After a magnificent 20 -year mandate with Sony Interactive Entertainment, Phil Rosenberg, please of Global Partner Development and Relations, recently announced that he was offered goodbye at the end of 2025. Phil was a faithful and full of the growth of the PlayStation brand and, with this team, worked tirelessly over the years to ensure that all players have enjoyed a vibrant experience on a variety of PlayStation products.
We had the chance to speak with Phil to review the Hauts, the Bas, the challenges and the moments of joy that shaped Phil’s time with Sony Interactive Entertainment and the PlayStation brand.
SIE.BLOG: Phil Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today! You first started working with the PlayStation brand through your previous business, The Performance Marketing Group. What is your memory of this experience and what did you learn about Sony Computer Entertainment during this period?
Well, it was an exciting period. I remember that I went to a PlayStation evening in Chicago in early 1994. It turned out that some of my former colleagues from a job earlier were going to be the new management team for SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America). So I was very early to hear about PlayStation, discover the promise of PlayStation and understand the ambition of Ken Kutaragi (creator of the original PlayStation console. The father of Playstation).
I think that some people were skeptical about what it was as big as it was, but man, Ken had almost nailed what his early vision would evolve to become. This vision has led to our great success in the past 30 years.
I was an outdoor entrepreneur when we started performance marketing. We were in a way a “pistol to hire” to manage sales on the ground. When the company went from these outdoor agency agreements, it was then that I joined the PlayStation team in April 2006 as a business vice-president
Development. I am one of each material launch, including PSP, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita – All – from the very beginning.
SIE.BLOG: You have discussed the anticipation of what the PlayStation brand would become. In your opinion, what has the PlayStation brand connected so well with players and entertainment fans over the years?
We had a lot of lessons along the way and we believe it or not, we were much more immature than you imagine for our first decade.
After a huge success with PS2, PlayStation 3 was beyond the challenge, and it was a kind of transition for our entire business. Even if it was a very difficult job, PlayStation 3 helped us find our foot in future generations of games. First, we had to understand why a connected world is so critical and how it can evolve. Then we had to remember taking care of developers and creators – helping and supporting them. And of course, you must always remember the consumer. I think that from there, these principles always guide PlayStation. Now PlayStation is a very reliable and loved brand worldwide.
PlayStation 4 gave us the opportunity to really buy us with the creators, and the consumers came with us for the trip. Fans loved us and their PlayStation 2 and although we may have lost players with PlayStation 3, they all returned to play on the incredible PS4. The really major blessing of our growth has been and is our relationship with our community.
SIE.BLOG: What would you say that you will miss the most in your role of main relationships and development of partners?
I think I will miss the possibility of creating advantages for the company, for our partners and for our community which continues PlayStation. I have relationships and friendships all over the world now with so many creators, publishers, our colleagues and I will miss this energy.
But it’s also 20 years! It may be just time to sail at sunset. Even if I always look like the young fresh face of PlayStation, I am ready to move to as many beaches and golf courses as possible!
SIE.BLOG: Who is someone who inspired you during your career, colleague or otherwise?
Which really unlocked my passion for this role and the development of the World Team of Relations with Partners and Developers (GPDR) was the support of Andy House. Andy was our CEO and also directed third -party relations, which he finally gave me. When Andy left the business, John Kodera entered and he taught me a more kind, calm and very calm way to support the teams we knew that we must have support to succeed. It was John’s great way to help me understand that with my great personality, sometimes less it’s more.
I will always remember his stable hand with us while we bring more scale to the company with PlayStation 4.
I also considered Hideaki Nishino as a good friend of mine during most of my years as a leader at Sony Interactive Entertainment. It’s really incredible to see him progress to become our chief, and I think he will be an incredible CEO. He is passionate about our product, our growth and our innovation. I think this Nishino era will be really special.
SIE.BLOG: How does your team work together to identify large franchises and titles of major new franchises? There are so many big games that have just come out of nowhere. What is in the “secret sauce” so that successful intellectual property occurs?
For example, we have in GPDR, the content team led by Christian Svensson. There is no one better in the world than Christian and Shawne Benson to find hidden jewels and feed emerging companies that are probably out of the radar for most of us. They obtain tons of support from the third -party account management team and the partners’ development team, which are often the very first contact points.
(This team worked with) Annapurna Games very early in matches like Stray. The same approach also conducted our support for peoplehin Impact, Black Myth: Wukong and Stellar Blade for example.
Our account teams are passionate and pioneer. We spend a lot of time right now to expand our global markets. We support our consumers and our projects with all our teams in GPDR. There is so much creativity there. From strategy to ESPORTS to the support of developers, we are aligned around content and commitment. We recently started the North-North Middle East hero project. This complies what we started with our plans as heroes China Hero and India. Our thought is that we can excite a community on PlayStation if this community contributes to the construction of it, mainly by helping the creators to market their games.
I will tell you, however. I did not appreciate the value of the IP when I started. For me, my work was more an approach “allows you to make Let-Faire” and “art or the science of a transactional relationship”. I really did not understand the value of a strategic partnership around the key IP and the health of our platform.
When we started working on PlayStation 4, that’s when everything clicked.
Learning to manage a portfolio and create space for several IPs that will reach several different types of players is really important. I think that the big lesson for me is as follows: our commercial role in GPDR is all about the IP and to do everything we can to help delete friction so that creators bring their creations to consumers. Hopefully Sony Interactive Entertainment and PlayStation can help facilitate this.
Sie.blog: Given the company you had, what do you expect from the future of PlayStation
I am extremely optimistic for the future of Playstation. I think we have the most intelligent, brightest and most passionate people in the world working at SIE. These are specialists in areas that need specific expertise. I think that when technology continues to evolve, it becomes more stable, will work faster and that the game will be an even greater part of our entertainment world.
What we built is really like a ballet. He is choreographed. It seems that it is a little effortless, but it is a lot of work. It is lifting of heavy and we are really good in this area.
I have a lot of hope and very encouraged by the wind we have in our sails at the moment. We will end this year on a good note and next year, all the indicators, we will have another fabulous year.
Although there is always room for improving processes, Sony Interactive Entertainment really has a brilliant and brilliant future. It is not a story “30 years and outside”. This is a story “60 years and who devil knows from there”.
SIE.BLOG: Thank you for your time, Phil! We wish you all the best and thank you for helping to make the PlayStation brand what is today. Acclamations!