On October 3rd, Sony announced that Andrew House would be stepping down as President and Global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Andrew House has featured prominently in the public eye since taking over this role in 2011, taking the stage at E3 several times to introduce PlayStation’s biggest new releases. Alongside growing PlayStation Network to over 70 million monthly active users, House oversaw the introduction of streaming services PSNow and PSVue as well as the launch of PSVR. His most significant success came in the form of the PlayStation 4 which became PlayStation’s fastest-growing platform ever.
On the departure, Kazuo Hirai, President and CEO of the Sony Corporation, said ‘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... I would like to thank Andy for his contribution over many years, and wish him every success in the future’.
Andrew House joined Sony in 1990 and this change ends his 27-year stint at the entertainment giant. On this career move he said ‘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 will be replaced by John Kodera, who has been his deputy for the past year. House will retain a Chairman position to ensure a successful period of transition. It will be intriguing to see if Kodera, who is also a long-term Sony employee having been there since 1992, will take a similar public approach to the role as House did and how he will fair in the role with challenges to combat from competitors encroaching from all sides.
A Full Press Release can be found at Sony's Press Hub.