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Sony Santa Monica Studio hires a new studio head: Mary Olson

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Yurinka

Yurinka

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The previous SSM studio head, Yumi Yang, left in January to be hired as Netflix's Sr. Director of Games Portfolio Management.

The new Studio Head Mary Olson did start as sound designer (this basically is the people who makes the sound fx in games) in MS almost 30 years ago. Later got hired as Audio Manager at Sony's Zipper, and later moved in 2012 to 343 Industries, where moved from audio producer to lead producer and later executive producer. Later got hired as head production and later as studio head of Midwinter Entertainment (developers of the extraction shooter that did shut down less than 2 years after release.

In February 2024 became VP Strategic Portfolio of Behaviour Interactive (publishre of Midwinter, worked in games like Death by Daylight) until got hired by SSM this month. And well, across her career she founded/leaded what seems a couple startups. Doesn't sound as the most exciting CV for a SSM studio head, but who knows.

I wish her best of lucks.

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Mha...not the greatest curriculum on the paper...but the Studio Head is almost more of an HR position so, I suppose, the person is more important of the games to which she worked on
 
MaxParrish said:
Mha...not the greatest curriculum on the paper...but the Studio Head is almost more of an HR position so, I suppose, the person is more important of the games to which she worked on
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AOC833 said:
Why do you hire people that have produced absolutely nothing of value in over a decade?
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Petekilla said:
Had a top position at 343 and has pronouns in her bio. This could be a mess.
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The studio head isn't in charge only of HR, or the production of games. As its name says, it's in charge of the studio. Basically manages the heads of production, HR, marketing & PR, Q&A, finances, external relationships / communications (with HQ or support teams), etc. and from time to time give some speech to the studio to boost morale, etc.

So somebody maybe isn't the best one when working as in this case was at game or audio production, but can do a great job as studio head because skills needed are different. Let's hope they did choose her because she's a top tier fit for the position due to her skills, knowledge, personality and experience putting her as best candidate due to these kind of reasons (and not because any DEI/woke thing).

I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
 
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Kratos is gonna be trans in the next game. Pronouns in bio, not a great track record. PS studios gonna continue to go downhill. Let western development burn and rebuild
 
Yeah I don't have a good feeling about this one at all. Not a great track record.

But that's kind of been SIE Western management in a nutshell the past few years, so par for the course?
 
I feel like people here only see what they want to see?

She worked with Zipper as audio manager for like 5 years?

She's literally worked in sound design most of her career and worked her way up similar to previous person she's replacing?
 
Papacheeks said:
I feel like people here only see what they want to see?

She worked with Zipper as audio manager for like 5 years?

She's literally worked in sound design most of her career and worked her way up similar to previous person she's replacing?
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It's mainly the MS experience giving me pause, 343i experience specifically. That studio is an unmitigated disaster and she was both a Lead & Executive Producer there during the MCC and Halo 5 period. MCC was a disaster at launch and Halo 5 wasn't great either (tho it's a better game than Halo Infinite).

Not saying they can't lead great stuff at SSM, just if I were to assume such off of the resume currently listed, I wouldn't have great confidence in such. They'll have to prove it over time, that's all.

Like if Kojima were to suddenly get a similar position at SSM, I could easily see him doing some amazing stuff with them, because of his pedigree and track record. That's all this is.
 
anonpuffs said:
She was an executive producer at 343 for a good portion of Halo infinite's dev cycle, that's enough to give anyone pause.
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I mean.... don't we know the BIGGEST issue with 343 was their contracting policy? Nothing directly to do with her exactly. Never heard of this lady before.
 
voke said:
I mean.... don't we know the BIGGEST issue with 343 was their contracting policy? Nothing directly to do with her exactly. Never heard of this lady before.
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Contracting , the engine they were on and creative directors from what I read bumped heads a lot. Like mid dev they had basically two directors and one ended up leaving.
 
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