14 DAY TRIAL // After the surprise departure of Phil Harrison, now the head of Infogrames, Sony was suddenly left with a big gaping leadership hole right in the middle of its European organization. Bad news is this happened just as it was getting ready for a fall release season that most see as crucial for the PlayStation 3 gaming console.
So, the people at Sony decided to fix the problem by assigning Michael Denny, who was the vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, to the position of senior vice president of Worldwide Studios Europe. As such, Denny will be the one managing internal studio development work and third party development related to Sony titles.
Denny has previous experience in managing videogames development and even started his career at Sony by working at Psygnosis, which is now the Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Liverpool. During his career, he oversaw the development of such titles as Buzz, Motorstorm and LittleBig Planet, which is yet to be launched.
Michael Denny commented on his new appointment, saying that "I'm looking forward to this new challenge, and in particular, the opportunity to further my work with the many talented development teams, both internally and externally, that make up WWS Europe... We have an unprecedented portfolio of AAA titles this year, such as MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Singstar, Buzz Quiz TV, LittleBigPlanet, and Killzone 2, which we're looking forward to showcasing further, over the coming months."
Sony San Diego Studios senior director Scott Rohde is also moving up the corporate ladder by becoming vice president of Worldwide Studios America. Rohde will assume responsibilities related to North America that are much like the ones Denny has in Europe.
The changes are meant to shape up both organizations as the fall and then the holiday videogame launch season approaches. Sony is keen to get the best games it has to the PlayStation 3, many of them exclusives, in the hope that the gaming console will build up a sizeable sales lead over the Microsoft Xbox 360.