184 replies to this topic

[ShadiWulf]

With the very recent news that Simon Jeffery has left his position as President of Sega America to join ngmoco, an iPhone games developer, the powers-that-be have promoted Mike Hayes to become what is (effectively) President of Sega West.

While that is not his official title, Mike Hayes already holds the positions of COO and President of Sega Europe and has now been given the same role over at Sega America - whilst keeping his current SoE duties. This move gives Hayes control and direction of both the European and US-based Sega studios.

While Sega is yet to deliver an official press release/announcement on the matter, MCV (one of the few trusty worthy sites around) is able to reveal Mike Hayes’ new role within the company.

It’s going to be interesting to see how things pan out with one boss covering the two largest gaming regions in the world. But the US and European game lineups tend to be almost identical, so I don’t think it will be too hard for him to handle and I don’t expect any big changes. What do you guys think?

P.S - I’ve shared a lift with that man! )

http://www.seganerds...t-of-sega-west/

Cheers to a brighter future for SEGA!

[SuperLink]

I'm not sure I get why you're so happy about this. What's so great about Mike Hayes?

Simon Jeffery was one of the only people from SEGA who wasn't too happy himself with the state of the Sonic series. Surely we need more people like that in SEGA?

[ShadiWulf]

I'm not sure I get why you're so happy about this. What's so great about Mike Hayes?

Simon Jeffery was one of the only people from SEGA who wasn't too happy himself with the state of the Sonic series. Surely we need more people like that in SEGA?

Simon Jeffery wanted SEGA to be the next THQ, if you wanted him as president you would want SEGA to be a shell of their former selves, which is what SEGA America already is, Mike Hayes will fix that.

[SuperLink]

Simon Jeffery wanted SEGA to be the next THQ

Because SEGA were doing badly and desperately needed to become a big publisher in order to save themselves, I'm pretty sure that's what it went like.

SEGA were still doing pretty damn badly up until recently.

Mike Hayes will fix that.

I'm not sure why you're certain, in the slightest.

[ShadiWulf]

Ever heard of Secret level? That horrible development studio responsible for Iron Man and Beast Riders.. yeah Simon Jeffery's fault. It's also Simon Jeffery's fault we got that lame game called Sonic Chronicles.

Nancy Drew
Daisy Fuentes Pilates
Hardy Boys

i could go on, those are all only games coming out in America. Thank god he is gone. THATS NOT WHAT SEGA IS.

[SuperLink]

It's also Simon Jeffery's fault we got that lame game called Sonic Chronicles.

Oh please, why are you trying to pretend a partnership with BioWare is a bad thing? It's probably the best thing to happen to the Sonic series in ages, even if the development was shoddy.

Can you really blame him for putting trust in BioWare after their track record?

Tie-ins are for money, not for gamers. Without those tie-ins, SEGA may not have been successful to even be making proper games anymore, but on top of those tie-ins we get games like Valkyria Chronicles, Virtua Tennis, etc etc, which is just as much as Nintendo's hardcore output these days.

You can't just stick all the blame for SEGA's "badness" on one person, business doesn't work like that.

[ShadiWulf]

All Simon Jeffery has done is hurt SEGA's image, it's pretty obvious SEGA kicked him out. Why would he switch to a iPhone game company?

[SuperLink]

All Simon Jeffery has done is hurt SEGA's image, it's pretty obvious SEGA kicked him out. Why would he switch to a iPhone game company?

I agree he's probably been kicked out, but only because of the current economic problems that pretty much all devs have been having (SEGA are by far the worst off of the "big" publishers), essentially merging SoE and SoA because it's too expensive to have both. They probably offloaded some other people too.

But how has he hurt SEGA's image? He's more of a people person than other presidents, he even personally responded to emails!

Edited by SuperLink, 16 June 2009 - 05:03 PM.

[Noel]

I'm not sure I get why you're so happy about this. What's so great about Mike Hayes?

Simon Jeffery was one of the only people from SEGA who wasn't too happy himself with the state of the Sonic series. Surely we need more people like that in SEGA?

Simon Jeffery wanted SEGA to be the next THQ, if you wanted him as president you would want SEGA to be a shell of their former selves, which is what SEGA America already is, Mike Hayes will fix that.

No that's all of SEGA, only churning out a few gems (none of them Sonic games) every so often. You're so confident in this Mike guy, goodluck on wishful thinking, SEGA hasn't been the same since the Dreamcast failure.

Edited by silencer226, 16 June 2009 - 05:11 PM.

