Astrobot Director Nicolas Doucet Will Head up SIE Japan, Signaling More Studio Upheaval

Published: February 5, 2020 7:40 AM /

By:


Astro Bot Nicolas Doucet cover

Astro Bot director Nicolas Doucet has been announced as the new head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan.

As the gaming industry Twitter user @Nibellion highlighted, SIE Japan is now headed up by Nicolas Doucet. The announcement was made via a press release on Sony Interactive Entertainment's corporate website.

The position was previously held by Allan Becker, the former head of Sony Santa Monica. Sony Santa Monica was responsible for putting out some of the most iconic games to arrive on the PlayStation platform including God of WarFlowFlower, and Journey. The press release made no mention whatsoever of where else Allan Becker would be heading within the Sony corporate structure or if he would be remaining with the company at all.

Astro Bot Nicolas Doucet slice

Who is Nicolas Doucet?

You may be unfamiliar with Nicolas Doucet. That's not a big surprise, considering that his list of video game credits is pretty short.

Mr. Doucet's IMDB page credits his career with starting off as a testing and quality group leader for LEGO Bionicle: Quest for the Toa before moving on to the role of Associate Producer of Bionicle: Matoran Adventures. There's a gap of several years before he returns as the Director and Producer of the EyePet video game, a 2009 title that allowed players to interact with a virtual pet using augmented reality technology.

As far as we can tell, Nicolas Doucet seems content with working behind the scenes and remaining rather private overall. That said, the reception for Astro Bot has been pretty good — it holds a 90 Metascore and 8.9 User Score on Metacritic and an 89 Top Critic Average on OpenCritic. He seems to know his stuff when it comes to making games, so let's hope that SIE Japan is now in good hands as we get ever closer to the announcement of the PlayStation 5.

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
| Senior Writer

One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N