[GameSpot] - Sony's PlayStation Hardware Chief Retiring After Almost Four Decades At The Company

[343iBot]

Sony's PlayStation hardware chief Masayasu Ito is leaving the company after almost four decades at the company.

Announced in a press release, the 60-year-old Ito, engineering lead of both the PS4 and PS5, is retiring on October 1, and is set to be replaced by Lin Tao. Under Ito's leadership, the PS4 reached a monumentally large 117.2 million lifetime units sold, cementing it as one of the most successful consoles ever made. According to Bloomberg, Ito's reason for retiring is due to reaching retirement age.

Ito has been with Sony since 1986, and later moved to the PlayStation in 2008 where he oversaw PlayStation hardware engineering. Not only was Ito the lead on the PS4 and the PS5, but he also oversaw the PSVR.

Like its predecessor the PS5 has continued to sell well, though global parts shortages have hampered what the sales potentially could have been, making the console notorious for its elusivity.

Ito wrote a blog post shared on the PlayStation Blog in 2020 where he discussed some of the challenges of developing the console throughout the pandemic, making a note of the chip shortages.

Late last month Sony announced that it would be increasing the cost of the PS5 in numerous regions, though the US isn't one of them.

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