The Drive To Make It: Ramone Russell’s Journey From Police Work To MLB The Show

Like clockwork, MLB The Present’s arrival every spring all the time brings a well-known face. Ramone Russell has been there entrance and heart to inform us what’s new in every version of this annualized sequence. Ramone is Sony Interactive Leisure’s product growth communications and model strategist, however I’ve all the time jokingly referred to as him “the face of The Present.”

Within the years I’ve interviewed Ramone about The Present, I’ve realized he has an inspiring story to inform. Folks all the time ask me “How do I get into the online game trade?” and there is no straightforward reply to that. Everybody’s journey shall be totally different, however it all the time requires endurance and a drive to make it. That drive is the spine of Ramone’s story. He knew he needed to get into video video games and sacrificed every little thing quite a few occasions to get there. I just lately talked to him about his path from working as a police officer to turning into a staple in PlayStation’s communications.

Take me again to the primary day you thought you may wish to work in video video games. What was your first expertise with video games in that capability?
My finest buddy from childhood is somebody named Herman Richardson. We lived in Cellular, Alabama, and he had a Tremendous Nintendo with Avenue Fighter II and True Lies. He lived about 5 miles away. I didn’t essentially stay within the most secure neighborhood, however I’d stroll to his home nearly each day after college to play video video games. We additionally performed basketball in his entrance yard. I used to be horrible at basketball and okay at video video games.

How outdated have been you at the moment?
We have been in center college, like seventh or eighth grade. Generally his mother would drive me again, and I’d be like, “Wow, that is actually a protracted stroll, as a result of it could take 10 to fifteen minutes to drive again dwelling.” It will take me like an hour to stroll there. I finally acquired a motorcycle, and that made the trek simpler. I feel that’s the place the genesis of my love of gaming got here from – these walks and being so excited to play True Lies and Avenue Fighter II.

Ramone at age six.

How into video games have been you? What was your first machine?
Again in 1986, my mom was capable of purchase me the Nintendo Leisure System after I was like six or seven years outdated. She knew somebody at a division retailer, and again then, layaway was a factor. Somebody didn’t decide up their Nintendo, they usually bought it to her for $99. I didn’t have loads of video games, although. Quick ahead 4 or 5 years, and the Tremendous Nintendo was launched. I by no means had a kind of, which is what led to me strolling to my buddy’s home to play video games on SNES throughout center college. 

We didn’t have lots rising up, however in some way my mother made these sacrifices and bought that first Nintendo for me. I finally had a Nintendo 64 and the unique PlayStation. My love for gaming began round eight or 9 years outdated, however it actually exploded after the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 2 got here out.

What was your favourite sport again then?
Excellent Darkish. When GoldenEye popped, it was the very best four-player, split-screen sport on any console. We performed a ton of that and Madden. After which Excellent Darkish got here out, and I advised everybody, “It’s like GoldenEye, however higher!” It’s all we performed. The neighborhoods I grew up in weren’t tremendous secure, so we might go outdoors and play seldomly, however we largely stayed inside and performed video games and listened to music.

Another video games that I beloved have been Tremendous Mario 64, Turok, Resident Evil 2, F-Zero, Blast Corps, Zelda Majora’s Masks, Grand Theft Auto, Tekken, Midnight Membership 3, Vagrant Story, simply to call just a few.

However my dad hated video video games and didn’t need me enjoying a bunch, so I must cover my methods. When he went to sleep, I’d sneak into the lounge, hook up my system, and play quietly. When he noticed me enjoying Ken Griffey Main League Baseball, he finally began to allow us to play extra. He talked about how Ken was his favourite participant, and the way wild it was to see him in online game and be capable of management him. He talked about his love for sports activities, and we bonded in that second. From then on, I may play video video games on the living-room TV. However solely after homework and solely after he completed watching golf or his reveals. SOCOM 2 and SOCOM 3 have been additionally game-changers for me. I keep in mind you had to purchase that community adaptor to play on-line, which I couldn’t discover for some time. However I finally did, and spent numerous hours enjoying these video games on-line, doing clan wars till the solar got here up. I’ve so many nice reminiscences of SOCOM.

You could possibly die as quickly because the match began, as a result of somebody threw a grenade throughout the map into your spawn space.

Whenever you made it to highschool and began taking a look at profession prospects, what path did you suppose you’d take?

