Sega President Kenji Matsubara Has Resigned

In an official notice of resignation, Sega has released information that president Kenji Matsubara has requested to resign from his position.

The date of resignation was July 31, 2020, with the reason for resignation simply stating “for personal reasons”. Kenji Matsubara had been with Sega since back in 2014, originally starting as the company’s CTO (chief technical officer). He worked his way up through the ranks until 2017 when he earned the publisher’s president role.

In April 2020, he was also credited with the role of chief of publishing, which seems somewhat peculiar that now just 4 months later he would resign. Being that the reasoning listed in the notice of resignation was vague, it isn’t clear whether the two parties separated amicably or otherwise.

The split doesn’t seem to have been planned, considering how heavily involved Matsubara still was with Sega and additionally serving on the company’s board of directors. In addition to stepping down from his roles as president and chief of publishing, he apparently will also be leaving the company board as well.

Prior to joining Sega, Matsubara was both the president and CEO of Tacmo Koei (a Japanese based gaming company) and also served as the CEO for Zynga.

With everything currently happening in the world, it seems fairly reasonable for one to step down from a leadership position due to personal reasons. Thank you for the time spent working at Sega Kenji Matsubara – your hard work and perseverance not only helped shape your role in the company, but also benefited those who played Sega’s games.

Whether this change of leadership will negatively effect Sega for now remains to be seen. In recent years, Sega have turned the majority of their focus on publishing and developing game titles and have managed to stay relevant in light of that. During the 1990’s, Sega was one of the top gaming companies to exist, but the landscape has changed drastically since then.

Sega is currently set to release two new games that are in development. Hopefully the company will be able to fill their newly open leadership roles and keep things on track amidst Matsubara leaving.