ngmoco has announced former SEGA of America president and COO Simon Jeffery as its chief publishing officer to head the company’s new Plus+ Publishing group. The new initiative is an opportunity for partner companies to access ngmoco’s innovative publishing framework including the new Plus+ Network, an Xbox Live-like social gaming service for iPhone users.

“We are excited to welcome Simon to ngmoco,” Neil Young, founder and CEO, ngmoco, said. “ngmoco is dedicated to bringing a connected community of gamers the very best native iPhone & iPod touch games. Today’s announcement of Simon, Plus+ Publishing and Plus+ Network continues and extends our commitment beyond creative collaboration by opening our innovative publishing infrastructure to others.”

Simon Jeffery brings 22 years of games industry experience to ngmoco after more than four years as president and COO of Sega of America, where he oversaw all publishing and product development activities for the top ten publisher. Prior to Sega, Jeffery was president and COO of LucasArts. Jeffery moved to LucasArts in 1998 after working in a number of marketing, business, and development roles for Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, both in the United States and Europe.

“I am delighted to join ngmoco,” Jeffery said. “It’s a very exciting time to be shaping a new games landscape with a super-talented team. With Plus+ Publishing we are going to be able to create a system for great developers to plug directly into an incredible, proven publishing framework & network technology to help accelerate their games.”

Plus+ allows players of all skill levels to connect, compete and progress. ngmoco will be rolling out details of Plus+ Network over the summer in parallel with new game launches. “We have a long-term vision for Plus+ Network to grow to become the definitive service for iPhone and iPod touch gamers to discover games and friends, play against each other and ultimately gain success, bragging rights and rewards in the community,” noted ngmoco founder and COO, Joe Keene. “We are thrilled to have Simon lead the efforts on bringing partner games into the network, and help build a robust community of players.”