PlayStation veteran Connie Booth has reportedly left Sony.
As reported in Game Developer, former Sony staffer David Scott Jaffe made a video revealing this news. Jaffe says he does not know what the exact reason for Booth’s departure is, but he can confirm that she has gone. For their part, neither Sony nor Booth herself have confirmed or denied Jaffe’s claim.
If true, it will be huge news for fans of Sony from the very beginning. Booth joined Sony all the way back in 1989, and was moved into the PlayStation division as early as 1995 as a senior producer. While she is not as famous for being a public figurehead or company head like the likes of Shuhei Yoshida, Andrew House, Ken Kutaragi, or Jim Ryan, Connie has just as close a connection to the company as all these men.
In her capacity as PlayStation producer, Connie worked on over 100 games, as listed in her Mobygames page. That list starts with Crash Bandicoot in 1995, and presumably ends with God of War Ragnarok in 2022. She also has an odd number of non-PlayStation titles where she is given special thanks.
Her PlayStation tenure essentially places her as producer on very much every major PlayStation franchise, and many deep cuts in their library as well. Among her enduring works are Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, The Last Of Us, Sly Cooper, Resistance, Horizon, and Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Given her age, it is highly likely that, just like Jim Ryan, Connie has simply chosen to call it a day. While it is possible that some internal politicking was at play, given that Connie had stayed away from the spotlight and there are no rumors going around, we really aren’t in a position to speculate on it.
But we need to put this in proper context, given some readers may dismiss the exit of a game industry veteran who isn’t well known. So, this is very much comparable to when Shigeru Miyamoto retired from game development to transition as a fellow at Nintendo. Or when Hideki Kamiya announced his exit from PlatinumGames.
While we can believe that there are people in those companies who are ready to take over the roles they had, we can also say that those companies had felt a loss, because these are veterans who guided many projects in their time, and likely could have stayed valuable if they stayed on.
But of course, we can respect when these people decide that it’s time for a change, and in that spirit we congratulate Connie for her achievements in this industry, whether she really has left or not. Hopefully Sony can formally confirm this so that the gaming community can give her a proper sendoff, but we are grateful for her contributions nonetheless.