[Charmander]

I'm not sure I get why you're so happy about this. What's so great about Mike Hayes?

Bought development teams with excellent track record (Sports Interactive and The Creative Assembly) as opposed to buying a development team that was not exactly the best thing ever and not going on to complain about it causing a morale drop in said team (That being Secret Level) he also established quite a few valuable links, the two I mentioned which SEGA later bought, as well as development teams such as Kuju Entertainment, Sumo Digital (To handle all our porting needs, goody) although Simon was effectively good at this, using the links he set up at LucasArts. Admittedly the best games to come out of him, Alpha Protocol and Alien: Colonial Marines which I do both feel will be good he will not get to see (Unless he buys a copy himself!)

Hayes also happened to use SEGA IPs better than his American (Well they are both British) counterpart, Sonic Chronicles being the only really critically acclaimed title, SEGA of America also happened to make a game as abysmal as Sonic 06, if not more, in the form of Golden Axe: Beast Rider.

Furthermore, he has subsequently increase SEGA's marketshare in several European countries to the point they could have more than Nintendo or EA in some weeks. In fact the growth has come to the point that SEGA Europe expects to sell 14 million units whilst SEGA America expects to sell 11 million units.

Jeffrey also did PR blunders on a rather constant basis.

Simon Jeffery was one of the only people from SEGA who wasn't too happy himself with the state of the Sonic series. Surely we need more people like that in SEGA?

I don't think you can say Mike Hayes doesn't care about quality either, he did say he makes sure SEGA Europe tracks how their games are doing with critics.

But how has he hurt SEGA's image? He's more of a people person than other presidents, he even personally responded to emails!

It's just his PR errors, saying Yu Suzuki has left SEGA, that Secret Level will never be a good developer (Causing most of them to get demoralized towards the end of their project) and that Sonic is just for kids, there are a number of comments he made he really shouldn't have.

No that's all of SEGA, only churning out a few gems (none of them Sonic games) every so often. You're so confident in this Mike guy, goodluck on wishful thinking, SEGA hasn't been the same since the Dreamcast failure.

I take it you've played Yakuza 1, 2, Kenzan, 3, Valkyria Chronicles, SEGA Race TV, The House of the Dead 4: Special Edition, Bleach the Third, THotD: EX, Block People, Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Fighter 5R, Let's Go Jungle, Super Monkey Ball, 2Spicy, Afterburner Climax, Phantasy Star Zero, Virtua Tennis 3, Thunderforce VI, Harley Davidson, Empire: Total War, any of the Football Manager titles, any of the Let's Make a... titles and R-Tuned to make this astute judgment?

Edited by Charmander, 16 June 2009 - 05:49 PM.

[redmenace]

It's also Simon Jeffery's fault we got that lame game called Sonic Chronicles.

Oh please, why are you trying to pretend a partnership with BioWare is a bad thing? It's probably the best thing to happen to the Sonic series in ages, even if the development was shoddy.

The newly formed DS section of Bioware? And Chronicles the best thing for Sonic lately? You've got some weird tastes.

Also, jeffrey is the man that said that the old Sonic was not cool and the new Sonic is for kids. Are you really sure he was the best for Sonic?

[SuperLink]

The newly formed DS section of Bioware? And Chronicles the best thing for Sonic lately? You've got some weird tastes.

Like I said before, even if development was shoddy, BioWare have an amazing track record that only Chronicles has really damaged. If BioWare care about their reputation then they'll put far more effort into the 2nd game.

Also, jeffrey is the man that said that the old Sonic was not cool and the new Sonic is for kids. Are you really sure he was the best for Sonic?

As said above, it was a blunder. He said in later interviews that it wasn't what he meant, he even had an interview with Dreadknux to "apologise" and rephrase what he said. (you know how interviewers take things out of context)

What he meant is that most gamers just don't like Sonic anymore (which is... true). He identified a major problem with his own company, and it takes guts to do that.

Edited by SuperLink, 16 June 2009 - 06:15 PM.

[ShadiWulf]

Simon Jeffery is a joke. If he actually cared about the quality of Sonic, then Sonic Chronicles would of never been released.

[SuperLink]

If he actually cared about the quality of Sonic, then Sonic Chronicles would of never been released.

What's that supposed to mean?

I don't understand this board at all. Love SEGA and hate Bioware? It's like the total opposite to most of the internet.

[goku262002]

Eh not soo big news. who knows what could happen this could either be very good or very bad. why did simon leave his job?

