If you’re looking for a scapegoat to blame for the thousands of hours of your life you’ve wasted playing PlayStation 4, Mark Cerny’s your man.
He’s one of the most trusted workers at the Japanese gaming company and the lead architect behind the PS4 console.
But here’s something crazy: ol’ Marky Mark isn’t even a full-time employee — he’s a contractor — and in his 35-year career, he’s proven that sometimes, it’s best to have an outsider perspective in the room.
Cerny’s journey
Mark got his start as a 17-year-old at Atari, where he programmed arcade games like Marble Madness (brace yourselves people. This. Game. Is. Madness).
He then bounced around to a few “boutique” gaming companies before striking out to be “his own boss” in the ‘90s — which included contracting for Sony, instructing them on how to make better hardware and better games.
Then, in 2008, after years of gaining their trust as an outside player, Cerny got a big break: he pitched a room full of PS execs on his concept for the PS4 and landed a gig as its lead architect.
But he remains a contractor
Though Cerny is arguably one of the most influential figures in Sony’s gaming division, he is still (by choice, presumably) not a full-time employee.
“It just works for us to have Mark slightly removed from the organization, and able to have that somewhat more detached, neutral perspective,” one Sony exec told Fast Company. “A relationship that’s based on very deep, personal trust, I think for me is where the magic happens.”
Guess foregoing benefits sometimes has its perks?
The post One of Sony’s most valued employees is a contract worker appeared first on The Hustle.
(via The Hustle)
