PlayStation 4 and 5 hardware designer retires

Masayasu Ito, the executive vice president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, will retire on October 1. The 60-year-old CEO has led the development of the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 5 and the PSVR glasses, among other things. He has worked at Sony for 36 years.

Sony confirms to Bloomberg that Ito stops working because of his age. Sony Interactive Entertainment, or SIE, has now designated the successor to Ito. Senior Vice President Lin Tao to Take Over His Position reports the company.

Ito joined Sony in 1986. Then he designed sound equipment for cars. In 2000, Ito joined SIE, which is responsible for developing the PlayStation consoles. Eight years later, he became the head of SIE’s hardware division. There, he helped develop the PlayStation 4, with approximately 117 million units shipped by March 2022.

Ito has also contributed to the PlayStation 5. Development of the console started in 2015 and appeared on the market in 2020. In the run-up to the console launch, Ito . had the hardware of the PS5 described. Two other major projects that the CEO was involved in are the PlayStation 4 Pro, a more powerful version of the PS4, and the PSVR glasses. These were both released in 2016.

Update, 3:48 PM: The original version of this article contained a photo and a link to a video. The person in the photo and video was incorrectly labeled as Masayasu Ito in the article. However, it is Yasuhiro Ootori, the vice president of SIE’s Mechanical Design Department. That is why the article has been amended.