Connie Booth Leaves PlayStation After 34 Years. Angie Smets, who worked at Guerrilla for 20 years would be taking Booth’s role.
- Thread starter Gamernyc78
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Ah, ok. Well, I believe Jaffe. I'm sure she's not working there anymore.
The question for me is if she retired because of her age or (likely if Jaffe bets on it) if she was fired.
If she was fired it wasn't because of performance, she had a stellar career. I'd say it isn't also something planned by Jimbo because he's no longer CEO. Also, if it was a Hermen idea he'd have put Angie there in that position when she was promoted a few months ago.
It's rare to promote her twice in a few months, seems to me that they didn't have planned to lose Connie and placed there Angie as a quick patch, the best option available and someone with who Hermen feels confident and also because saw PS Studios too US focused.
It also feels weird to me to see rumored (unconfirmed) layoffs at multiple Sony studios, when they are making more money than ever and selling more games than ever.
Maybe she caused a giant mess that affected the production of multiple studios causing delays and cancelations? Or did something to the transitional CEO that made him angry? Hard to believe to me.
I'd say the supposed layoffs are normal few firings per year in each studio, maybe a few extra in MM because Dreams didn't perform so well and maybe a few more in Visual Arts/Deviation/ND because some people weren't needed with Deviation's game or TLOU Online getting delayed. And maybe Coonie just left because retired or because Phil Spencer offered her a shit ton of money.
Who knows, we'll see.
People don't just get fired like that, assuming she was it might be one of three things (I don't know, and I find it strange to thing she has been fired because someone asked about it and this is the only information we have).
- Some internal managerial fight (this would be strange at the level she is and at this point in her career)
- Newly developed performance problems... again, extremely unlikely
- Performance problems/inability to reach goals (extremely unlikely at this point in her career and at this level)
The whole power trip theory by some other exec makes no sense whatsoever.
Actually from what I was reading on Reddit and Reset, Angie was planned by Herman to shadow connie. And it seems shes the replacment. ANd from what Jaffe was saying she's well liked?
Jaffe just put out a video, and it sounds like external studios who were making GAAS titles HAVEN , and deviation were under Connie's watch. And so wasn't Last of us Factions.
I don't know if this was a issue of Deviation's game that got canned, and Factions got canned were results of Connie's watch over their progress or if she took what some employee's said and pushed back a little to higher ups?
She has overseen Haven's, Deviation and Factions. 2 of those are basically cancelled. I think its a combination of them not seeing results in GAAS sector under her, and her possible pushing back from getting feedback from the studios.
I think its more of her pushing back, but also she has a history of not overseeing title with GAAS successfully. Honestly its all conjecture at this point. But Jaffe did say Deviation and Haven were under her watch. ANd Sony was not happy with Deviation.
Deviation was also.
Her last game she was a credited for was Ratchet and CLank:Rift apart. And it looks like Factions, Haven, and Deviation were under her credit wise.
I think things were not working, and her team was out of their depths in adapting, also I wonder if feedback from Bungie caused some issues on factions where people from the studio complained to connie and she brought it up to higher ups.
Sounds like performance wise GAAS projects under Connie were not working out. And Connie not interveining possibly or assessing those and what to do seems to be where I am thinking this firing comes from.
If factions was under her which it sounds like it was, and bungie had to come in to give a legit assessment, then it seems some talks happened, and smets was shadowing COnnie, seems like its one of those things like in Moneyball.
Adapt or Die.
I think thats what happened to Shawn.
Do we even know if the Deviation game is canned? They are still working on it. Or did their relationship with Playstation wither out?
Honestly the person who came up with this GaaS initiative should be fired lol. Factions should have never been a GaaS and it pains me to see what has happened to it. Naughty Dog has always has a winning formula for their online games. They've always brought over Story continuations (when given the time and resources to execute).
All they needed was the typical lobbies of previous games, some Co-op story missions and a few battle royal modes.
But do we know if Connie has left Playstation as yet?
