Sony Network Entertainment president Tim Schaaff stepping down

Tim Schaaff will retire from his post as Sony Network Entertainment president on Dec. 31, Sony announced today.

Andrew House, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment — all things PlayStation — will assume Schaaff's role "during the transition" as of Jan. 1, 2013, while Schaaff will stay on as an external director on the company's board of directors.

"Tim has been a strong leader within Sony who truly embodied the 'One Sony' spirit by successfully leading corporate-wide initiatives across business units since he joined," said Sony president and CEO Kazuo Hirai.

Schaaff came to Sony in 2005 from Apple, where he led the development of media technology including QuickTime. He was hired by then-CEO Howard Stringer to unify Sony's entertainment and digital media brands under a networked platform. Schaff rose to president of Sony Network Entertainment in 2010.

The subsidiary of Sony is the corporate umbrella title for the company's multiplatform digital entertainment properties: PlayStation Network, which offers video games and third-party media services including Netflix and Hulu Plus; Music Unlimited, a music subscription service formerly known as Qriocity; and Video Unlimited, which features video content such as movies and TV shows. Schaaff's tenure as president included the 2011 hacking of the PlayStation Network, which he later called "a great experience" in terms of being an incident for Sony to learn from.