Sad times as PS Vita champion Shahid Kamal Ahmad has announced he is leaving Sony’s Strategic Content division for pastures new. He had been heading the division since 2012 and has been responsible for getting a huge number of indie hits on PlayStation, including Thomas Was Alone, Velocity Ultra, and Luftrausers.
“I want to make games again,” explained Shahid on his blog. “I stopped being a developer around a quarter of a century ago and have seen so many changes since then, with most of the exciting ones happening in the last few years. I want to be part of that. It’s that simple. The team at PlayStation, while sad to see me go, completely understands my desire. I am privileged to enjoy their support.”
“Strategic Content will continue,” he adds, “There are no plans to change anything. Our approach to developers will also be unchanged. We have many talented people across the board who work tirelessly to support developers in bringing their videogames to PlayStation.”
We wish Shahid all the best with his future endeavours, hopefully the games he makes will come to PlayStation.
Source: Shahid’s Blog
Kennykazey
He’s done great work in the indie-space, and I hope he can continue that now in a different form. I wish him the best of luck in future endeavours.
Amphlett
So he’s partly to blame for the deluge of retro/indie/pixel-art/1980’s games on the PS4, hmmmm…
Tuffcub
But also Velocity, Thomas, TxK, Volume and many more lovely games.
double-o-dave
I see where you’re coming from on this one, and I’ve got your back.
Lieutenant Fatman
As far as I’m concerned this guy saved the PS Vita, huge respect from me. Wish him the best of luck in creating his game. And who knows, that might end up on the Vita as well!
flatspikes
I’m with you on this! He’s put more great experiences in my Vita than I ever expected. Kinda makes you wonder if the Vita turned out better this way…
Avenger
Doesn’t surprise that me much given that Vita is dead and there are now more indie games releasing per year than I care to count.