PlayStation boosts UK team as PS4 sales soar past 3m

PlayStation 4 has cemented its place as the UK’s most popular games console.

According to UK retailers, quoting GfK Entertainment figures, PS4 passed the 3m sales milestone back in January.

The news comes as the firm fills two key roles at its UK division.

Richard Keen has been promoted to marketing director for UK and Ireland. Keen joined PlayStation UK in 2013 as head of product marketing. He was previously employed as international publishing director at IGN parent Ziff Davis.

He replaces Murray Pannell, who left to join 2K Europe as VP of publishing in December.

"I am thrilled to be given an opportunity to step up into the marketing director role at such an exciting time for the business," said Keen.

"With PSVR launch on the horizon, the strongest first party line-up since PS4 launched and our third party exclusives better than ever, the team here are in a fantastic position to make 2016 the most successful year in PlayStation history."

Meanwhile, Nintendo’s PR boss Jo Bartlett has been named head of communications.

Bartlett began her career in games working alongside PlayStation at agency John Doe. She was named head of communications at Nintendo UK in 2011, and has handled the launch of Wii U, various 3DS iterations, plus games such as Mario Kart 8 and Pokemon X and Y.

She fills a role vacated by David Wilson, who was promoted to director of communications at PlayStation’s European arm in November last year.

My career in the games industry began working on the PlayStation account from an agency perspective, and I still count that time as the most challenging and rewarding to date,” Bartlett tells MCV.

With 2016 looking set to be another exciting chapter in the history of PlayStation, I’m extremely proud and happy to be joining the talented in-house team, and look forward to building on their incredible innovation and success.”