Sony has initiated an executive reshuffle in the wake of the PSN hacking affair. Kaz Hirai will relinquish his role as president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment and will move to the role as group chairman. His replacement will be Welsh-born Sony Entertainment Europe head, Andrew House. The reshuffle will take effect on September 1, which will be the after current chairman of the gaming division Akiro Sato steps down.
Sony denies that the reshuffle has anything to do with the PSN hacks, which resulted in the exposure of the personal information of over 77 million Sony PlayStation Network users. Prior to the network security debacle, Hirai was widely perceived as being the likely successor to Sony Corp’s current chairman and CEO, Sir Howard Stringer.
However, according to Reuters analysts do not see the move, which takes Hirai away from day-to-day responsibilities, as setback.
“He’s in pole position to head the whole company, so he needs to focus on that, which is probably why they sought out a successor for the videogames business,” said analyst Nobuo Kurahashi of Mizuho Investors’ Securities.
