Sony Appoints New Europe, America Studio Heads

Following May’s promotion of Shuhei Yoshida as the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios after Phil Harrison’s departure to Infogrames, Sony has appointed SCEE vice president Michael Denny as its new senior vice president of Worldwide Studios Europe. As senior vice president of WWS Europe, Denny will assume overall responsibility, including managing all internal studios and external productions, for the region. Denny (pictured) joined Sony in 1995 with the PlayStation’s Europe launch as head of business affairs at Psygnosis (SCE Studio Liverpool). He served in various positions since, including director of external development at SCEE Product Development, overseeing projects such as Buzz, MotorStorm, and LittleBigPlanet. Sony also announced the promotion of Sony San Diego Studios senior director Scott Rohde to vice president of Worldwide Studios America. Similar to Denny, Rohde will assume overall responsibility for Sony’s operations in North America. Prior to joining SCEA, Rohde assumed various product development management roles in the industry, including co-founder and director of development of Page 44 Studios, production director for a Radical Entertainment/ESPN joint venture, and sports production management at Sega of America. At San Diego Studios, Rohde has helped manage projects focused on sports development and PSN titles. Said Denny: “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.”