simon-jeffery
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Game Center sparks light reactions from competing iPhone social network devs
Yesterday, Apple announced Game Center, a social gaming service for iPhone. Pretty much everyone with an iPhone has reason to be delighted with this development, except for companies like OpenFeint and ngmoco, which already operate social network gaming services for iPhone in OpenFeint and Plus+, respectively. Are both companies freaking out? Not in public. In a statement, OpenFeint positioned the OpenFeint X service, which allows iPhone devs to sell virtual goods, as the next step for its business. "OpenFeint X is currently built on top of OpenFeint and in the future it will also sit on Apple's Game Center social graph, achievements and leaderboards so developers and gamers don't miss a step," said OpenFeint CEO Jason Citron. "Apple is a key partner and we are delighted that they have validated the first half of the OpenFeint vision and we can now fulfill the second half: OpenFeint X and Virtual Goods based Social Games." Citron also promised to "continue to invest in OpenFeint" for the benefit of the games using the platform now and in the process of adding it. ngmoco's Simon Jeffery released a statement indicating that Plus+ is also already moving in a similar direction. "ngmoco has anticipated this move from Apple for some time, and is happy to see a cleaner developer and consumer experience on the horizon," he said. "As we demonstrated at GDC 2010, Plus+ took a strategic shift in direction a few months ago toward being a service, and less about being a set of social gaming features." Plus+ is now focusing on "empowering monetisation and discoverability mechanisms for the development community," as evident in the service's support for player-created virtual item stores in We Rule. If both OpenFeint and ngmoco are to become virtual goods platforms, they stand to benefit from Game Center -- in essence, they can allow Apple to handle all the matchmaking and friend list stuff, while they focus on building marketplaces to interact with Game Center. At least until iPhone OS 5 introduces a virtual goods marketplace. [Via TUAW]
Sega Europe's Hayes takes Sega America top spot
Climbing the corporate ladder is fast when the guys at the top are jumping ship. GI.biz reports that Sega Europe's COO Mike Hayes has taken the recently vacated president position at Sega of America. That means everyone at Sega Europe can stand up and move up one rung, right?Hayes' promotion comes in the wake of Sega of America president and CEO Simon Jeffery's departure to iPhone developer ngmoco.
Sega of America president leaves for ngmoco
So, the long and short of it is this: Sega of America president and CEO Simon Jeffery is leaving Sega, a longstanding name in the video game industry that has created hits in both hardware and software, for ngmoco, a company known for its iPhone titles, namely Rolando. If that doesn't tell you something about the state of the game industry (or at least the state of Sega), we're not sure what will.According to Gamasutra, Jeffery -- a longtime proponent of the iPhone as a gaming platform -- is leaving in order to run ngmoco's new publishing arm, Plus Publishing. The new group will offer support to developers in areas like marketing and technology, while also allowing them to implement its Plus Network, a social networking service for iPhone games. Says ngmoco co-founder Joe Keene, "Building a community of gamers in these kinds of experience is really core to our future strategy, and one of the things that will be leveraged highly in the work that Simon will be doing."Jeffery says of Plus Publishing that it will have a "fairly open-door policy," adding that he would like to talk to "pretty much anyone" about publishing possibilities, including small independent studios and larger publishers.
Sega still publishing for PS2
BusinessWeek interviews Simon Jeffery, chief operating officer at Sega of America, about the console transition and gamers' plans to upgrade hardware. Jeffery offers insight into Sega's thought process; he expects the PS2 to continue to sell well for at least another year.Jeffery says that retailers have forced the GameCube and Xbox off shelves to make more room for the new hardware. However, he hasn't seen -- and doesn't anticipate -- the same fate for the PS2; the company will still release occasional PS2 games, although Jeffery says they'll be ports from the newest hardware.Who's buying PS2s? Jeffery thinks they're secondary systems for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners, and the Wii may be competing directly with the PS2. But we wonder how many of those PS2 sales are by gamers who can't afford -- or find -- a PS3.See also: PS2 to outsell newer consoles through next year?
