I get latching onto game designers as personalities. It’s no different than the cult of personality that sprouts up around musicians, writers, and film directors. Gaming’s rich with characters too: from the robot-building eccentrics like Will Wright, frothing madmen like David Jaffe, and mean drunks like Tomonobu Itagaki. What mystifies me is the way gamers latch onto publishing executives and marketers. Seriously, who cares about Reggie Fils-Aime? The guy doesn’t make Nintendo’s games, he just makes sure they’re profitable. Or how about Peter Moore? When that wily Brit was in charge of Microsoft’s games division, there was no end of fanboy chatter about his antics. Oh, Peter Moore got a Grand Theft Auto IV tattoo! Take that, Sony! Once he moved on to EA Sports, the guy disappeared from the limelight, no longer a face for console war jibber-jabber.
Well, after today, I am forced to admit that I am interested in Peter Moore. Not because he’s starting some wild new business initiative to ramp up EA’s creative output or anything of the sort. No, I want to know more about Peter Moore because one of his last actions as president of Sega of America was to tell Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, to fuck off. Games Radar’s running a story that, during the Dreamcast’s final days, Moore ran a focus group that resulted in young consumers labeling Sega a "granddad with dementia who used to be cool but you couldn't remember why." Burn. When Moore had recordings of the focus group translated into Japanese for a meeting with Sega Japan, Naka accused Moore of doctoring the recordings. Moore’s response?
"I lost it. I turned to the interpreter and said, ‘Tell him, fuck you.’” Although the translator refused to convey Moore's feelings, he was pretty sure that his message got across. "Naka had lived in the US for three years, so I knew he understood. I walked out and never returned."
Why does this make Peter Moore interesting? Yuji Naka is responsible for Sonic’s shitty friends. Fuck that guy.
(Link: Games Radar, via NeoGAF)
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Trailer Review: Sonic Unleashed
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Alternate Soundtrack: Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Ratatat
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