@ShadikatRawr: i think your putting too much into this. you cant blame all of SOA's problems on simon alone there were many other factors here. chronicles wasnt a bad game at all! wish bioware just had more time to not use .midi soundtracks and a better sfx set but thats all my problems with it. its an excellent mix of sonic and rpg 2 things i thought would never go well together.

@SuperLink: SOA & SOE are merging?! since when?! so i guess its going to be called SOEA or SOAE....

Edited by goku262002, 16 June 2009 - 08:35 PM.

[Tornado]

I don't get it. Sega of America has the first decent president since SoJ forced Tom Kalinske out, the only one who seems to understand that there are problems with Sega both in America and abroad, and people are throwing parties because he left? Is it petty bitching because he insulted your fanbase by having the balls to say what everyone else was thinking?

All Simon Jeffery has done is hurt SEGA's image, it's pretty obvious SEGA kicked him out

Compared to what? When Peter Moore ran SoA? When Bernie fucking Stolar was in charge? Yeah, Sega's image in America was fantastic during the reigns of those two.

If he actually cared about the quality of Sonic, then Sonic Chronicles would of never been released.

GTFO with that shit. Sonic hasn't stood for quality in something like 6 years now. Why the hell is Chronicles such a blemish on an already shitty track record? And what weird ass standard of quality do you have that puts Chronicles below such fantastic gems like STH '06 or ShtH, or SatBK, all of which were SoJ properties (regardless of where they were made). SoA was in charge of one Sonic game. It was received fairly well by critics, which is more than can be said by just about half of the Sonic games made since 2003. We get it, you didn't like it. That doesn't mean it was bad, or, as you seem to be hilariously implying, was bad even when viewed as a modern Sonic game.

Furthermore, how is something that Jeffrey did (asking Bioware to help them make a Sonic game, which was a fantastic idea regardless) coming back to bite him just because the final product (that he had no control over actually developing) was merely decent? I'm telling you, the Sonic fanbase makes less and less sense with each passing day. I don't mean to make this insulting, but I simply can't fathom how Simon Jeffrey leaving is the best news ever, and how Chronicles in particular makes this fact.

Edited by Tornado, 16 June 2009 - 09:12 PM.

[Gerk Marenghis Darkplace]

SoA and SoE are, basically, what's keeping SEGA alive right now. As such, I don't care if one guy moves from one to the other. If they can do the job, they can do the job. But if they can't stand up to SoJ, then nothing will change. Sega's run by a company who made little pinball machines, and they're working Sonic Team and most of the other japanese dev teams ragged. Short development times create shoddy games and that lowers morale. That, and they rely hopelessly on fanservice, when the average gamer on the street wouldn't know how to design their shoe-laces together

I can't see SEGA pulling itself out of the mire without the other two regions drawing the line and making a stand for quality.

[SuperLink]

SOA & SOE are merging?! since when?! so i guess its going to be called SOEA or SOAE....

Apparantly they're becoming "Sega West" or something. Might just be a rumour though.

And Tornado, finally someone with some sense.
When Simon said that Sonic was no longer cool, even though many people felt insulted, any gamer with sense knows it's true. People are just surprised that an "official" statement could be so shocking(ly true).

[ShadiWulf]

SEGA Europe alone is keeping SEGA Alive, if all we had was SEGA America no one would be a SEGA fan, unless you enjoy trash games like Iron Man, Nancy Drew, Sonic Rivals, Beast Riders, Hardy Boys, and Sonic Chronicles. Shame no one can see why it's good he is gone. He was making SEGA into the next THQ.

Also it's been called SEGA West for a while now.

Edited by ShadikatRawr, 16 June 2009 - 09:21 PM.

[Tornado]

When Simon said that Sonic was no longer cool, even though many people felt insulted, any gamer with sense knows it's true. People are just surprised that an "official" statement could be so shocking(ly true).

What really gets me is that that seems to be the entire reasoning behind the hate for him. He could have used more tact (which is usually what his followup interviews tried to fix), to be sure; but I fail to see how essentially saying what the gamers by and large are actually thinking somehow makes him a worse person than someone who says until he is blue in the face that "the Sonic series is totally freakin' sweet and all Sega games kick ass" when it is plainly obvious that anyone with the tiniest bit of objectivity knows it is bullshit.

unless you enjoy trash games like Iron Man, Nancy Drew, Sonic Rivals, Beast Riders, Hardy Boys, and Sonic Chronicles. Shame no one can see why it's good he is gone.

Shame you have no objectivity whatsoever. Or that you don't understand that the President doesn't actually develop the games.

He was making SEGA into the next THQ.

The problem being that that doesn't even mean anything.