I used to be a multitude! (laughs) I had no thought what I needed to do after I was in highschool. I didn’t apply myself, however graduated and went to junior faculty. I flunked out of that. I went to Troy State for one semester. I didn’t take it severely. Once we needed to come again to highschool for the following semester, it was like, “You owe $15,000 to come back again to highschool,” they usually introduced out the entire pupil mortgage paperwork. I used to be sitting there on my own, and I mentioned, “Let me take into consideration this.” I went again to my dorm and my good buddy Walker was on the brink of graduate and had gotten his closing invoice for pupil loans. It was like $190,000 or one thing, I noticed that and didn’t know if I needed to signal myself up for that sort of debt. So I went dwelling to attempt to determine that out.

And did you return?
Once I was dwelling, I noticed one other buddy of mine, who was a police officer on the time. He needed to know what I used to be doing, and I advised him I wasn’t doing something. I used to be attempting to become profitable to pay for faculty whereas working at Foot Locker. He was like, “Be part of the police division. We’d like extra black officers. They’ll pay like 30 to 40 p.c of your faculty tuition.” I assumed that was intriguing. I signed up for the police academy, acquired in form, and it took me a couple of yr to get in. I graduated and was again in faculty finding out legal justice and on the Dean’s record, making A’s not that lengthy after. Sooner or later on the tail finish of my fifth yr of police work, my coronary heart wasn’t on this profession anymore. I didn’t wish to do it. I didn’t wish to do federal, both, since I talked to some FBI and DEA brokers. This was after 9/11, so the entire push was on home terrorism. I both wanted to have a pilot’s license, a computer-science diploma, or converse just a few languages to get a leg up – these have been abilities the companies have been searching for on the time and I didn’t have them and didn’t wish to receive them, both. I used to be like, “I can’t do that.”

In my view, there are three jobs you most positively shouldn’t do in case your coronary heart isn’t in it: police officer, firefighter, and instructor. Proper? These are jobs the place you could have an enormous influence on folks’s lives, and another person’s life or well-being might be in your arms. A instructor is coping with folks’s youngsters. You might be liable for these kids through the hours of 8:30 a.m. and a couple of p.m. A cop has a gun. It’s a harmful job and folks solely name you when one thing is improper. You want loads of integrity, empathy, and compassion. You’re there to serve the group and it’s arduous to not take all of the ache, struggling, dying, and despair dwelling with you. I used to be in my 20s on the time with no coping mechanisms, and I took all of it dwelling each day, and it will definitely turned unsustainable for my psychological well being. When my coronary heart fell out of the occupation, I knew I wanted to go do one thing else. I used to be doing soul looking out. I didn’t wish to do one thing my coronary heart wasn’t in.

And that’s whenever you made the leap?
I used to be like, “Okay, I wish to make video video games. How the hell do I try this? I’m in Cellular, Alabama.” When Name of Responsibility: Fashionable Warfare began to take over, I keep in mind the All Ghillied Up video and the way it broke the online game trade since nobody had seen something like that earlier than. Flash ahead just a few months or a yr later, and there was an interview – Mark Grigsby, [Infinity Ward’s] animation director, who’s one among my finest buddies now. I listened and watched him speak about Fashionable Warfare. I used to be like, “Wait, there are black folks making video video games?” I knew there needed to be some, however I had by no means seen one within the flesh and blood or on my laptop display. Seeing him in these movies was the little juice I wanted to make me say, “That is one thing I can do. If he can do it, I’m going to have the ability to do it.” That’s why illustration is so vital. Seeing somebody like me who got here from a group like mine gave me the fortitude to step out.

I stop my job as a police officer in Cellular, packed up every little thing that slot in my automotive, bought every little thing that didn’t, and moved to Atlanta. I lived there for 3 to 5 years and was homeless for a short time, sleeping in my automotive. I used to be working at GameStop for a bit and had no thought what I used to be doing. I used to be attempting to outlive.

However you have been considering of video games and that’s the place you needed to be. You have been working at a sport retailer.
I knew one thing would occur if I acquired to an enormous metropolis. It wasn’t going to occur in Cellular. Atlanta was the closest metropolis. I had some buddies there, too. It was tough. I used to be broke. Atlanta PD had a program the place you didn’t have to return via the academy if you happen to have been already a police officer from someplace for a sure period of time, so I may have simply taken the bodily and probably joined that division. And I did take the bodily, they supplied me a place, and the pay was nice. However I went again to what I used to be considering earlier than I left Cellular; that my coronary heart wasn’t into it. I didn’t transfer to Atlanta to be proper again the place I used to be. I used to be on the GameStop job; making like $10 or $15 an hour or one thing like that. In distinction, Atlanta PD, supplied me like $50,000 to $75,000 a yr. That’s an enormous distinction!

