PS3 Fanboy

Dave Karraker, current Senior Director of Corporate Communications, is leaving SCEA. In an e-mail sent to members of the press, Karraker stated "I am saddened to leave such a great group of people, but I have been presented a global opportunity near my home in an industry where I have previous experience that I feel I must pursue." His position with the company ends this Friday. He will be moving on to Skyy Spirits.

We at PSP and PS3 Fanboy are saddened to see you go, Dave. You've been so incredibly helpful in providing the answers that our readers have been looking for, and we wish the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Earlier, we reported that up to 100 employees were laid off by SCEA. It appears that these figures were incorrect, and "way high." In a statement to GameDaily, Dave Karraker noted that less than 50 employees were let go. Government regulations require a company that lays off more than 50 individuals to issue a WARN notification -- something Sony did not have to do in this latest step in their corporate restructuring.

"We had a number of different department shifts in restructuring throughout the company, but nothing that's different from what we would typically have," Karraker explained. "The stuff that's been going on and has been going on since I started, back in September, is just continual shifts and changes within departments that's nothing unusual for any company on a regular basis."

According to GameDaily's findings, the lay offs affected a variety of departments, including Consumer Service, Finance, Business and Technology, Operations, 1st and 3rd party test, Marketing and Sales. Karraker refuted the claims, and made note that such layoffs are part of "normal business practice."

Dave Karraker has quite possibly the roughest job of any PR director in SCEA history. Having come to the company only two months before the tumultuous PS3 launch, Karraker had quite an insurmountable task to face: combat the growing negativity surrounding the PlayStation brand and convince a questioning populace the value of an expensive $600 console. In an interview with GamePro, Karraker admits the job isn't easy. However, he thinks that the console's future success is nearly guaranteed: "I am pretty sure if you asked just about any real gamer out there if they would like to have a PS3, their answer would be a resounding 'Yes!'"

Negative perceptions of PS3 can be seen within our own comments section, where Xbox advocates preach about the so-called downfall of Sony. This kind of attitude seems self-perpetuating on the internet, especially when internet media incorporates the negative spin into their reporting: "I think a lot of this goes back to the proliferation of the Internet, where a very vocal minority can make a lot of noise and potentially alter perceptions of the masses, whether they are accurate or not. A lot of this, naturally, is driven by the media who seem focused on taking swipes at us lately, without taking in the full picture."

So what can Sony and Karraker do to help gamers start understanding Sony's approach to the next generation of gaming? The games and hardware should speak for themselves. "A lot of the perceptions are not justified and seem fueled by people who don't have all the facts or have some kind of axe to grind. I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn't say PS3 is an amazing piece of technology."

PLAYSTATION 3's performance at retail last month was surprisingly sluggish -- even more so than predicted. So what does Sony have to say about their admittedly disappointing showing? They don't seem too surprised. "PS3 did see a dip in sales in April that we attribute mostly to a lack of new software in the market," admitted Sony's Dave Karraker.

The future should prove much brighter, as proven by Sony's incredible Gamers Day (which didn't include other high-profile games that Sony is working on). "For the remainder of this fiscal year, we expect a flood of new games for PS3 totalling more than 100 titles across all genres, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, LittleBigPlanet and many more. We feel strongly that this robust library will help drive hardware sales in the upcoming months."

Too bad none of those games are coming out soon. A look at the release calendar for next month reveals a total of eight games.

[Via GameDaily]