Sony Interactive Entertainment is soon set to lose one of its most longstanding employees after 36 years of service, Bloomberg reports. Masayasu Ito, SIE’s executive vice president and longtime PlayStation hardware architect, will be leaving the company on 1 October to retire, at the age of 60.
While you're here, be sure to check out this incredible PS4 DualShock controller adaptation, which allows gamers to play with one hand.
As Bloomberg writes, Ito joined Sony in 1986, and worked on in-car audio equipment before later branching out to the company’s console division in 2000. There, he led engineering on the legendary PS4 (which got its lifetime sales numbers last month, by the way - they came in at a whopping 117.2 million units), as well as the new-gen PS5. He also assisted on the PS4 Pro (which still serves as a solid alternative for anyone unable to get their hands on the ever-elusive PS5 yet), and designed the PS3’s hardware.
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In a 2019 Famitsu interview, Ito spoke about the design of the DualShock and DualSense controllers, explaining why they’ve barely changed since the PS1’s release in 1994. “We have tried various things, but in the end we come back to this shape. We end up coming back to the point where we say ‘this shape is the easiest to use,’” he said (via VGC). “I don’t think there is any need to forcibly change the shape. Of course, if a more user-friendly form naturally emerges, that’s fine.”
VGC reports that current director, Lin Tao, will soon become the representative director and new executive vice president, and current SVP head of Japan Asia partner development and relations, Kiichiro Urata, will take on the role of director.
Topics: Sony, PlayStation