The father of the modern PlayStation consoles is moving to greener pastures.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) Representative Director and Executive Vice President Masayasu Ito have recently announced his retirement from the company after working five decades at the company, per Bloomberg.
During his tenure in SIE, Ito designed and oversaw the creation of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld gaming console and Sony's PlayStation (PS) consoles, starting with the PlayStation 3, per Video Games Chronicle.
Masayasu Ito Retirement Details
Sony mentioned in an "Announcement of Officer Appointments" statement for SIE that Ito will be retiring from his positions as the company's Representative Director and Executive Vice President.
Ito will be replaced by Rin Tou as SIE's Representative Director and Executive Vice President. Meanwhile, Kiichiro Urata, the head of Japan Asia partner development and relations for SIE, will also be appointed as director, per Gematsu.
Although Sony's statement didn't reveal why Ito was resigning, Bloomberg's article mentioned that his resignation was due to him reaching retirement age, adding that he will simultaneously leave Sony Group as a whole.
A Sony spokesperson would later confirm that the reason behind Ito's retirement was due to him reaching Japan's retirement age, per Game-News24.
You may remember that Japan's law states that male employees must retire at 60 or 65, as Ogle Tree and Nippon mentioned in their respective articles.
Masayasu Ito's Career With Sony
Ito first joined Sony in 1986 as one of the company's employees who worked on in-car audio equipment, per Metro. Over time, he joined Sony's gaming department and worked on making peripherals for the PlayStation 1 and 2, such as LCD monitors for the original PS.
He eventually moved to the company's PlayStation division in 2008 to lead PlayStation hardware engineering, per The Verge During his time there, Ito then oversaw the engineering of the PSP and PS3 and the creation of the PS4, which was so successful, that it sold $117.2 million worth of consoles as of March 2022, per Gamespot.
In addition to the previously mentioned consoles, Ito was also responsible for the creation of the first PlayStation VR headset, and the PS4 Pro, which featured improved graphics and compatibility without making the leap to the PS5, which he also created.
Ito even detailed the PS5's development process ahead of its launch in 2020, revealing that Sony focused on reducing the gaming console's fan noise levels and improving the capacity in the PS5, which featured a design favoring "a well thought out, beautifully designed architecture" inside the console.
It also has an attention to detail and ease of use, with his 2019 interview with Famitsu revealing just that. He mentioned that he kept the DualShock/DualSense controller's basic shape, which was in use since the original PS because its shape is the easiest to use despite attempting to change it.
"I don't think there is any need to forcibly change the shape," Ito said. "Of course, if a more user-friendly form naturally emerges, that's fine."
