INTERVIEW: SCE CEO Andrew House

June 19th, 2012, 16:58 Posted By: wraggster

Andrew House felt he was heading into the lion’s den ahead of his first major press conference since becoming CEO of PlayStation.
SCEA president Jack Tretton had lapped up the whopping and adulation as he introduced violent action games to the bloodthirsty crowd. House’s job was to show the same audience an interactive book service. For kids.
“I think I had Jack behind me going: ‘Ok mate, you can go on stage for this one,’” laughs House.
“We were joking backstage and I said: ‘You do realise that we have forged a division of responsibility at E3. You are in charge of blood and mayhem, and I am family-friendly.’”
Not that House minds this role. He is a family man, after all. When MCV asks about his first nine months in the job, he tells us how great it’s been for his kids. “My son has loved the adjustment to Japan,” he says.
But House is not just about the family in the home, the Welshman is all about cultivating relationships at work, too.
On the surface PlayStation’s E3 press conference was what you’d expect. A new Move game, a few Vita projects, some ambitious new IP coupled with established brands. The only thing missing was 3D ­– another sign perhaps that the technology is on the wane.
Yet beneath the surface, and this year’s press conference was all about partnerships. House has built a strong reputation for forging relationships. In his career at Sony he helped bring GTA to PlayStation, he asked Mubi to bring its catalogue of indie films to European PS3s, and he was even instrumental in Sony’s lucrative deal with J.K Rowling for Harry Potter website Pottermore.
And building better relations with third parties is exactly what House has been doing in the nine months since we last spoke. Wonderbook is yet another partnership with Rowling, Ubisoft is developing exclusive PS3 and Vita content, HTC has teamed-up with PlayStation Mobile, and 2K has even let Sony use its ‘Big Daddy’ character in PlayStation All-Stars.
“When I took on the role one of the things that I wanted to do was leverage my experience of running third-party relations and to build a global framework about the way we work with publishers,” he explains.
“I put together a global meeting to hammer out issues and define them. It was different because we were putting people together to deal with issues in a really active way. But it was also married with the fact that most of us have great longevity with the company and know each other well. There was a great sense of team spirit with no real hierarchy in the room. That was a great moment for me. I thought: ‘Yeah, this is going to be fun and interesting.’”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/inter...w-house/098147

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