Kotaku
Looks like Sony's doing a little bit of a reshuffling song-and-dance, as Sony Computer Entertainment America welcomes three new executives to its team. Robert Dyer, Ian Jackson, and Sally Buchanan have all been brought on to help head up SCEA, reporting directly to the SCEA President and CEO himself, Jack Tretton. Dyer will be assuming the position of Senior Vice President, Public Relations, replacing Riley Russell, who will now be Chief Legal Officer and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development.
Following so far?
Ian Jackson will be taking over duties as Vice President, Sales. Currently, Phil Rosenberg is listed on the SCEA corporate website as Vice President of Sales and Business Development, no word yet on whether his responsibilities are being split, or if he's headed off somewhere else.
Finally, Sally Buchanan has been appointed Vice President, Human Resources, a title that isn't currently listed on the SCEA website. Lots of executive changes going on in the Sony camp right now, what with the Phil Harrison resigning from his position at SCEE WWS, it will be interesting to see if any other changes are happening up top at Sony in the near future.
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA EXPANDS EXECUTIVE TEAM WITH APPOINTMENTS OF THREE INDUSTRY VETERANS TO KEY MANAGEMENT ROLESAppointments Include Industry Veterans Robert Dyer to Senior Vice-President, Publisher Relations, Ian Jackson to Vice-President, Sales and Sally Buchanan to Vice-President, Human Resources
FOSTER CITY, Calif., February 25, 2008 - Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced the executive appointments of Robert Dyer to Senior Vice President, Publisher Relations, Ian Jackson to Vice President, Sales and Sally Buchanan to Vice President, Human Resources. Buchanan, Dyer and Jackson, who bring nearly 50 years of combined industry experience, will add further depth and experience to an already stellar executive team. These three key positions, which take effect in March and April 2008 and report directly to SCEA President and CEO Jack Tretton, will help further lead the company's efforts in sales, merchandising, cooperative marketing, recruiting and publisher relations.
"Rob Dyer, Ian Jackson and Sally Buchanan's proven records of strategic leadership and innovation, combined with their extensive industry experience re-enforce their new roles as a great fit for our organization," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, SCEA. "These three appointments augment an already strong executive staff at SCEA and provide the company with additional leadership to focus on key relationships with some of the most important constituencies, our publishing partners, retail community, and internal employees, as we continue to build on the momentum generated in early 2008 by the PlayStation family of products."
Dyer will be responsible for executing the strategy and vision for SCEA's industry partnerships with external developers and publishers as well as oversee strategic co-marketing programs. Dyer, who has more than two decades of senior leadership experience in the game and entertainment industry, joins SCEA from Crave Entertainment Group, where he served as President and COO since 2004, and helped to direct the game and publishing company to secure more than $300 million in revenue in 2007. Prior to joining Crave Entertainment Group, Dyer managed all areas of operations as President of Eidos Interactive and Crystal Dynamics, two of the industry's leading developers and publishers of entertainment software.
With Dyer's appointment, Riley Russell will move into a more focused position as Chief Legal Officer and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development including the additional responsibility of managing licensee relations for first-party intellectual properties.
Jackson will oversee strategic sales and promotional initiatives across all PlayStation platforms in North America. Bringing extensive sales and marketing experience from some of the largest digital entertainment companies in the industry, Jackson most recently held the role of Managing Director for Sony Computer Entertainment Canada and was responsible for maintaining the company's leadership position in the Canadian market. Previously, Jackson also held strategic sales and marketing positions at Electronic Arts, Panasonic and Microsoft where he worked closely with retailers, distributors and channel partners to execute product launches and sales activities. To build on the strong management team already in place for SCE Canada, Steve Turvey will replace Jackson as General Manager.
Buchanan, who has been with SCEA since 1994, will oversee the strategic Human Resources initiatives including career planning, leadership development, succession planning and talent acquisition, and retention strategies for SCEA. Prior to joining SCEA, Buchanan held varying roles in Human Resources within the technology and staffing industries.Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. continues to redefine the entertainment lifestyle with its PlayStation® and PS one® game console, the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) handheld entertainment system, the ground-breaking PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system and its online and network services PLAYSTATION®Network and PLAYSTATION®Store.
Recognized as the undisputed industry leader, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. markets the PlayStation family of products and develops, publishes, markets and distributes software for the PS one game console, the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, PLAYSTATION 3 and the PSP system for the North American market. Based in Foster City, Calif., Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. serves as headquarters for all North American operations and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Comments
My theory is Son's trying to put out enough stories to get anything 360 related off main pages.
@pd771: Or maybe it's "Destination PlayStation"...
@pd771: That's called good PR, no? It seems like they deliberately saved this stuff for post-GDC in order to own the day, if you will.
@pd771:
Of course! They rely on Kotaku, and other gaming blogs for their success and they're waging their hold war on just today's announcements! By taking away anything 360 related today, they shall win!
What's up with the ad?
I'm majorly annoyed at Kotaku for this.
What a yawnfest of a news release.
They should've at least sprinkled a few jokes throughout. Instead all they included were buzzwords and banal bureaucratic jargon.
@Spolodaface: Looks weird. Im waiting for the review where it gets a six... :)
@Tchaikovsky08:
Are you so close minded that you think these news releases are for blogs, and not uhh investors? Because investors don't give a shit about jokes and witty releases, they want the news in a serious and professional manner.
@Spolodaface:
Ditto, it seems too similar to the full page ads Gamespot does. I don't mind the normal ads but when you start replacing normal stuff with ads it gets annoying.
@pd771: Hahahaha, marketing GENIUS!!!!!!!
thank god bluray won and sony can be happy with it wining the war and so it starts giving some attention to it's ps3 :):)
;)
@Spolodaface: "the ad" doesn't tell us much when you get different ads every time you open a page; perhaps you could be more explicit.
