Highlights
- Sony Interactive Entertainment fired Head of Internal Production Connie Booth due to the company's increasing focus on live service PlayStation games.
- The shift towards live service games began with the acquisition of Bungie, but it has been met with difficulties and discontent from SIE studios.
- The discontent within the company, including the cancellation of The Last of Us multiplayer game, was somehow blamed on Booth, leading to her firing and the departure of her team.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Head of Internal Production Connie Booth was fired over the company's growing focus on making live service PlayStation games, according to a newly emerged report. The news of Booth's departure from PlayStation first surfaced online in late October and is still awaiting an official confirmation.
The PlayStation maker started pivoting toward live service games in 2022, having publicly stated as much on several occasions. Its strategic shift toward this brand of interactive experiences started with the $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie, which previously pioneered the contemporary games-as-a-service (GAAS) business model with the Destiny series.
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But Sony's transition toward live service games has so far been anything but smooth, having reportedly been responsible for Booth's departure from the gaming giant, among other difficulties. That's according to David Jaffe, a former SIE employee and God of War creator who previously broke the news of the executive's firing. In an October 25 video posted to his YouTube channel, Jaffe provided some clarification on his original scoop, having asserted that Booth's removal from the company started with Sony's pivot toward live service PlayStation games.
Many SIE studios were reportedly unhappy with that directive, not least because they previously spent decades working on cinematic single-player experiences, thus feeling that the company's leadership was no longer using them to their strengths. The discontent is said to have reached unprecedented heights with the recent cancelation of The Last of Us multiplayer game, which still hasn't been officially confirmed. Nevertheless, the company-wide dissatisfaction was "somehow" blamed on Booth, Jaffe reports, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
SIE's long-time executive, who also served as its Senior Vice President since late 2020, was consequently fired with little notice, as per the same report. It's understood that the vast majority of her team also left the company by now, although it's unclear whether those additional departures were a result of firings, protest resignations, or both. It's equally fuzzy who pulled the trigger on Booth's purported termination. Jaffe reports that PlayStation Studios Head Hermen Hulst was allegedly in favor of "cutting" the company's Japanese studios in the past, speculatively suggesting how that might have prompted a clash with Booth.
Despite all of this alleged turmoil, SIE's GAAS focus is only expected to grow moving forward. The strategic shift was started by Jim Ryan, the outgoing PlayStation CEO who previously claimed live service games will overtake subscription offerings like PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass. And while Ryan is planning to step down and retire in March 2024, Sony will plausibly keep following the GAAS course he set following his departure.
