You can brand me a big fat nerd if you want to, but I genuinely look forward to the executive interviews you get around E3 time. I used to anticipate Jack Tretton joining Geoff Keighley, his Hollywood smile only eclipsed by the sweltering Los Angeles sun. And then for a while it was Shuhei Yoshida’s turn to take the spotlight, the likeable veteran well-versed in Sony’s first-party output – and just an all-round good guy.
But it’s been a while since we heard from any of PlayStation’s bigwigs really. Marketing chief Jim Ryan said a spate of silly things last year, and departing group president Andrew House gave a nice speech at The Game Awards in 2017. Aside from that, we’ve only really heard from Shawn Layden in drips and drabs, and Yoshida is clearly eager to take a step away from the spotlight; the community management campaign that he ran for the PS4 – which was never his job to begin with – evidently took its toll.
I’m fine with Yoshida focusing on what he does best: greenlighting great games and cultivating PlayStation’s amazing group of Worldwide Studios. And I also don’t think we need to be hearing from Layden on social media every single day – there’s a time and a place. But intentional or not, I haven’t felt the connection with PlayStation's top brass that existed at the start of the generation for some time – no one’s really bothered to fill the roles previously occupied by Adam Boyes et al.
Before the exaggerations overflow, I don’t think Sony’s trying to keep fans at arm’s length at all. I think it has an actions speak louder than words mentality, which is evidenced by its recent press conferences. The company doesn’t care so much about telling you what it’s doing these days, it’d rather show you. And, considering that all of the executives from all of gaming’s biggest players are effectively businessmen at heart, it's not the end of the world.
But it doesn’t sit well with me that the most we’ve heard from PlayStation’s top brass at E3 2018 is that two minute interview with Shawn Layden during the press conference’s awkward interlude and a 90 second clip of Shuhei Yoshida uploaded to a channel I’ve never even heard of. I don’t know how they got an audience with the Worldwide Studios president, because everyone else is off-limits as far as I can tell – including even newspapers and broadcasters like the BBC.
The cynics among you will probably argue that this all rests with the Fortnite issue, but it doesn’t seem like Sony had arranged anything prior to this blowing up. Maybe it suspected that the first question from journalists would pertain to cross-play anyway; maybe it doesn’t trust its suits to talk without putting their foot in their mouth. Either way, I’m disappointed. I don’t need to hear from these guys every single day; I do expect a few comments from them a couple of times a year.
I think for the first time I’m leaving an E3 with questions unanswered. I’ve seen so many great games for the PS4 that I’m more than excited for the future, but without any interviews, I don’t know really know what’s next for the brand as a whole. What’s it passionate about? What are its short-term plans? What’s next for PS4? How does it plan to improve PlayStation Plus? What are its thoughts on PlayStation VR? Is it satisfied with the response to God of War and Detroit: Become Human?
It’s unfortunate that it’s acted so closed off, and that it currently lacks that direct connection with fans. I’m not going to run around screaming hubris and reeling off hyperbole like this is a war crime; it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But I think it’s fair to say I’d like to see Sony talk a little bit more and be a bit more open. The most important thing will always be exciting games, but it’s nice to hear about the business side of things, too – even if it comes through a PR filtered lens.
Does it bother you that the Sony's suits aren't doing any interviews at E3 2018, or is this a total non-issue? Rant and rave like your life depends on it in the comments section below.
Comments 33
Tbh I think it's John Kodera that really needs to be making that kind of interview right now. Shawn Layden and Yoshida can only realistically talk about Worldwide Studios rather then deeper company policies going forward. I agree that I would like to hear from them a bit more but sadly one way they did keep in touch with their core audience was through Podcast Beyond and PS I Love shows but Greg Miller pulled the plug on that so an underestimated avenue for feedback was lost and is unlikely to happen again with Greg's typical hyperbole comments in recent days.
Honestly, I didn't even notice. I don't really know who most of these people are, other than Cerny, or what they do, if I'm truthful.
They're too busy swimming in that vast vault of ps4 profit to manage anything else.
Bring back Jack Tretton I say
can't say i'm that bothered, never really warmed to shawn layden, and didn't like jack tretton before him. yoshida-san seems like an affable guy but not one that is fond of the camera / spotlight. andy house and adam boyes are big losses.. had thought somebody like azad qizilbash would be a natural replacement for boyes..
i think that they are just more comfortable to let the games speak for themselves and show what playstation is about.
they will ofcourse attend e3 and psx shows and host them but i don't think that interacting with the "outside" world is that important to them because again the games do the talking for them and it works. altough i must say that i miss jack's smug smile when the ps4 was revealed. i mean he just crushed the xbox reveal like a it was a slow spider.
