Summary
A former longtime PlayStation employee and gaming industry veteran, Gio Corsi, has recently announced he has joinedNintendoin a new position. Gio Corsi previously worked with Sony for a little over six years as the Senior Director for PlayStation regarding the production of third-party games from 2013 to 2018, and then transitioning to Head of Global Second Party games the following year. One of the big initiatives that Corsi was best known for was known as “Building the List,” whereSony helped Sega localizeYakuza 5for the Westwhen theLike a Dragonfranchise was on shaky legs in the mid-2010s compared to the series' blockbuster status today. Corsi would later leave Sony in November 2019.
Following his departure from PlayStation, Corsi joined up with smaller game development studios, becoming IllFonic’s Head of Publishing and Business Development from 2020-2022, and Head of Commercial for Iron Galaxy Studios through 2022-2024. Before joining PlayStation, he was also a producer at various companies, including Electronic Arts, Propaganda Games, and LucasArts, among others. Corsi has now been hired byNintendoin a similar position from when he worked at PlayStation.
About a week after his departure from Iron Galaxy, Gio Corsi posted a new tweet on his account announcing his new role atNintendo of Americaas part of the AAA third-party party portfolio management. In this position, Corsi says he will help bring games to Nintendo’s platform. His social media profiles have appropriately been updated to include Nintendo’s branding and other links. Many other gaming industry veterans congratulated Corsi on the new role and said that Nintendo made a good choice in hiring him.
What Gio Corsi’s Hiring Means for Nintendo
Nintendo hiring Corsi in a role focused on third-party games might be an indicator of where Nintendo’s future priorities may lay. Some gaming industry analysts have speculated that Corsi’s new position may be part of a plan forthe rumored Switch successor consoleto have a greater focus on third-party games, aiming to more directly compete with PlayStation and Xbox on that front. This, however, is still a theory and the Switch 2 itself is a rumored system that hasn’t officially been announced by Nintendo.
During Corsi’s time at PlayStation, he was a vocal and loyal advocate for the PS Vita, a rival console to Nintendo’s own 3DS at the time and Sony’s successor console to the PSP. WhenCorsi announced his departure from PlayStationin 2019, his departing words included “long live the Vita!” It will be interesting to see what Corsi will contribute to Nintendo’s lineup and what he will do for the Switch.
Nintendo
Nintendo is a Japanese video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. While producing highly popular hardware consoles like the Switch, the company is known for its many first party video game franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, and many more.
