The PS4 And PS5’s Chief Hardware Architect Is Leaving Sony Next Month

He might not have as recognisable a name as corporate executives from companies like Apple and Microsoft, but next month, Sony will be saying goodbye to Masayasu Ito, who led the hardware development on the PS4, the PS5, and some of the company’s other notable gaming devices. As reported by Bloomberg and announced by Sony in an incredibly brief press release shared this morning, Masayasu Ito, the Executive Vice President of Hardware Engineering and Operation and representative director of Sony Interactive Entertainment, will be officially retiring on October 1 at the age of 60. Ito first joined Sony back in 1986 and began his career with the company in its in-car audio division, but eventually transitioned to the company’s console division in 2000, around the time as the PlayStation 2 debut. Ito would go on to lead the hardware development for the PlayStation 4, the upgraded PlayStation 4 Pro three years later (which used a faster processor and improved graphics capabilities to enable gaming at 4K resolutions), as well as the PlayStation 5, which the company struggled to manufacture and get into the hands of gamers during the onset of the pandemic due to its custom designed components supplied by chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Ito was also responsible for the hardware design of the PlayStation Portable: Sony’s noble but unsuccessful attempt to topple Nintendo’s dominance in the handheld gaming market, as well as the PSVR headset, which debuted in late 2016. Masayasu Ito will be replaced by the current director and deputy president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Lin Tao. Ito will continue to support Sony in an executive adviser role until March 2023. “Our team values a well thought out, beautifully designed architecture,” Ito wrote of the engineering philosophy behind the Playstation. “Inside the console is an internal structure looking neat and tidy.”

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