Nathan Drake PS4 PlayStation 4 1

A new Twitter account for incoming PlayStation president John Kodera appeared this week, retweeting corporate intel like PlayStation 4 sales figures and such. It was promptly followed by various Sony employees, lending legitimacy to the handle. However, as of this morning it’s been suspended, suggesting it may have actually been a hoax.

While this wouldn’t necessarily be newsworthy in other circumstances, “Kodera” did make some comments on service-based games that got picked up by various publications – including the very one you’re reading. While the tweet was innocent enough, we did think it was odd that the executive was interacting directly with fans. The likes of Shuhei Yoshida and Phil Spencer have made this a more common occurrence in recent years, though, so we thought nothing more of it.

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However, if it turns out the account was a hoax, then that means we need to disregard the comments that “Kodera” made about service-based games. For those of you who missed it, he essentially said that PlayStation has a different strategy to other publishers, and hinted that Sony won’t be taking the “games as a service” path with its first-party content.

Of course, this contrasts with what he said last year, when he appeared to allude to the fact that the company will be looking for new profit growth opportunities through the sale of in-app purchases in its exclusive games. The comment also appeared to ignore the fact that franchises like MLB The Show are already knee-deep in the service-based game rabbit hole. We’ll try to get some clarification on whether the account was real or not, but our gut feeling is that it was fake.

Update: Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed that the John Kodera account was a big fat fake:

Don't believe everything you read on the Internet, folks – especially when we're the ones writing about it.

[source twitter.com, via News: SIE CEO John Kodera Says not to Worry About First Party Games Going the Service Route]