The 60-year-old executive vice president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the arm responsible for Sony’s PlayStation and other gaming initiatives, will leave the company on Oct. 1, Sony told Bloomberg News on Tuesday. Ito retires after a five-decade career at Sony, having joined the Tokyo-based company in 1986 and worked in car audio equipment before moving to the console division in 2000. During his tenure at PlayStation Group, Ito led engineering for the PlayStation 4, which has sold over 117 million units, and the latest generation PlayStation 5. Meanwhile, it also helped launch the upgraded PS4 Pro model, adding improved graphics and compatibility without making the generational leap to an entirely new console platform. The PS5 has been plagued by supply chain and logistics since its debut in November 2020. Ahead of the launch, Ito wrote on the PlayStation Blog about the challenges of developing the console through the pandemic. Part of the initial difficulty in assembling enough units had to do with Sony’s ambitious custom design for the console and its components, which led to production performance challenges for chip supplier Advanced Micro Devices Inc. “Our team values a well thought out, beautifully designed architecture,” Ito wrote of Sony’s engineering philosophy in the blog post. “Inside the console there is an internal structure that looks neat and tidy.” (Updates with confirmation from SIE in second paragraph) ©2022 Bloomberg LP
