Andrew House joins advisory board of in-game advertising firm Bidstack

Former PlayStation chief Andrew House has joined in-game advertising platform Bidstack’s advisory board.

House – who started his career with Sony in its Tokyo PR team in 1990 before going on to serve as CMO, co-CEO and CEO – says the company is “a business that can make a significant impact in the space”

“The gaming industry has always been about evolution and progression and striving for solutions that make games more fun, more relatable and more entertaining for the community,” House said. “Against a background of disruption to monetisation strategies within games, I believe that Bidstack’s approach of contextually relevant ads can generate revenue without disrupting the user experience. It’s a business that can make a significant impact in the space.”

“It’s a bit of a pinch yourself moment for me – and a huge coup for the company. When we were negotiating our first publisher deal to pivot the company into the video game sector, Andrew was the President and CEO (before becoming Chairman) of Sony Interactive Entertainment,” added James Draper, Bidstack CEO. “As the man who not only led the resurgence of PlayStation in this console generation, but also diversified their product offerings globally, he will be a valuable asset, adding his wealth of experience and contacts, to the incredible team we’ve put together.

“For myself and the rest of the management team, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from a proven executive leader. Andrew is the perfect person to help us grow Bidstack into the world’s largest video game network.”

Bidstack says it “bridge[s] the gap between gamers, game developers and advertisers” and is the first company to “develop technology that allows adverts to be served programmatically into natural spaces within video games”, putting it “at the forefront of engendering change in the advertising industry”.

In related news, Sony Interactive Entertainment recently appointed Veronica Rogers as senior vice president, and former Double Fine VP Greg Rice recently joined Sony as its new global head of indie accounts. Former Capcom USA SVP, Christian Svensson, has also joined Sony as its new head of global portfolio. 

Guerrilla’s Hermen Hulst was also recently appointed as Sony’s new head of worldwide studios (WWS), a promotion that was “effective immediately” and sees him “manage and lead all game development across the 14 studios that form Worldwide Studios”. Former president WWS, Shuhei Yoshida, has left the position but remains in Sony to head up a “newly formed initiative that will focus on nurturing external independent creators”.

Sony has now sold over 106 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide and PlayStation Network’s (PSN) December 2019 monthly active users reached 103 million. In terms of software, cumulative sales of PlayStation 4 software titles from retailers and the PlayStation Store combined have reached 1.15 billion as of December 31, 2019.