As for Shawn I think they probably simply didn't have a role for him anymore as Playstation once Jim was promoted to CEO.
Jaffe says she was fired
Isn't he supposed to be her friend? What does he think he's doing?
Don’t shoot the messenger, I don’t like Jaffe but if this is the only way we’d get this info then so be it. Plus in the video he said he hasn’t spoken to her in years.
The fact Jaffe was saying Connie and her team leads me to believe Sony wasn't seeing results after countless check-in's and having bungie assess certain projects that were under her watch and re-launched like Factions.
Feels like her team and her could not adapt to what Sony higher ups want. Thats what this sounds like. if it was something where it was just her dying on the sword then it would just be her that was fired after having disagreements or relaying studio backlash.
The fact its her and the team that works under her to facilitate some of the closer GAAS titles, feels like after Factions that was what broke the camels back.
He's the best thing that Happened to Sony. Their brand strength is because of decisions he made. Dual Sense Edge, Gaming branded headsets, monitors all Ryan.
Buying Bungie all Jim Ryan.
Assuming Jaffe is telling the truth, it's exactly as expected.
I'm sorry but I disagree. While those things could have been good decisions, the live-service pivot was entirely on him. He put her and Hermen in their respective positions, with the results we've been seeing: games stuck in development hell, lack of SP output, pretty much all of their major studios stuck working on mp / live-service crap, etc.
From a "capitalism" standpoint, he was great. For us, gamers? He was absolute shit. And if she was indeed fired, I'm pretty sure Jim was also fired, but from a PR standpoint and to appease the Sony shareholders, it was all framed as him "retiring". Everything fits.
Hermen is trash.
The Ryan / Hulst / Booth legacy can be resumed to the worst year in a decade for PS studios, with 2023 having only one(!) single-player release and one(!) DLC.
2024 is shaping to be even worse, with zero PS Studios single-player games announced. Stellar Blade, Rise of Ronin, and Death Stranding are first (second) party games, published by PS Studios, but are not from any of the actual studios owned by Sony. If Wolverine releases next year, it may very well be the only SP game by their studios.
Yes, we have earbuds, and headphones, and controllers, and a glorified remote with a display, but games? This reminds me of Xbox, with their pillows, lipstick, and fridges.
I'm sorry but I disagree. While those things could have been good decisions, the live-service pivot was entirely on him. He put her and Hermen in their respective positions, with the results we've been seeing: games stuck in development hell, lack of SP output, pretty much all of their major studios stuck working on mp / live-service crap, etc.
From a "capitalism" standpoint, he was great. For us, gamers? He was absolute shit. And if she was indeed fired, I'm pretty sure Jim was also fired, but from a PR standpoint and to appease the Sony shareholders, it was all framed as him "retiring". Everything fits.
I always knew Hermen was scum
Hermen is trash.
The Ryan / Hulst / Booth legacy can be resumed to the worst year in a decade for PS studios, with 2023 having only one(!) single-player release and one(!) DLC.
2024 is shaping to be even worse, with zero PS Studios single-player games announced. Stellar Blade, Rise of Ronin, and Death Stranding are first (second) party games, published by PS Studios, but are not from any of the actual studios owned by Sony. If Wolverine releases next year, it may very well be the only SP game by their studios.
Yes, we have earbuds, and headphones, and controllers, and a glorified remote with a display, but games? This reminds me of Xbox, with their pillows, lipstick, and fridges.
You must be trolling lol, none of this is impressive and buying Bungie is one of the worst moves ever. Huge waste of $3.7 billion dollars
Damn! And yet incompetent snake oil sales men like Hermen is still around. The grim reaper of Playstation Studios
people don’t learn their lesson. Jaffe says something, turns out to be clickbait, doubles down because he doesn’t want to feel stupid for engagement farming.
I’ll wait for actual reports from credible people, like gameindsutry or Schriere. This stuff is just playing into confirmation bias and xbox trolls wet dreams. Jaffe knows his audience, if this is as widespread of a issue as he’s making it seem it shouldn’t be hard to get a real story out of it