Andrew House Appointed as Chairman Until End of the Year
Sony has announced that Andrew House, the current head of its video game unit, will step down from his position of global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment by the end of 2017. The role will be given to Tsuyoshi “John” Kodera, who has been at the company since 1992. Kodera was the President of Sony Interactive Entertainment International. Mr. House will continue to remain as chairman of the unit until the end of the year.
“I’m tremendously proud of what we’ve built with PlayStation and Sony Interactive Entertainment,” Mr. House said in a statement. “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.”
Andrew House joined Sony in 1990 as a company spokesman before he took over as global CEO of the PlayStation business in 2011. His efforts have led to the PlayStation 4’s incredible success, pushing Sony’s gaming division to be its most successful business. He also helped launch PlayStation Now and Vue, two network services that provide an important revenue supply for the Japanese conglomerate. According to a Sony spokeswoman, Mr. House is now looking to spend more time with his family before finding a new career in the entertainment industry.
John Kodera is honoured to be the new global CEO. He, too, provided a statement:
“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.”
With the business booming and hardly any reason for slowing down, we don’t expect a shakeup like this to change the impact of Sony’s gaming division. We do, however, wish Andrew House the best in his future endeavours.