Mark Danks

As I’m typing this, I’m in a plane over the Pacific somewhere near the international date line. I spent the week at SCEI (Sony Japan) in Tokyo. It was a really good trip and I met many new people who are working hard on the PlayStation3. I got lucky that after only 3 weeks on the job, I was able to head over to SCEI instead of waiting for a few months. Nothing like jumping into the deep end of the pool.I have been to Koyto before, but never Tokyo. Koyto is much calmer than Tokyo. In Tokyo, the streets are still packed and everything is open at 2am. We spent every evening out “working”, eating, and drinking…a lot gets done on the business side over dinner and drinks in Japan. I did not get too much time to play tourist, but I hit the obligatory Japanese toy stores and Akihabara. I covet the Japanese electronics! I need to get a camera one of these days. Taking random snapshots with my cell phone’s camera does not cut it and my daughters always want to see where I have been.

The next couple of months are insanely busy for me. I am traveling about every two weeks, I have 3 developer conferences over the next 3 months, and I’m planning to go scuba diving in Mexico in the middle of April. Plus, I spent the plane flight working on a presentation for the PS3 Dev Con that I might give. I still need to see how good I feel about it. It is not an overly technical presentation, but it has some messages which I believe developers still need to hear again.

I have a new job these days working at Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA).  I am in the developer support group directing all of the training and education for developers in the Americas.  It is a big change from doing straight up game production, but after 10 years, I needed a change.  The Sims Wii project (MySims) was hard to leave.  It is a really great project which will be very successful.

Sony has a completely different culture than EA.  Every company is different, but due to Sony Japan, the entire company just feels different.  I am sure that I will adjust to it and it is a nice change, but there is a “fish out of water” feeling for me.

One nice thing about the new job is that I get to travel again.  When I was first at EA directing the Central Technology Group, I got to go to all of the different EA studios.  However, once I moved back into production, that pretty much stopped.  I like traveling and I like talking with people about making games.  Since that is what my new job primarily is, it should be fun.  I am off to DICE this week and then Tokyo next week.  And of course, GDC, the PS3 DevCon, and all of the other conferences and shows.  Let me know if you want to meet up.