After 27 long years working at Sony, the past six of which spent as PlayStation’s head honcho, Andrew House has announced that he is stepping away from Sony at the end of this year. Control of the good ship PlayStation will be passed on to House’s deputy, John Kodera.
House has been around since the launch of the PS1 back in 1995, working his way up the ladder until 2011, when he took over from Kaz Hirai. During his six-year tenure, he has been responsible for the launch of the PlayStation 4, which single-handedly allowed Sony to dominate the console gaming landscape. As contributions go, you can’t get much better than that.
Perhaps Andrew House gazed upon the breadth of his domain and wept, for there were no more markets left to conquer. In an official statement, House mentions that his decision to leave will allow him to pursue other challenges: “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.”
His predecessor Kaz Hirai has already come out in support of Andrew’s decision: “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, and so it has proved. Andy and I go back more than 20 years and spent much of this time together, dedicating ourselves to ensuring the success of the PlayStation business. I would like to thank Andy for his contribution over many years, and wish him every success in the future.”
His successor, John Kodera also had this to say: “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,”
With the success that PlayStation have earned under the leadership of House, it’s left some huge shoes to fill. Whether or not John Kodera is up to the task remains to be seen. He’s also a 25 year veteran of Sony, taking over as head of Sony Network Entertainment in 2013 before becoming House’s deputy last year, so he has the pedigree. We’ll see if he meets those expectations when he takes the reins next year.
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