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Sony Computer Entertainment Is Now Sony Interactive Entertainment
Today marks the start of Sony's 2017 fiscal year. It also is a new chapter for the PlayStation team, with the rebranding and reorganization of Sony Computer Entertainment.
As we covered in January, the new Sony Interactive Entertainment will be led by president and CEO Andrew House. Sony Computer Entertainment America head Shawn Layden is now the chair of the publisher's worldwide studios as well as leading Sony Interactive Entertainment America, and head or worldwide studios Shuhei Yoshida reports to him.
The move unifies PlayStation's gaming, streaming and network services, and PlayStation Vue television service under one roof. That roof happens to be in San Mateo, California, bringing headquarters for global operations to the United States.
End users are unlikely to see an impact in the short-term, according to Layden. "In the long run, it will mean everything," he writes. "The formation of SIE will allow us to forge a unified PlayStation organization that can adapt more quickly to meet the needs of the gaming community, innovate with digital services like PlayStation Vue and PlayStation Now, and — above all else — drive consistent and constant innovation in the dynamic medium of videogames."
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
Our Take
While this is largely a business move that won't impact end users in any perceptible way, it is significant. Bringing headquarters to the United States is a major shift for Sony that has been heavily focused on Europe and Japan. This likely comes, in part, due to shifting consumption in Japan that favors mobile, while western gamers are still hungry for console games.
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