Bye CCPA, hi GDPR - Sony interactive entertainment moves NA to Europe

[williamcll]

As Sony is gearing up against the Xbox and switch, it has made major reassignments to some of the development teams. Multiple members in America have also left the company. 

Quote

This is part of an ongoing transformation for Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company used to have three major regions that ran as silos. PlayStation of Japan, Europe, and America all acted with some degree of independence.

But Sony is throwing out that old model. It has put Ryan in charge of bringing the entire worldwide infrastructure under one leadership system. And Ryan has made it clear that he wants that to start in Europe. When Ryan moved Hulst from director of Guerrilla Games to the head of Sony Worldwide Studios, he emphasized that point.

“Hermen is a European who will be taking one of the major offices at PlayStation,” Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz. “I think everybody in Europe should be thrilled and happy and proud that is happening.”

 

And as Sony Europe takes over PlayStation, many of the company’s other leaders have left. That includes Shawn Layden, who made a sudden departure in September.

Source: https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/09/playstation-gets-new-global-operations-boss/

https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2020/01/sony-interactive-interactive-entertainment-shifts-headquarters-to-europe/100968/

Thoughts: A strange time for a reorganization when Sony seems to be doing pretty well with their entertainments. This may have an impact on how games by NA devs get published,not that I really care myself since I've rarely played Sony games anyway. 

[Kisai]

6 hours ago, williamcll said:

 

As Sony is gearing up against the Xbox and switch, it has made major reassignments to some of the development teams. Multiple members in America have also left the company. 

Source: https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/09/playstation-gets-new-global-operations-boss/

https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2020/01/sony-interactive-interactive-entertainment-shifts-headquarters-to-europe/100968/

Thoughts: A strange time for a reorganization when Sony seems to be doing pretty well with their entertainments. This may have an impact on how games by NA devs get published,not that I really care myself since I've rarely played Sony games anyway. 

 

It would not surprise me if this was the typical corporate "I want everything under me" type of moves which usually happens shortly before the company does mass layoffs of the people.

[Taf the Ghost]

1 hour ago, Kisai said:

 

It would not surprise me if this was the typical corporate "I want everything under me" type of moves which usually happens shortly before the company does mass layoffs of the people.

It's less that, I believe, and far more of the only way to break a serious problem in Playstation of America was to basically axe the entire division. We only heard about it because they were censoring anime boobs for Japan-only releases, but there was a real issue where Sony America was dictating standards for all releases globally. That's an issue on a lot of levels, but it's also a sign of significant accumulation of power within a very small set of employees. 

 

Also looks like Shuhei got ousted, though back in November, along with the big reshuffle. Hermen Hulst gave some really long interviews in the NoClip documentary about Horizon Zero Dawn, if you want to get some insight on the guy. (Seems like a good choice, frankly.) Sony also recently canceled a game from one of their studios that had already done most of the MoCap, so there's a good chunk of tumult going on right now with them.

[Unixsystem]

Anything that gets them far away from San Fran is for the best. Hopefully the new headquarters can get them to actually focus on making good games instead of whatever the hell their priorities have been for the last few years. 

[WereCatf]

I....uh, what's with the creepyface there...?