of Playfish coming on board to head the company’s new development studio in London.