The Queen Of Playstation

Before Shawne Benson worked at PlayStation, she was a musician struggling to make ends meet. On Instagram, she still posts the occasional piano ballad, but these days, Benson says she’s found a new outlet for her musical passion: curating video games for the over one hundred million people who own a PlayStation console.

“I like to think of it like you're making a mixtape,” Benson tells Inverse, describing the mix of games she helps shepherd to PlayStation’s platform in any given year. “The feeling of ups and downs, with different pacing and vibes that create an overarching composition.”

As PlayStation’s Global Head of Third Party Portfolio and Acquisitions, it's Benson’s job to know what games will resonate with the PlayStation 4 and 5 owners around the world. While much of what she’s on the lookout for comes down to what she likes to play, it also takes a bit of intuition and a keen eye for the future of the gaming business. There’s no better example of her sixth sense for special games than a moment she recalls from her interview with Sony back in 2016. Asked what third-party game she’d pursue as a PlayStation exclusive if hired to join the team, Benson had an inspired choice.

“I said, ‘The game where there’s a cat with a robot backpack, and the cat is hanging out with robots, and you're navigating this neo-futurist world,’” Benson recalls. “I had seen a GIF of the game on Twitter, I was like, ‘That thing.’ I didn't even know about this developer, but I was curious and I wanted to learn more.” That game was Stray, and when Benson got the job, she made good on her promise, securing Stray as a year-long PlayStation exclusive. With the help of Sony’s spotlight, this little indie wonder became a smash hit, earning rave reviews from critics and winning awards. It was even optioned for a movie adaptation.

Sony built the PlayStation brand on high-fidelity, story-focused, exclusive games developed by internal teams like Naughty Dog (Uncharted and The Last of Us) and Santa Monica Studio (Ragnarök). But as development cycles for massive AAA games become longer and more drawn out due to the increased complexity in design and graphical fidelity, third-party partners have become just as important. Benson leads the effort, to discover the coolest games people will want to play well before they know these games exist. And while she’s not in the role of making these games in the way programmers and creative directors are, having the honed eye for spotting these special titles makes her one of the industry’s most preeminent (if relatively unknown) tastemakers.

“Amplifying other creators has always been what gets me up in the morning and what keeps me loving my job,” she says. “The opportunity there to not only build those new generations of creators or the next big AAA franchise, but also connect with audiences that we haven't been able to connect before.”

The Art Of Finding Tomorrow’s Games

Benson is a Michigan native who’s been working in the games industry for nearly a decade. Before PlayStation, she was Games Editor for Apple’s editorial team covering new releases on the App Store. The experience helped her develop an eye for spotting promising new games in a near-infinite sea of content.

“Nothing delighted me more than to see an indie developer shriek with delight ... when they were featured.”

“I had the opportunity to work with seasoned veterans in the game industry and connect with creators who I’ve admired since I was a kid,” Benson says. “It was an incredible experience being able to find hidden indie gems and surface them to the masses. Nothing delighted me more than to see an indie developer shriek with delight on Twitter when they were featured.”

When PlayStation hired her as a Digital Portfolio Manager in 2016, she was tasked to discover and evangelize promising indie games on the platform. She delivered, helping to bring the massively popular Star Wars-inspired rhythm game Beat Saber to PlayStation’s first VR headset and securing the slapstick online party game Fall Guys as a timed console exclusive. Five years later, she was promoted to Director of Third Party Portfolio and Acquisitions.

Benson now leads a 10-person division that monitors Steam’s Early Access program, looks to YouTube and X, and travels around the world to meet with developers.

“It's a team effort,” she says. “We're all scouts at PlayStation. If somebody sees something really hot that we should get our eyes on, anybody can raise their hand and let us know and we'll take a deeper look.”

