Press release: 1997-03-24: Shuji Utsumi Joins Sega As Vice President, General Manager of Product Development

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: Sega.com (archived)

Shuji Utsumi joins Sega as Vice President, General Manager of Product Development

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- March 24, 1997 --
Sega of America Monday announced that Shuji Utsumi joined the company to head software product development for Sega's video game consoles.

As vice president and general manager of product development, Utsumi will oversee the creation, development and acquisition of local-play and networked video games for all Sega hardware.

Most recently, Utsumi was vice president of product licensing at Sony Computer Entertainment America.

"Sega is expanding its product development efforts and needs a strong leader dedicated to pushing the technical limits of our hardware and bringing the right products to market," said Shoichiro Irimajiri, chairman and CEO of Sega America.

"We're fortunate to have Utsumi on our team; he brings a successful track record in strategic planning and product development and strong relations in the video game development community worldwide."

Utsumi will direct all game development efforts at Sega of America and will manage the company's relations with independent video game developers. He will also lead product development for Sega's first networked console games that will be played on the Sega Saturn Net Link, a video game console with Internet access and on-line gaming capabilities.

Prior to joining Sega, Utsumi was a part of the management team that launched the Sony PlayStation, serving as vice president of product licensing and manager of strategic planning for Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Before that, he spent eight years with Sony Corp. in Japan and Sony Corp. of America holding many positions in corporate planning and business development.

Utsumi earned a masters of business administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor's degree in economics from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.

Sega of America is the arm of Tokyo-based Sega Enterprises Ltd. responsible for the development, marketing and distribution of Sega video game systems and video games in the Americas. Sega Enterprises is a $3.6 billion company recognized as the industry leader in interactive digital entertainment media, and is the only company that offers interactive entertainment experiences both inside and outside the home.