Round-Up: NOA Sales VP Retires, Emmy For 2600, Sega And Taito Legends

Today's round-up includes information on the retirement of a veteran Nintendo employee, some surprising technical Emmy Awards for video game consoles, and Sega's signing of a classic Taito game collection in North America, as well as the latest product news and Gamasutra job postings. - Nintendo's longtime vice president of sales, Randy Peretzman, has announced that he will retire from the company. Peretzman had been with Nintendo since the NES days in 1985 and "has made significant contributions to the success of every new hardware and software launch," according to Nintendo of America president Tatsumi Kimishima. Peretzman became director of sales in 1992, and vice president of sales in 1996. He will be replaced by Kevan Wilson effective January 6, 2006. Wilson is currently Nintendo of America's director of sales. - The National Television Academy has announced the winners of the Technology and Engineering categories for the 57th annual Emmy Awards, which include a few video game-related awards. Atari received the Development and Impact in 8-Bit Consoles award for its Atari 2600; Sony received the Development and Impact in Polygon Consoles award for its original PlayStation; and Microsoft received the Development of Multiplayer Console Technology for Xbox Live. "Gaming and its particular needs have been a significant source of new technology in the areas of video- and television-centric activities. It comes as quite natural that this work should be recognized in the same way we’ve recognized the achievements in broadcast technology," said Seth Haberman, Chair of the Video Gaming and Technology awards panel. - Sega has revealed plans to bring Taito Legends to the U.S. in conjunction with European publisher Empire Interactive. The disc, which will be released for PS2, Xbox, and PC, features 29 of Taito's games as they originally appeared in arcades. Included in the set are titles such as Space Invaders, Elevator Action, Bubble Bobble, Operation Wolf, and Rastan. "We are proud to partner with Empire Interactive to deliver the most extensive collection of arcade classics ever to be offered on a single disc," said Sega VP of Entertainment Marketing Scott A. Steinberg. "Taito's library of games are as fun to play today as they were when they dominated arcades in the 80's and 90's." The set offers a different variety of games to the recently released Japanese Taito Memories series for PlayStation 2. - Also updated today: product news including the launch of the DAZ Studio animation software, and the latest Gamasutra job postings, including positions from Activision, Black Ops, Nintendo of Europe, Relic, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Volition.