Sega president joins ngmoco to head new publishing arm

Sega of America president Simon Jeffrey has joined iPhone outfit ngmoco as chief publishing officer and to lead its new division Plus+ Publishing.

The company plans to partner with iPhone developers for its Plus+ Network, a social network for users to create persistent profiles and connect, compete and progress alongside one another.

"We are excited to welcome Simon to ngmoco," offered Neil Young, founder and CEO of ngmoco. "ngmoco is dedicated to bringing a connected community of gamers the very best native iPhone and 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."

Jeffrey was with Sega of America for four years where he oversaw all publishing and product development activities. He has also held senior positions at LucasArts, Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts.

"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 and network technology to help accelerate their games."

ngmoco plans to roll out more details of the Plus+ Network this summer alongside new titles for the iPhone, and taking advantage of the imminent 3.0 upgrade to the system.

"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," offered 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."