With the recent Departure of Shawn Layden from Sony Interactive Entertainment, among other executives over the past few years, I've noticed something worrying about the company. PlayStation no longer has any face. By that I mean a charismatic executive who actually cares about the industry he/she works in, and is willing to present personally in front of their customers. Just look at Sony's contemporaries. Xbox has Phill Spencer, Nintendo has Shinya Takahashi and Yoshiaki Koizumi. Who does PlayStation have now? Andrew House is gone, Adam Boyles is gone, Layden is gone, Kaz has long since been promoted and is now retired from Sony as a whole, Yoshida hasn't had a big public presence in years, and people like Jim Ryan come off more as generic suits rather than charismatic gamers or developers like the others.

Now I'm not saying you necessarily need gamers and developers in management positions to run a successful gaming venture, The legendary Hiroshi Yamauchi was as Corporate as Japanese executives could get, yet he helped Nintendo be a powerhouse of the gaming industry in the first place. I'm just saying that compared to Nintendo and Xbox at the moment, SIE just feels like another generic gaming company. That said, maybe Sony could find another charismatic figure to represent PlayStation in the future, and if not who knows, maybe they'll be fine without a likable front-man. But for now, Sony Interactive no longer has any personality or face.

They could pick a few guys here on the forum

I had similar feelings when Ken Kutaragi and Phil Harrison left. And then I was worried when Jack Tretton, Adam Boyes, Andrew House left. However then there was still Yoshida and Shawn...but now Shawn is gone.

And I honestly haven't seen any of the people who have replaced them have any interest in being a "personality". Which is probably why they are shifting from conferences like E3 and even their own PlayStation Experience.

Does it even matter?
When it comes to caring about game directors I get it, cause you like a particular game/franchise. When it comes to corporative branding tho. Not so much.
I never cared about on-screen people talking about a game they are gonna publish as much as just watching the damn trailer. Reggie popping out and talking about it had/has no added value for me.

Gotta be honest, I dont have any idea of what Phil Spencer even looks like. I only hear of him when he tweets something that gaming sites consider "news".But again, thats just me, if Phil Spencer retired from Microsoft and someone else took over for him it wouldnt make much a difference for me. But if Yoko Taro retired from Platinum Games, and someone else took over and directed "Nier: Automata 2, Electric Bugaloo" Id care. 

Dont @ me, I wont care to defend this. And saying that Yamauchi was a "personality" is a strecht, genius as he was.

It all started when Kevin Butler started playing Nintendo Wii. 😢

I'm sure that not having an Internet personality will not affect their bottom line. What they need is a mascot, dammit. Microsoft's got the big X and Nintendo Captain Rainbow.



In all seriousness - why is this worrisome outside Internet forums?

Never said he was a personality, quite the opposite actually.

I like Shuhei Yoshida and Mark Cerny but I agree that Jim Ryan seems like a suit seeing users as nothing other than dollar bills. He really could be the downfall of PlayStation.

With that said, they just need someone like Jack Tretton again. A calm and down to earth exec who doesn't seem as full of himself as Shawn Layden and Phill Spencer seem to be imo.

Well they still Got Mark Cerny and Shuhei Yoshida , that's the most important thing. Mark Cerny already outdid Ken Kutaragi on designing Playstation system and Shuhei Yoshida is the Shigeru Miyamoto of Sony.