Benson also looks for opportunities to work with more established studios. She helped close PlayStation’s deal with Square Enix on Final Fantasy XVI and ensured Baldur’s Gate 3 could launch on PS5 as close to its PC counterpart as possible. In 2024, her team was the reason PlayStation picked up publishing rights to Stellar Blade, a stunning action-adventure game with deep engaging combat from first-time developer Shift Up.

“What impressed me so greatly is the level of craftsmanship that Shift Up applied to the making of this game,” Benson says. “They showed us these intricate maquettes that were hand-sculpted and then scanned into the game. They were designed by a masterful artist known for his work in major Korean films. It brought an incredible level of detail that showed in the game through enemies and boss fights. They look otherworldly as a result.”

What Third-Party Means Today

Once upon a time, third-party exclusives were the backbone of The original Xbox likely would have failed without Halo, for example. As games became more expensive, risky ventures, making your game accessible on as many platforms as possible is a logical way to improve its chances of success.

“I feel for the creators, developers, and publishers that are like, ‘Oh, but it's not perfect yet.’”

That’s not to say you don’t still want to spot the next big exclusive blockbuster. Finding the next Final Fantasy or Grand Theft Auto is part of Benson’s charge — and she does so by cultivating long-term relationships with developers that she thinks could eventually release that next big mega-hit

“It’s not just a transactional dynamic,” she says. Instead, it's about building trust without trying to get too involved. The end goal isn’t always an exclusive deal either. It’s about finding a mutual middle ground that benefits both parties. At a time when there’s an active hungry audience looking for new experiences on PC and other platforms, sometimes exclusivity isn’t the answer “There's no one size fits all with those types of partnerships,” she said. “We try to cater to the opportunity for those creators.”

While Benson’s team doesn’t get involved in the creative side of game development, they do offer feedback and guidance upon request.

“We see stuff in very rough, rudimentary prototype forms,” she says. “I feel for the creators, developers, and publishers that are like, ‘Oh, but it's not perfect yet.’ It's very hard to show your baby before it's fully realized.’

Of the dozens of creators she’s worked with, Benson says she’s most excited by the games coming from indie publishers Devolver Digital, Annapurna Interactive, and Kepler Interactive.

“I love working with them because they understand the importance of telling a creator's story and letting them cook,” she said. “They're not just following the typical publisher model. They're making sure that the game that comes out is the best version of that vision.”

Those relationships don’t always bear fruit. While she’s always looking out for the next big thing, the competition is doing the same. Benson recalls one that regrettably slipped through her grasp.

“At the end of the PlayStation 4 lifecycle, a title I had on my radar was a game about a tiny little fox called Tunic,” she says. “The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past is one of my all-time favorites and it was scratching that itch for me. It was an incredible game by a super small team.”

Tunic, a critical hit that went on to win a BAFTA for best debut game, launched as an Xbox exclusive for six months when it was released in March 2022. It eventually made its way to other consoles, including PlayStation, that September. Benson understands what went wrong, even if she still seems a little sore about losing out on an exclusive.

“We just didn't have the right framework or resources they needed to bring that to Playstation, and our competition scooped that up,” she says. “I think they made a good choice. But that was the one that I was always like, ‘Man, I wish we could have done something more at the time.’”

A Mixtape Legacy

Benson’s role at PlayStation may be low-key compared to high-stakes jobs like President or CEO, but the impact her work has is something she revels in. After all, it's something she loved to do since she was a kid.

“It's like my love language: showing things that I think people have never thought of before.”

“All my life, I’ve been the type of person who likes to make mixtapes for friends,” she says. “It's like my love language: showing things that I think people have never thought of before and them having an emotional connection with it.”

She hopes to turn that love language into a legacy in gaming worth being proud of.

“Theoretically, I would hope that people look at the track record from Stray to Fall Guys to Kena: Bridge Of Spirits to Sifu and the things that we're working on for the future and know I'm thinking about all gaming audiences of all walks of life,” she says.

Then, she promises the best is yet to come. “I'm trying to make the next mixtape for a global audience made up of the best video games you could possibly imagine. It would be awesome if people remembered me for that.”