Sony Interactive Entertainment announces multiple leadership changes

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has restructured its management team with several key appointments.

They include a number of changes to its engineering leadership team ahead of the imminent departure of SIE deputy president John Kodera.

Kodera, who previously led the teams who developed the infrastructure for PlayStation Network, is taking on a new role which will include leading digital transformation for all of Sony.

Hideaki Nishino, who joined SIE in 2000 and is credited with playing a key role in many of the innovations in PS4 and PS5 product development, has been promoted to SVP platform experience.

Reporting directly to SIE CEO Jim Ryan, San Mateo, California-based Nishino will oversee network engineering and operations, R&D, design, data strategy and operations in addition to managing product and platform development.

Michael Pattison, currently VP of global third-party relations, will report to Nishino in his new role as SVP platform planning and management.

During almost eight years with the company, London-based Pattison is credited with being a key figure in building SIE’s portfolio of PS4 and PS5 business partnerships and is said to be a leading advocate for the indie development community.

In the finance department, SIE deputy president and chief financial officer Kazuhiko Takeda will retire in June 2021 after almost 40 years at Sony.

Lin Tao will join SIE as its Tokyo-based SVP finance, corporate development and strategy in July 2021 and report directly to Ryan. She previously spent five years within the PlayStation business and seven years within the mobile phone business.

PlayStation has also announced several additions to the board of directors of SIE Tokyo. Joining representative director, president and CEO Ryan will be Masayasu Ito as representative director and deputy president, Lin Tao as director and deputy president, and Takeshi Shibata as director.

Sony confirmed in February that it was winding down original game development at its oldest first-party developer, Japan Studio.

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Sources: PlayStation is winding down Sony Japan Studio 

Majority of development staff have been let go, but ASOBI Team remains, sources tell VGC

Following a number of departures, what remains of Japan Studio will be absorbed into Astro Bot studio Team ASOBI, which will continue as a standalone studio within Sony Japan, effective April 1.

“In an effort to further strengthen business operations, SIE can confirm PlayStation Studios JAPAN Studio will be re-organized into a new organization on April 1,” a spokesperson told VGC.

“JAPAN Studio will be re-centered to Team ASOBI, the creative team behind Astro’s PLAYROOM, allowing the team to focus on a single vision and build on the popularity of Astro’s PLAYROOM.

“In addition, the roles of external production, software localization, and IP management of JAPAN Studio titles will be concentrated within the global functions of PlayStation Studios.”