I miss jack tretton.he was the best.jack tretton was a legendary.word up son
@leucocyte Yeah, @ShogunRok and I talk about this often. Absolutely no idea why they haven't put Asad Qizilbash in a public position — he's a brilliant presenter and interviews well, too.
I'm not sure what his exact role is, but I think he'd do the job of being that link between fans and the company brilliantly.
A shame.
PS5 is coming...I imagine they don't to be asked that question so they avoid interviews entirely!
@AFCC Microsoft doesn't seem to give a crap about mentioning the next Xbox. But they can easily just say they have nothing to announce on that front.
The only one I need is Cerny talking about the PS5 hardware target, even if it's 2 or 3 years away. I love hardware and "future proof vision", so whatever clever tricks he has under wraps for the PS5 to overcome budget, thermal and hardware availability is music to my ears.
Hubris! Nerd rage! Arrogant Sony is back!
In all seriousness, I haven't really noticed. Most executive interviews throughout the industry are genuinely rubbish, with the sort of vague answers that would make Theresa May proud (Reggie I'm looking at you). I agree it's nice to have these corporations connect with the fans in a more intimate way, but at the same time it's not their day job and so many executives look like rabbits in headlights. I'd rather Sony spruce up how they already communicate with fans, improve their YouTube channels and make the blog more than just a way of announcing things, so there is more of a direct way of talking to us outside of the big press events.
I miss Tretton, House and co...
While I agree Sony do well by showing us what we really want with the games, it was nice to see the execs as it helped us relate to the company as people rather than just a game making machine!
The way they changed up PSX last year I think they consider that the main time for them to communicate up close with fans. Just looking at all the comments over E3 streams I believe that they think people just want to see the games and try to concentrate on just that.
I didn't really notice, and now that you made me notice, I couldn't care less. I'm a "show me, don't tell me" person
I'm perfectly satisified with what they are doing. Since E3 started I basically spend all my free time watching trailers and reading articles about their games... if anything, there's even too much information
@get2sammyb MS really wants to talk about the next generation because Xbox One is a failure. Sony is doing great and I believe they’re not talking about PS5 right now to keep the great sales of PS4.
It’s a changing of the guard. Kaz, Adam and Andrew have all moved on. New leadership, new approach. Hopefully that doesn’t lead to a poor PS5 announcement/launch. We will have to wait and see.
@lacerz While there's an element of truth to that, they've recruited from within. The likes of Layden and Jim Ryan have been with Sony since PSone. I'm not sure about Kodera, but I know he was Andrew House's wingman.
@DLB3 Kinda, yeah.
@get2sammyb We cannot forget there was a huge shuffle in the top brass in pretty much every level of the company. This changes take months to set in, specially in big companies like Sony.
@get2sammyb Take my Reggie, please. Guy's been spouting nuthin but hypocritical nonsense for the past 2 days.
Switch is a game system, that's why we have Hulu.
We only show games 6 months out, that's why we showed a trailer for Yoshi, a MP4 logo, and talked about Gen 8 Pokémon last year.
Be thankful for your silence.
I miss Jack Tretton 😢
Yeah i'm with you on this topic. I miss the faces or the human side of Sony this year. Hopefully we'll see them next year Sony has always been about the gaming community but without faces it may become a faceless corporate behemoth (scary!).
@DLB3 Saturday.
@get2sammyb
House to Kodera:
“You can be my wingman any time.”
It's been exactly the same with Nintendo since Kimishima took over.
Too exclusive to talk about them, really
I used to watch E3 just for Jack Tretton. He was funny, seemed like a down to earth guy, and really humanized the brand for me. Shaun seem cool....but idk seems way more awkward and unsure of himself. Also he looks like Sal from Impractical Jokers and I keep expecting him to do pranks. Lol.
@PS_Nation That might be the right way to look at it Sony should tske it easy to get to the net gen. 😁
Completely agree with the article, I miss their interviews and statements. I thought we would hear about features still coming to PS4 (username changes, anyone?), reassuring that PS4 still has quite a few years left, some PR about how it's the best place to play, something like that. I would love more dev interviews as well.
They probably want to avoid being live bombarded with questions about crossplay and PS5. Having people pester them with PS5 questions would be counter productive on their sales. The only one I miss is Yoshida anyways.
@RedMan33 I thought Jack was great at E3 especially the PS4 reveal I even liked that Adam Boyes who left Sony a few months back. It's weird because a lot of known faces have left with the last 2 years especially since the playstation is at its peak. It's like "we've done our job we can leave"
@get2sammyb Maybe Sony execs are being extra careful to have a big surprise reveal, maybe they are waiting to see what xbox does (last time Xbox lost the gen for them)!
I see no other reason to not wanting to talk more...
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