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After nearly three decades at Sony, Andrew House has called time on his stewardship of PlayStation. Appointed president in 2011, House has in fact worked as part of the Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) team since 1990. Handing the reigns over to his deputy John Kodera, House will remain in a director’s capacity until the end of the year before leaving the firm for good.
"I’m tremendously proud of what we’ve built with PlayStation and Sony Interactive Entertainment: entertaining millions globally with the best in games and creating a fully fledged digital entertainment company. PlayStation has been a huge part of my life for more than 20 years but with the business having achieved record-breaking success, now seemed to be the right time for me to pursue new challenges," he said. "I shall always treasure the friendships and people that have made SIE such a wonderful place to work. I’m also grateful to PlayStation fans and gamers around the world for their loyalty and support. John [Kodera] and the team at SIE are world-class and I know the future of PlayStation is very bright."
What next for House remains to be seen. With his pedigree in gaming, he will not be in short supply of job offers. However his statement that he is going to ‘pursue new challenges’ suggests he may be leaving the gaming arena altogether or setting up his own venture. This is all speculative but it would appear that House already has his mind set on his next step. Whatever it is, it is sure worth following.
House helped launch the very first PlayStation in 1995 and in 2011 he succeeded Kaz Hirai to lead Sony. House’s biggest contribution was launching the PlayStation 4, which is on course to hit 78m sales by financial year end (31st March 2018). "When I passed the baton of leadership for Sony Computer Entertainment to Andrew House in 2011, I was confident that I was leaving the PlayStation business in the best possible hands," commented Kaz Hirai, "and so it has proved.
Meanwhile, incoming president, Kodera, said: "It’s a great honor to take on the role of President and CEO, SIE, and I’m very grateful to Kaz and Andy for the trust and faith they have shown in me. I intend to build on the amazing progress Andy has made enhancing the PlayStation brand and expanding the game and network services business, and will strive to further strengthen the unique value proposition we are able to offer via the PlayStation platform.”
