Former SEGA president Kenji Matsubara has joined SNK Corporation as its new CEO. The news comes after it was revealed last year that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia had purchased a 51% stake in the SNK, popular for such franchises as King of Fighters and Metal Slug.
Back in July 2020, Kenji Matsubara left SEGA after spending over six years at the company in various positions, starting as CTO for the Sega Networks Company and eventually becoming president of its gaming division. While Matsubara had just recently become Chief Publishing Officer for the division, he resigned just three months later “due to personal reasons.” While the reasons for his leaving SEGA are still unknown, we now know that he will be working with SNK as its CEO.
In the company’s announcement post, SNK states that Matsubara has a “wealth of business expertise and experience in leading the game industry,” working at a variety of companies across the industry such as mobile game company Zynga Japan as well as SEGA and Koei Tecmo. Apparently, SNK made the decision to hire Matsubara due to his “extensive experience in game software development, marketing, and sales both in Japan and overseas,” which may indicate that the company is eyeing the global market.
This also comes at a pivotal time for the company, which recently announced Metal Slug Tactics during this year’s Summer Games Fest. But this isn’t all peaches in cream; the aforementioned majority buy-out from the Saudi crown prince has also stirred up plenty of controversy from fans, who have been vocally critical of Mohammed bin Salman’s ties to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In addition to this event as well as numerous other human rights abuses occurring in the country, fans are also worried that SNK’s games may be used to promote political propaganda.
[Source: Gamesindustry.biz, Screenrant]
