Playstation UK Sales Boss Quits

According to reports out of Europe, Sony Computer Entertainment UK sales director Kevin Jowett has left the company just weeks before the Euro launch of the PlayStation 3.

According to Next-Gen Euro media partner MCV, Jowett resigned to pursue other undisclosed opportunities outside of the games industry. The European launch of the PS3 is set for March 23, with product already on the way from China.

Jowett had been sales director since 1998, and has worked on retailer allocation of PlayStation hardware.

MCV said that Jowett’s departure would be a “blow” to Sony’s UK operations, citing a “leading games buyer” who called the timing of the resignation “absolutely incredible.” The buyer said that the move could disrupt retailer negotiations regarding the PS3 launch.

The buyer added, “Obviously, Sony is a big organization and there will be people there who can fill Kevin’s position. But this can’t be helpful to them.”

At last week’s D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas, SCE Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison confirmed that there would be 1 million PS3 hardware units available in Europe on launch day.

Sony had shipped 2 million units total in North America and Japan as of the second week of January.

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*cough* Bernie Stolar *cough*

You' re spot on, although was he pushed as our friend was?

But Bernie Stolar was a multiple offender, and an idiot. This guy just seems to want to get out.

Whatever the reason, leaving just weeks before the biggest console launch ever after the companies troublesome past year just plain looks bad. Especially after KK was reassigned not so long ago.

I don' t want it to happen. But with all this negativity surrounding the PS3, I can' t help but feel that the PS3 is going to seriously flop, sometime down the line.

Y' know, if they hadn' t shaken up the European launch as much as they have, I would have disagreed with you, but there just doesn' t seem to be much good news for them these days. Like, at all.

I still maintain that a DVD equipped machine would have been better.

They could have released the smaller games on DVD, then bumped up to Blu-Ray. ala-PS2. That worked for them last time.

I think that if the PS3 had gotten off to a good start, then Blu-Ray would have really taken off, & I still think it will. But I don' t think that PS3 will be as much of a factor this time, especially since there' s a competing media already on the market.