Back in August, Ian Curran was appointed as the new Chief Operating Officer and President of Sega of America. Now, Sega has announced some changes regarding its sister company, Atlus USA.
Basically, Curran will perform the same role for Atlus USA that he already does for Sega. Furthermore, Sega West Chief Executive Officer Tatsuyuki Miyazaki will now take on the role of CEO of Atlus USA. This is certainly some interesting news, and it should be interesting to see how this will affect Atlus’ future projects (looking at you, Persona 6).
As for the former CEO of Atlus USA, Naoto Hiraoka, he will be the company’s brand owner, and will be in charge leading its many creative projects. In a press release sent out by Sega, he expressed his faith in the new appointments, and also expressed his best wishes for the company’s future. He stated, “I’m so proud of the work we’ve done at Atlus U.S.A., Inc. and Mr. Miyazaki and Mr. Curran will continue to guide the company to even greater success. I look forward to creating more exciting projects with the creative team at Atlus in Japan, and wish my colleagues the best of luck growing the business in the Americas and EMEA.”
Regarding his new appointment, Curran stated, “I’m eager to grow my role as the new President and COO of Atlus U.S.A., Inc. and greatly appreciate the support that Mr. Hiraoka has given me up to this point. Across the SEGA and Atlus families, we’ve had an incredibly successful year, and there is still so much to look forward to.”
Finally, Miyazaki-san also provided a statement regarding the recent changes. He stated, “We wish Mr. Hiraoka the very best of luck in his role and are thankful that he’ll still be a valuable asset to the Atlus team I’m thrilled to play a greater role in the continued success of Atlus U.S.A., Inc. and work alongside Ian, who has done an incredible job in just a couple of short months in his role as President and COO of SEGA of America.”
Let’s hope for the best for Atlus USA, and that we’ll be seeing some exciting new things from them in the coming days.