It seems that SEGA’s President and Chief Publishing Officer from SEGA has resigned this week as it was revealed via a short press release from SEGA-Sammy. The reason for his departure was listed as “personal reasons”, whatever that means. Matsubara held a few roles at SEGA like initially working as CTO for SEGA Network division before he was appointed COO of SEGA Games in 2017. He was named President and Chief Publishing Officer only four months ago, on April 2020 and has already resigned. Not a great look.
Before this Kenji Matsubara worked as CEO for Tecmo Koei and Zynga Japan, so he will most likely find work easy enough after leaving SEGA. What is your thoughts on the sudden departure of Kenji Matsubara?
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I’m surprised that he left so soon. I remember getting excited when he became president because it was the start of Sega’s whole revival campaign. I have to wonder who will replace him and what direction will Sega take from here. Are they having financial issues?
Not that I know of yet, his ‘Its personal’ makes me think he got offered a bigger contract somewhere or maybe wants to retire with the family. He started his job in April and a lot of the world and our view points on whats important have changed. But who knows, just speculation.
I may be wrong, but it can not be a coincidence just after Toshihiro Nagoshi mocked Puyo Puyo players in a live stream, saying they looked like poor guys living on “beef bowls with cheese”
https://kotaku.com/sega-apologies-after-producer-uses-slang-to-mock-puzzle-1844568653
This may not sound like a big deal, but in Japan the gaming community took it pretty serious.