Sony’s Shahid Ahmad Reminisces on Years of Success on PS4, PS Vita and More; Shares Many Anecdotes
Sony’s Shahid Ahmad is well known among PlayStation fans. As Strategic Content Director at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, he’s one of the men behind many games coming to PS4 and PS Vita.
Today he was in a reminiscing mood, and decided to share on Twitter a veritable wealth of anecdotes that made his last few years at PlayStation special.
1/ I’ve had such an amazing last few years at PlayStation. Been reminiscing somewhat today.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
2/ Some highlights include securing @tha_rami’s OK on Nuclear Throne for PS4 and PS Vita in 2013 (at 21:57. During a Skype chat)
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
3/ Getting to see the No Man’s Sky trailer before it was shown to the world at VGX and then me and @TheSakeDiary going after it hard
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
4/ When we hired Spencer after three interviews. In a week.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
5/ When @TheSakeDiary joined us
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
6/ Me and Lorenzo achieving the impossible with PSM launch
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
7/ Getting to talk on stage for PlayStation. At Gamescom, and also everywhere else. What a privilege.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
8/ Nainan Shah approving my GDC 2012 trip (after which the whole Strategic Content / indie thing took off big time) in one minute
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
9/ Getting a high five from Robin after I gave the presentation that secured Strategic Content’s budget and plan approval for huge changes.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
10/ Trolling the whole Internet with @yosp over @retroremakes’ DRM when we knew what we were going to announce about PS4 at E3
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
11/ Getting Derek Yu’s approval to bring Spelunky to Vita via BlitWorks when I landed in SFO just before GDC
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
12/ Mark Cerny, Andrew House, Jim Ryan and Nainan Shah’s love after my Gamescom talk at 2013
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
13/ Getting the GameMaker deal done in a timescale that everyone bar me and @lordoftheyoyo considered impossible
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
14/ Seeing No Man’s Sky revealed at E3 2014 and every moment since relating to that insanely ambitious masterpiece in progress
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
15/ Having @amboyes hold the Vita aloft at the SCEA dev event at GDC 2013 and showing off Hotline Miami.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
16/ Getting hundreds upon hundreds of dev kits in the hands of hundreds upon hundreds of developers at no cost and carrying that on today
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
17/ Proposing the removal of content approval policy for Strategic Content and seeing that become the new normal
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
18/ Agreeing to do TxK for Vita with @llamasoft_ox in 40 minutes, from start of meeting to handshake and bewilderment of @gazcredible
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
19/ Having a cup of tea with @djbteamsters at Kings Cross station and agreeing to bring Worms to Vita and doing the deal on a handshake.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
20/ Having Mark Cerny and Andrew House namecheck me during presentations (I still giggle at that)
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
21/ Bringing Proteus to Vita. People gave me funny looks. I didn’t care.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
22/ Signing and funding OlliOlli after being hooked on the iOS prototype in about 30 seconds. (Though I played on for 20 minutes!)
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
23/ Every time a PlayStation owner thanked me and others at PlayStation for every game we’ve brought. to Vita and PS4.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
24/ Meeting @sdrhod at GDC2013 and thinking I’d found a gamedev soul mate. (I was right)
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
25/ Going to Cambridge to agree terms on Hellblade
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
26/ So many highs, too many to list, I think I will have to write a book. 😉 —fin
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
I left everything on the field. Everything. All that I learned in 3 decades, PlayStation let me put into change. It was worth it.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
The story goes on!
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) July 9, 2015
Shahid Ahmad is definitely one of the men that majorly influenced the last year of PlayStation games, and it’s certainly interesting to get a glimpse on how many of those deals have been sealed.
One thing is for sure: if he ever really writes that book, I’ll read it.
