How Sony entrusted the design of the PlayStation 4 to an American consultant

In the creation of the PlayStation 4, Sony took the unprecedented step of entrusting its crown jewel to a game developer who is a consultant, not a full-time employee of the company.

Mark Cerny is a seasoned developer with decades of experience producing blockbuster Sony games such as the Crash Bandicoot series, Spyro the Dragon, and Jak & Daxter. But in all of his time working closely with the Japanese company, he was never an employee. Since 1998, Cerny has worked on his own as a consultant at Cerny Games, according to a speech he gave at the Gamelab 2013 conference in Barcelona, Spain. The speech offered unique insight into the design of the PS4, Sony’s next-generation game console that debuts this fall.