ngmoco hires former Sega of America President to head new division

by: Dan - posted: 6/17/2009 5:43:00 PM

ngmoco has been growing rapidly with their numerous releases of games for the iPhone and iPod touch, and Monday they named former Sega of America President and COO Simon Jeffery to be their new Chief Publishing Officer to Helm Plus+ Publishing. Jeffery brings 22 years of gaming experience to ngmoco including roles at Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts and as President and COO of LucasArts prior to his Sega stint.

The Plus+ Network is designed by ngmoco to utilize the iPhone 3.0 OS and be “Centered around a persistent profile, Plus+ allows players of all skill levels to connect, compete and progress”. In other words, it will be ngmoco’s version of Xbox Live or PSN for iPhone/iPod Touch gaming. Details on Plus+ Network will be rolled out later this Summer.

I will be an interesting observer on how the Plus+ Network works, as I have been sensing that the iPhone gaming platform needs some sort of stabilizing force to bring it to the next level for multiplayer. If the Plus+ initiative works, maybe it could become the framework for such a system.

ngmoco Names Former SEGA of America President and COO Simon Jeffery
Chief Publishing Officer to Helm Plus+ Publishing

Plus+ Publishing Offers Developers Access to ngmoco’s Infrastructure
and Key Technologies Including Plus+ Network

San Francisco – June 15, 2009 – ngmoco, leading developer and publisher of games for iPhone and iPod touch has named former SEGA of America president and COO Simon Jeffery as its chief publishing officer to helm the company’s new Plus+ Publishing group. The new initiative is an opportunity for partner companies to access ngmoco’s innovative publishing framework, including the new Plus+ Network.

“We are excited to welcome Simon to ngmoco,” Neil Young, founder and CEO, ngmoco, said. “ngmoco is dedicated to bringing a connected community of gamers the very best native iPhone & iPod touch games. Today’s announcement of Simon, Plus+ Publishing and Plus+ Network continues and extends our commitment beyond creative collaboration by opening our innovative publishing infrastructure to others.”

Simon Jeffery brings 22 years of games industry experience to ngmoco after more than four years as president and COO of Sega of America, where he oversaw all publishing and product development activities for the top ten publisher. Prior to Sega, Jeffery was president and COO of LucasArts. Jeffery moved to LucasArts in 1998 after working in a number of marketing, business, and development roles for Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, both in the United States and Europe.

“I am delighted to join ngmoco,” Jeffery said. “It’s a very exciting time to be shaping a new games landscape with a super-talented team. With Plus+ Publishing we are going to be able to create a system for great developers to plug directly into an incredible, proven publishing framework & network technology to help accelerate their games.”

Plus+ Publishing will offer an infrastructure for developers to take advantage of ngmoco’s innovative publishing systems, provide access to the Plus+ Network and give custom support to participating partners.

Plus+ Network, which Young teased on stage during the Apple WWDC keynote last week, harnesses the latest OS3.0 technology for iPhone and iPod touch games to give a powerful social network to gamers. Centered around a persistent profile, Plus+ allows players of all skill levels to connect, compete and progress. ngmoco will be rolling out details of Plus+ Network over the summer in parallel with new game launches.

“We have a long-term vision for Plus+ Network to grow to become the definitive service for iPhone and iPod touch gamers to discover games and friends, play against each other and ultimately gain success, bragging rights and rewards in the community,” noted ngmoco founder and COO, Joe Keene. “We are thrilled to have Simon lead the efforts on bringing partner games into the network, and help build a robust community of players.”

Established in June 2008, ngmoco has already developed and successfully released multiple iPhone and iPod touch games including the award-winning Rolando and chart toppers MazeFinger, Topple, Topple 2, Dr. Awesome, Dropship, Word Fu and the just released Star Defense. With five top ten products and its games having been installed more than nine million times, ngmoco is one of the leading game makers and publishers for the iPhone & iPod Touch.