Sony is getting the troops ready to march. Beware MS. The only person that can save MS is Ed Fries.
Now this would be news....
Phil Harrison: I left because, let's put it this way, Kaz is a dick, and I'm sick of getting blamed for the Wii's dominance when I warned them years ago that casual gaming was an emerging market.
Phil Harrison: Oh yeah, did I say that Kaz is a dick?
@Godstar:
Believe it or not, Phil can be a dick too.
Perhaps this is a good thing. Last time they "shuffled" the game division had a nice upturn. I wouldn't expect anything less from this either
today is the day where the internet kicks anything MS related in the croch
It's the liberty ad that is the most obtrusive, but don't complain about it. You aren't paying the Kotaku gang's salary, but they are, so deal with it.
Anyone buying Atari stock?
@LittleBigPlaneteer: that's exactly why there needs to be more humor in the world, so people like you don't get bent out of shape from someone posting on a blog about a news release being stuffy and boring.
I understand the need for news releases like this, but c'mon, no reason to hate on us simple minded folk merely looking for a bit of humor to lighten up their otherwise bleak and sad existences.
P.S. Why would a serious investor be perusing not only a video game blog, but the comments therein? Answer: they wouldn't.
@Campion: Definitely the Fall Of Liberty ad on the front page replacing the regular borders of the website.
@Spolodaface:
Me too. Not MAD, but annoyed. It looks like GameFAQs/GameSpot now.
"Turning Point: Fall of Kotaku." (Meant more as a joke than commentary... but not entirely whimsical either. Wow, what's the emote for that? Maybe ;| would work...)
It's funny how Kotaku reskins with an ad for a WWII-based Codemasters FPS when so much of the reader base is eager to slam exactly that kind of thing. Ah well, as long as we don't get banned for badmouthing the game (or the ads :o) it's... tolerable.
Getting back on topic for the story: "Oh." *blinks*
@kingclip:
Oh yes and in a couple years time we get Gamespot level of ads we'll just have to 'deal with it' too.
@LittleBigPlaneteer: Oh, I'm sure, I'm just being cheeky :)
@Islandkiwi: Actually, I heard that was a misprint, he's not going to Atari, but Infogrames. I'm not sure if that's the same thing...
@Tchaikovsky08:
"so people like you don't get bent out of shape from someone posting on a blog about a news release being stuffy and boring."
I'm pretty sure it was you who got bent out of shape about it being stuffy and boring, not me :P
@LittleBigPlaneteer:
dammit, I read that wrong. Ignore that :(
*takes a reading comprehension class*
@LittleBigPlaneteer: haha fair enough, but to clarify, my first post suggested that these news releases include jokes and not the standard business jargon because I am sardonic and crass, not because I actually think they should be included.
To convey such a meaning through text is one of those borderline impossible undertakings.
@Godstar: No. Phil Harrison was fired because of the stuff he revealed about his Japanese bosses and their opinion about casual gaming. He should've just kept his mouth shut ...
@mx5: lol ok
@Godstar: They're both right. Atari and Infogrames are one and the same. Infogrames bought the name years ago.
@kingclip: agree - great PR day for Sony and smart to wait until after GDC so they don't have to compete with other news, like the XNA thing which seems to have faded away pretty quickly.
@Morberis: You don't have to deal with it -- you don't have to come to the site. Nobody is putting a gun to your head.
At the same time, that Liberty ad, which might annoy you, but in reality has zero effect on your ability to use or enjoy Kotaku, puts food in people's mouths, including Mini-Bash for the love of god, so I'm not going to complain about it one bit.
I bet it's not a coincidence that Sony released all this great news on a day the announce a new PR person.
Usually, these internal changes are in the works for a while so I'm guessing that the new PR guy has been working behind the scenes for a few weeks, saving up some good news so he could make a splash on his first official day.
I hope this is an indication that Sony will be doing a much better job of PR, so far so good!
@mx5: What did he say about whom? I didn't know of that...
the sony changes good, turning point ads = bad.
Can we get some impressions by Kotaku on the turning point demo?
I felt like throwing up after saying "oh good, finally some nazis" while playing it.
@fuchikoma: i can see a Crecente-gate debacle happening sometime in the near future...
@Candlejack: What the freakin' heck?!? How have I been here 20 times today and not seen it yet?
I must have some good karma to burn off...
Okay, I shit you not, I posted that comment, went back to the main page, and there it was. Spookyville.
@manjikengo:
Yeah, I'm not interested in Turning Point, but I don't mind the ads. It's like a custom skin, kinda cool.
As for the Sony changes, all right. It's a start. Now they need to give us every single detail behind Phil's resignation. I'm talking juicy Real World drama sort of details.
Then they need to tell us who's taking his place, if anyone besides Kaz.
Wow...they all sound like they're from the show "24"
Lets hope keifer gets out of jail soon so we all can get our 24 fix.
@Candlejack: Recently he criticized his Japanese bosses at Sony about not embracing his casual gaming ideas in the past. They had rejected those because "nobody would play such games". Now Wii is success and Phil publicly said "See, I told you so". The folks in Japan didn't like such tone by an employee in front of everyone and he got shitcanned.
@nxp3: "We don't have much time, Jack. If that Cell overheats, there'll be nothing to stop al-Shiggy's virus from getting into the nuclear power grid!"
@mx5: Poor Guy kind of reminds me of that reviewer of Kane and Lynch dead men who got fired for giving it a 5 out of 10. Hell it deserved lower than that!
@mx5: Oh...thanks for telling me. That's quite sad.
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