SONY PRESIDENT QUITS
By Adnews Staff
The Sony Corp. executive overseeing the North American debut of the company's 32-bit PlayStation video game system resigned unexpectedly, just a month before the game's scheduled launch date. Steve Race left his post as president of Sony Computer Entertainment after disagreements with Japanese executives over the marketing and promotion of the game player, according to The Wall Street Journal. Race is being replaced by Sony Electronics senior vice-president Martin Homlish. Homlish joined Sony in 1985 as national sales manager of audio products. Race has been with Sony Computer Entertainment since May of 1994. The division was formed to oversee PlayStation's distribution in North America and to coordinate its software. In Canada, advertising for the new game will be very limited when it comes on the market next month because demand will greatly exceed supply. A full-blown campaign will run when Sony can ship enough units to Canada. Chiat/Day's Toronto office was hired in April to handle the PlayStation acocount. Ten senior sales and marketing people hired this summer for the Sony Computer Entertainment division in Canada were recently let go and the division shut down. General manager Harry Freedhoff and his son Richard, both under contract, were the only Canadian employees not laid off. The PlayStation has been taken over by Sony Music Canada. Canada is only getting 65,000 units next month instead of the 100,000 planned when the selling team was hired. Freedhoff told Adnews this week he expects it will take about six month for Sony to ship enough units to Canada to meet demand. The PlayStation was launched in Japan last December.