An expert at putting his foot in his mouth and insulting his company’s biggest fanbase, SEGA of America President and Co-Owner, Simon Jeffery, has packed his bags at SEGA. Jeffery will become an executive at iPhone developer and publisher “ngmoco,” a company founded last year by a former EA executive, Neil Young.
Jeffery has made it well known that he loves the iPhone. While the move might seem idiotic on the surface for a president of SEGA to move into another role at a smaller company, the move is likely a simple pursuit of interests. Whatever might have sparked Jeffery’s departure from SEGA, I know that some people are having a party regardless.
Jeffery will lead ngmoco’s Plus+ (redundant, much?) publishing group, “which integrates social networking and cross-promotional options into games.”
[via Kotaku]
UPDATE (June 16th): SEGA of Europe president, Mike Hayes, will now be overseeing SoA. Read the full story at MCV.
NOOOOO!!! Now who will I call Binky?
Grargh… ah who knows…. maybe we’ll get a radical new, younger president, someone who isn’t afraid of taking risks, new ideas… who will make all the right ideas… oh look there goes another flying cow… “oh… lord… I’m dreaming… it’s a sodding dream…” —- Blackadder.
Well, good.
We don’t need him if he’s considering working for anyone from EA.
Things can only get better with Sega now.
So..who’s the new prez? BTW… I feel a bit lighter because of this news.
And here I thought SEGA was forever doomed. Seeya, Simon. You’re up, over, and gone.
Though everyone is entitled to their own opinion voicing said opinion to a very anal fan base is pretty much shooting yourself in the foot. Up yours Simon Jeffery, take your un-revised remarks elsewhere.
If Simon’s out, who’s gonna lead SEGA now?
I can’t say I’m not surprised.
Now, I just don’t know what good or bad this will do in the future of Sonic and SEGA.
good riddance.
And we can hear the Sega Nazi party jumping with the chance to take the role of President.
What? You didn’t know there were parties inside Sega, fighting for supremacy?
Anyway, I didn’t think Simon was that bad. Ok, as president you’d think he’d learn to say “You know what, that doesn’t seem like all that great of a game, take it back and work a bit more” instead of “Yeah, whatever”, but he did bring us the merger of BioWare and Sonic, and despite a split judgement on Chronicles, I loved it to bits. So if there was one thing I could thank him for, it was that.
Overall though, he was a bit ‘eh’, so let’s see what Sega has in mind now ^^ To the newest president, I hope you can bring respect and quality back, not only to our beloved franchise, but to the company as a whole. A good luck to you.
now hashimoto do your thing and bring your “best sonic game ever” we all have been waiting for since we saw the first footage of unleashed!!! XD
I dont even know who that is so whatever
Yay! Thank goodness he’s gone, ’cause I think he got on everyone’s final nerves with his ridiculous comments/insults. Good riddance and good luck to the next guy.
Did you see Simon’s eyebrowls when he said that Sega were not going to release a Dreamcast 2? They WENT MAD. That man was LYING!!! LYING, I TELL YOU!!!
Hopefully we’ll get someone like Tom Kalinske, or even Bernie Stolar, to head SoA… and who knows? Maybe one day we will see the release of a DC2.
Well, I can dream(cast), can’t I?
Everyone rejoice! SEGA’s largest turd has just been flushed!
The first thing I thought when I saw the headline was “Who?” But anyway, good riddance.
Would Reggie say those things about Mario..? HUH? WOULD HE?
Mike Hayes? Out with the old .. in with the older?
YAAAA—
[You're a mug, that's why I had to cut you down ~ Dread]
LOL!
YAAAAAAA (Breaks out of forum containment box) AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…..
Yay!, there’s a chance for Ryan Drummond to return!!! booyah Simon Jeffery…. (or some rude pun on his name)
Heck yeah, bring back teh Drummond!
News flash: Ryan Drummond is never coming back, nor would his return make Sonic play better. He’s just a voice actor.
Everybody on the internet needs to cool off their Drummond erection. It has been nearly half a decade now.
Simons the reason there was no new console. Sega japan wanted to re enter the hardware business but sega america said no because he didnt want to make a new one.
Sega america is now apart of sega europe. Sega europe made the sega vision. which means we here at america might see the release of the sega vision. See, this is a sign that sega europe wants to get into hardware business again too. thats why they made the vision. and since sega america and europe are now together as sega west this branch and the japanese branch will both have their share of re entering the hardware business. and the biggest oddity of it all is this…
simon. the man that said they shouldnt re enter the hardware business… left sega… on the exact year of the dreamcasts tenth birthday in america.
also. he is the guy that hired the 4Kids actors. Ryan and the rest might come back now.
Again. Ryan Drummond. Not coming back. Under any stretch of the imagination.
@Brad Flick
Well 4Kids actors are under a contract that contract will come to an end some day and that could possibly mean that they will come back at some point in time.
and its not a “stretch of the imagination”, its just a thought of what could happen now that hes gone. Im not saying itwill happen Im saying that it is a possible outcome of this and who knows everything I said could happen. then again none of it could happen.
great news for sonic. say bye bye 4kids ryan drummond and funi will now dub sonic x and the video games
As much as I’d look forward to a new Sega console, they really shouldn’t
@Edge: Simon Jeffery wasn’t a part of SEGA America when they dropped out of the console market.
I am aware of that. but I also know that he was apart of sega when the JP branch said they would like to re enter the hardware business and in that link it even states that simon said
“It really was a paradigm shift at the top at Sega Sammy,” Jeffery says, Although the Japanese old guard wanted to reenter the hardware business, he says, “There really had to be an absolute flushing out of that old way of thinking.”
I agree with Flick-san. Am I the only fan whose gotten used to Griffith and actually likes him better than Drummond?
Apple in videogames. ja ja ja! apple= Shitty videogames I prefer my Nintendo wii with SONIC and Mario videogames
Good god, people are still bitching about voice actors? I stopped caring about that roughly the time Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic ’06 showed there were far bigger problems facing the series. Anyways I can’t say I’m unhappy the man who called me a 12 year old is out, but I’m not celebrating until I see what this new guy does. Me being the pessimist I am half expects him to do some equally stupid thing like agree with the 12 year old comment as his first public act as president.
I like Jason, but I like Ryan better.
You know who whould make a great new president. Shigeru Miyomoto
we can always dream.
08Sonic, you are awesome.
@sonictoast
you gotta be kidding me
well dudes, as long as this Mike Hayes does a better job than Simmon did, I could care less about voice actors