Sony Computer Entertainment is planning to undergo a dramatic corporate reshuffling. Effective September, Kazuo "Ridge Racer" Hirai will become Chairman of the group, while Andrew House will be promoted to President and CEO of the company. Ken "Father of the PlayStation" Kutaragi has also retired from his role as Honorary Chairman, effective immediately.

As the new President of the PlayStation division, expect Andrew House to become an increasingly public face for the company. While he may not be as familiar of a name to gamers as Hirai and Kutaragi, House has worked with Sony since 1990, and was most recently president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. In his new position, he will be tasked with not only overseeing the launch of the PlayStation Vita, but to integrate the PlayStation group even further with other divisions of Sony. "I believe there is huge potential for further growth of our business globally, and I’m looking forward to working with everyone in the SCE Group and with other groups in Sony to help achieve this potential by pursuing the creation of brand new user experiences," House said in a prepared statement.

The timing of today's announcement may seem odd, given the company's troubled state following the PlayStation Network hack. However, the reshuffling comes largely as the result of current Chairman Akira Sato's retirement. "It has been a wonderful experience with PlayStation since the company’s founding in 1993. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the great support from third party game developers and publishers and particularly to the wonderful creators all over the world."