The departure of Sega of America COO Simon Jeffery has sparked worldwide leadership consolidation for the company, with Sega of Europe President and COO Mike Hayes now presiding over North America as well.
President and COO of Sega of America Simon Jeffery has left the house of Sonic, hitching his executive wagon to iPhone developer and publisher ngmoco—you know, the one former Electronic Arts exec Neil Young co-founded in 2006.
Lots of people own Wiis. I own a Wii and maybe you do, too. And because so many people own Wiis, that means we get lots of Wii games. And let’s face it, most of those games aren’t very good. SEGA America honcho Simon Jeffrey puts it best: “Crap”. But that doesn’t mean the Wii is a lost hope! Not at all. Echoing what Jeffery told us at E3, the exec says:
Sega president Simon Jeffery appeared to have misspoke on the employment fate of famed game designer Yu Suzuki when he told Gamasutra that the Outrun creator was no longer employed at the company. Turns out, he is! Hooray! Said to be bearing the title Creative Officer of Sega Corp., Suzuki may be (extremely) low profile and the opposite of prolific, but it appears he’s still getting his checks signed by Sega.
In Jeffery’s defence, the man isn’t in human resources. And no one wants a second visit from Sega of Japan’s correction ninja squad. They’ll cut ya.
Jeffery: Yu Suzuki Still With Sega As ‘Creative Officer’ [Gamasutra]
And the post-E3 soul-searching continues! Latest to be asked for his $US 0.02 is the man with the soothing voice, Sega US boss Simon Jeffery. Who, for all the work he managed to get done during the week, still thinks the event could do with a little more…pizazz. E3 was a strange beast this year. We had an extremely strong product showing, had some great meetings, and got our messaging over pretty strongly – all at an event that had all the atmosphere of a large hospital corridor…we’d like to see something that represents the fun, dynamic nature of the industry a little better without going back to the insanity that was E3 of old.
It’s OK, Simon. We miss the booth crumpet as well.
God Hand 2? Viewtiful Joe 3? Not coming, at least not from the Platinum Games, formerly Clover, guys. But that doesn’t mean we wont’ be seeing echoes of those games in their fancy, new Sega published games.
We explained it in detail, why Aliens didn’t make E3. But it’s so much more soothing hearing the news come in the Anglified voice of SEGA of America’s head honcho Simon Jeffery.
See Brian try to talk the head of Sega of America into launching Dreamcast 2 to take on the Wii. Dreamcast 2? Seaman 2? Shenmue 3? Hear Simon Jeffery crush all of your Sega wet dreams.
When we talked to SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery at E3 last week, he showered us with knowledge and know-how. He also threw in a quick mention of a game we hadn’t heard anything about — officially, that is — Resident Evil 5 for the Wii. To say that we were surprised to hear it mentioned would be an understatement, despite our non-reaction if front of Mr. Jeffery.
We followed up with a couple folks about the on camera slip of the tongue, starting with Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime.
Discussing our Executive Pop Quiz, in which we asked Nintendo Corporate Affairs VP Denise Kaigler if Resident Evil 5 was getting a Wii version, Mr. Fils-Aime fired back with a “Not yet!” and a laugh that left us more confused than when we started the question.
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Among the revelations: Sega starting courting the former Clover folks as soon as there the problems with Capcom became public and Mad World was created mostly behind closed doors on Sega’s faith.
Check out our other Jeffery and Sega stuff here: Another Mario Sonic Collaboration in the Works? Sega: The iPhone is as Powerful as the Dreamcast Sega E3 Coverage
