While most of the buzz regarding ngmoco is centered around Simon Jeffery leaving SEGA to join the startup Plus+, our games editor Chris Plante found the story interesting from a different angle: Given the growing popularity of mobile gaming thanks to the iPhone, there had to be something special about Plus+ to make Simon jump ship.

iPhone is the future of video games or so one might think after yesterday’s news that Simon Jeffery, President of SEGA of America, is jumping ship for a role at an iPhone publishing upstart. Plus+ Publishing, a new branch of ngmoco (the folks behind the highly acclaimed Star Defense and Rolando) will be headed by Jeffery and serve as a harbor for smaller developers from the crowded storm of App Store releases.

Or so we think. Plus+ Publishing appears to share more than a passing resemblance with EA Partners, a program that offers smaller publishers like Crytek and id some of the retail oomph of the EA brand. At a cost, of course.

Daigoji_Gai via gamesblog.ugo.com »