Sony has announced today an organizational change for Sony Interactive Entertainment worldwide (which affects SIE America, SIE Europe, and SIE Japan Asia), which will see Jim Ryan- until now a pretty high ranking European executive for Sony- have oversight over the sales and marketing departments of all three arms of the company.
Additionally, Shawn Layden, who was the head of SIE America, will now be working with Sony Worldwide Studios. John Kodera will now be head for Japan and America, while Ryan retains his position as the chief of the European region. The end result of all of this should be a more cohesive and unified first party initiative from Sony- and indeed, that is something they do cite in the press release making the announcement.
Sony’s first party effort is, of course, already excellent, and if this sees more quality games coming from Europe, America, and Japan, I think all these changes will be for the better in the end.