Sony has decided to give PlayStation its own business, starting April 1st. The newly-dubbed Sony Interactive Entertainment will be led by Andrew House, former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.
Sony’s financial woes have kept investors paranoid for a couple of years now. Nevertheless, their cameras and video game consoles have been making up for losses elsewhere — namely, their eternally struggling mobile endeavors.
PlayStation’s migration to SIE seems to represent an effort to step from the shadow of Sony’s less successful products and looks like an image adjustment more than a major change in the way Sony has already been doing business in interactive entertainment.
SIE will be opening offices in San Mateo, Tokyo, and London. In a flood of corporate-speak, the company announced their intentions to “become an even stronger entity, with a clear objective to further accelerate the growth of the PlayStation® business” by “integrating the strengths of PlayStation’s hardware, software, content and network operations.”
Along with our business partners, SIE will develop pioneering services and products that will continue to inspire consumers’ imaginations and lead the market. We will work hard to maximize corporate value by coordinating global business operations across San Mateo, Tokyo, and London by leveraging local expertise.
And whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it right. According to conservative estimates by VGChartz, the PlayStation 4 has sold considerably more units than the Wii U and Xbox One combined.
Alongside the birth of SIE, Sony has also laid down $212 million to acquire Altair Semiconductor, a developer of computer chips and LTE software based in Israel. They’ll aid Sony’s development of “smart” home utilities, focused on the continuing expansion of the Internet of Things.
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