iPhone game developer ngmoco is announcing today its own cross-promotion publishing network fro iPhone games. The publishing network, called Plus+, will be headed up by Simon Jeffery, the current president and COO of Sega of America. Prior to Sega, Jeffery was president of LucasArts. His new title at ngmoco will be chief publishing officer. This is a major hire for the iPhone game startup, whose CEO Neil Young is also a former star executive from the console gaming world (he came from Electronic Arts).
Ngmoco is already one of the top game developers on the iPhone. Its hits include Rolando, Mazefinger, Star Defense, Topple, and WordFu. Jeffery will be running a new business for ngmoco, Plus+ Publishing. The company already cross-promotes its own games. For instance, about 15 percent of Rolando sales come from cross-promotion, according to Young. With Plus+ Publishing, outside iPhone game developers will be able to apply to become part of this cross-promotion network also.
Ngmoco will offer to publish and market iPhone games under its own Plus brand, as well as simply cross-promote other games using its own popular games and the other games which become part of Plus+ (with different revenue splits depending on the level of service). Developers who want to apply can email gamemakers [at] ngmoco [dot] com.
As part of Plus+, ngmoco is also going to launch its own iPhone social gaming network called the Plus+Network. For any game in the network, players will be able to create a single profile with friends, followers, leaderboards, a metascore across all the games, awards, play challenges, and a game catalog. (Friends are reciprocal, followers are one-way relationships). Ngmoco will roll out this social network in some of its own upcoming games, including Star Defense, Rolando 2, and a real-time first-person shooter. The social network will launch as a standalone network, but Young expects to integrate it with Facebook Connect and other existing social networks as well.