Sony has moved to deny reports that Kaz Hirai is to replace Howard Stringer as company president in April. As we reported earlier today, Japanese business daily Nikkei claimed that Hirai would be promoted to president, with incumbent Howard Stringer retaining his position as chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation. In a statement passed to our colleagues at CVG, however, Sony claimed nothing had been decided. More >
Kaz Hirai is to replace Howard Stringer as president of Sony Corporation, according to reports. Japan's business daily Nikkei reports that Hirai, the 51-year-old who currently occupies several roles at Sony - representative corporate executive officer and executive deputy president of Sony Corp, president of the Consumer Products And Services Group, and chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment - will assume his new position in April. More >
Channel 4 has named Colin Macdonald as its first-ever games commissioning editor as the UK broadcaster seeks to strengthen its link to the videogame industry. Macdonald's career in the game industry stretches back 20 years, during which time he has served as a producer on the Grand Theft Auto series at DMA Design, and was studio manager at Realtime Worlds for almost nine years, overseeing development of the likes of Crackdown. More >
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The former managing director of Ubisoft Reflections explains why he's leaving big-budget development behind.
Gareth Edmonson, former managing director of Ubisoft Reflections, has been appointed chairman of UK industry network GameHorizon. Edmonson left Reflections - founded by his brother Martin - last month, after ten years with the studio. He then joined Liverpool-based mobile publisher Thumbstar Games as CEO, and took a seat on its board of directors. More >
UK videogame trade association UKIE has announced the appointment of Dr Jo Twist as its new CEO. Twist joins from Channel 4, where she was commissioning editor for education, and has previously worked for BBC Entertainment and BBC Three. UKIE chairman Andy Payne said: "We are really excited that Jo has agreed to lead UKIE at this really exciting time in our development. We took our time to find the right CEO and we believe we have her." More >
Following Fumito Ueda's reported resignation from Sony last week, Yoshifusa Hayama, creator of the QTE, has left the Team Ico project for social game dev Bossa. More >
1Microsoft-owned Kinect Sports developer Rare has announced the appointments of four senior members of staff that have joined the Twycross-based studio from other UK developers. In the past month, Andrew Dennison has joined as software director from Codemasters, where he had spent ten years as lead programmer. Jon Vincent has given up his audio director role at Ubisoft Reflections for the same position with Rare. More >
Frank Pearce, co-founder of World Of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment, has joined the board of directors at the Academy Of Interactive Arts And Sciences (AIAS). Pearce co-founded Blizzard with Mike Morhaime and Allen Adham in 1991. Since then he has played a key role in the development of World Of Warcraft, overseeing production of its three expansion packs, and was executive producer on last year's Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty. More >
Industry veterans Martin and Gareth Edmonson have taken senior roles and seats on the board of directors at Liverpool-based mobile game publisher Thumbstar Games. The company is to open a new studio in Newcastle, where Martin, one of Thumbstar's early investors, will serve as chief creative officer; brother Gareth, who recently quit his position as managing director of Ubisoft Reflections, joins as CEO. More >
Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the hack-and-slash game announced in 2009, has a new producer. Andriasang reports that Shigenobu Matsuyama has been replaced as producer by Yuji Korekado, formerly lead programmer at Kojima Productions. More >
Industry veteran Jamil Moledina has left Electronic Arts and joined social gaming developer Funzio. Moledina, who in addition to being director of business development at EA Partners was also executive director of the Game Developers Conference, is now Funzio's vice president of business development. More >
1Tim Cain, one of the creators of the original 1991 Fallout, has joined Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian as senior programmer. More >
Gameforge, the German online developer and publisher, has appointed Seth Iorio as chief operating officer. Iorio was formerly executive director of Gameforge subsidiary Frogster, and prior to that Gameforge vice president of business development. More >
Labour reshuffle also sees Tom Watson promoted to deputy party chair.
1Electronic Arts has appointed 15-year Microsoft veteran Rajat Taneja as its global chief technology officer. More >
Jason Citron, co-founder and CEO of mobile social network OpenFeint, has left the compay to pursue new opportunities. His replacement is Naoki Aoyagi, who joins from Gree, the Japanese mobile company which acquired OpenFeint in April. Aoyagi said: "In just over 24 months, OpenFeint has grown to over 120 million users across 7,000 games. I thank Jason for his leadership growing the company and wish him well in his new adventures. I'm excited to lead OpenFeint through its next phase of growth." OpenFeint and Gree are to integrate their US operations, with more details promised in the coming weeks.
MCV reports that Fergal Gara, former head of entertainment at UK supermarket Asda, has been appointed SCE UK's managing director and vice-president of SCEE. He replaces Ray Maguire, who left Sony after 17 years of service in April.
Reuters reports that Sony has appointed Philip Reitinger, formerly director of the US national cyber security center, as its chief information security officer. Kaz Hirai announced the new position in May, in the aftermath of the attack on PSN that resulted in the personal details of over 100 million users being compromised. While Hirai said at the time that the incumbent would report directly to chief information officer Shinji Hasejima, instead Reitinger is to report to general counsel Nicole Seligman.
The publisher has promoted former VP of business and legal affairs Clinton Foy to chief operating officer, and charged him with leading its continued expansion into mobile and social games. President and CEO Mike Fischer told Gamasutra: "One of the key new responsibilites of the COO role will be to shape and drive more aggressive business development initiatives in free-to-play, social, mobile, browser and emerging platforms. Clinton’s valuable experience makes him uniquely qualified to lead our organisation in these important areas." Square Enix will hold a 30-minute presentation on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show which will focus exclusively on its efforts in the social and mobile sectors.