Sony is seeking to really streamline things in 2016, and nothing screams that more than the just announced merge of two of its biggest entertainment divisions. Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment International are no more, now merged into a single entity that will be know as Sony Interactive Entertainment from the 1st of April forward.
The news comes via a press release[2] which was just published by the company, which goes on to explain the functions of the newly formed company (whose headquarters are now in Los Angeles, California) as well as the director hierarchy. Those of you with eagle eyes will notice one Shuhei Yoshida missing from that flowchart, which might be cause for alarm. Worry not that, as Yoshida hasn't moved at all – and is simply reporting to World Wide Studios director Shawn Layden as normal.
As confirmed via his Twitter account, Yoshida isn't having his role changed at all.
@GameOverGreggy[3] @Nuckerbockers[4] my title won't change.
— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) January 26, 2016[5]
The formation of this singular studio comes as a bit of a surprise, but it makes sense in the grander scheme of things for Sony to do this. As the press release states, this will allow the company to make decisions faster through the combination of their hardware, software and networking branches, which can only help their competitiveness in the market space. It's also a little less confusing now, which helps too.
So say goodbye to SCE and SNEI, and hello to SIE.
References
- ^ Posts by Alessandro Barbosa (www.lazygamer.net)
- ^ press release (www.scei.co.jp)
- ^ @GameOverGreggy (twitter.com)
- ^ @Nuckerbockers (twitter.com)
- ^ January 26, 2016 (twitter.com)