I simply beloved speaking video games, although. Having conversations about what was popping out and speaking to prospects about what they have been enjoying. It made my love of video games develop. I stayed at GameStop till I left Atlanta. Again then, there was a web site referred to as Madden Nation. I’d write crappy articles on the location, and I befriended one of many web site’s homeowners, Will Kinsler, who finally acquired a job at EA as a group supervisor for Madden and NCAA Soccer. EA had these group days the place they’d fly folks out to playtest video games. I used to be part of that group after being part of the Madden Nation group.

Quick ahead to me doing that for a yr or two, and I’m nonetheless in Atlanta. I used to be an enormous Xbox 360 man at the moment. It was Christmas Eve, and I used to be on my 360 and had my headphones on and my laptop computer up. Will reached out to me randomly for a mic test, and he may hear me typing. He’s like, “What are you doing?” I advised him I used to be filling out my utility to go to sport design college. He questioned why I’d try this, and I advised him I needed to make video games, however didn’t know what to do. He advised me to not go to highschool and mentioned I may make video games proper now with the expertise I’ve.

I used to be like, “What expertise?” He advised I put every little thing I had achieved for EA throughout these visits on a resume and to ship it out. He mentioned that I’d get a name in three months or three years. I bulls— you not, three months later, I acquired an e-mail from two studios. DICE in Stockholm, Sweden, and this now-defunct studio in Reno, Nevada. At the moment in my life, I had by no means traveled and didn’t have a passport, so the Stockholm choice was simply too scary for me. I ended up taking the job in Reno. I packed up all my stuff, shipped my automotive to Reno, they usually flew me out.
I ended up dwelling with the proprietor of the studio for just a few months as a result of my condo wasn’t prepared. I finally moved in with one of many programmers on the studio and we turned buddies. I used to be with the corporate for about two or three months, and I acquired fired.

I am guessing you started second-guessing your decisions at this level.
I sat in my automotive and bawled as a result of I had simply moved throughout the nation. I had no household inside 5 hours of me. What was I going to do in Reno? The programmer let me keep on his sofa as lengthy I wanted, and advised me to not fear about something. I put my resume again on the market and thought I’d transfer again to Cellular. I knew behind my thoughts if I did that, I wouldn’t be in video games. I’d have achieved the secure factor, so I had to determine easy methods to keep in video games. I knew I needed to get to Los Angeles, California, and I occurred to know somebody there.

I talked to my buddy Greg on Xbox 360 mic chat whereas enjoying Gears of Battle about what was occurring, and he advised me to come back and sleep on his sofa till I acquired again on my toes. I packed up all my stuff once more and drove to Los Angeles. It took like 12 or 13 hours, and it was among the finest drives of my life. I used to be going via the mountains – like an hour into them – and I began smelling pine oil. At first, I assumed I spilled one thing in my automotive, so I pulled over, acquired out, after which it hit me, “Oh, that is what contemporary air smells like!” I used to be like, “Holy s—, I’ve by no means smelled contemporary air earlier than!” I noticed I hadn’t actually been dwelling life. I made the remainder of the journey and lived there for perhaps 4 to 6 months. I don’t keep in mind the precise timeframe. That point was tough. We have been consuming ramen noodles and Campbell’s soup each day. There was a Large Tons down the road, and I keep in mind we may get a 12-pack of ramen noodles for like one greenback and an enormous can of this Campbell’s soup for 25 cents. If we made the ramen noodles and put them within the soup, we may eat off that for like two days: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That’s what we ate most days as a result of I didn’t have a job and my mother and father had no thought what was occurring in my life at the moment.

Did you suppose you’d get into video games once more at that time? You had your resume on the market, proper?

Yup. I had it on the market on all of the online game job boards earlier than I drove from Reno. My mother and father thought I used to be dwelling it up. They thought my profession was taking off, which was not the reality in any respect. I couldn’t get a job wherever. I used to be attempting throughout city. Since my roommate didn’t have a pc, I needed to drive to the library each morning to test my e-mail and apply for jobs. I nearly acquired a job being a tester at Activision. I interviewed for just a few different tester jobs. I by no means acquired one. Ultimately, I acquired contacted by PlayStation. Shalya Villa, the senior recruiter at PlayStation, contacted me randomly, saying, “Hey, we might like to interview you for this place.”

I assumed that was nice. I had unhealthy cell service in our condo, so I needed to take the primary interview name on the pool. There have been folks there, and I used to be on the cellular phone strolling across the pool attempting to remain distant from everybody so Shayla wouldn’t hear all of the commotion within the background. Shayla, who continues to be in recruiting for PlayStation 15 years later, mentioned they needed me down in San Diego in every week to speak to some extra folks. I drove down and interviewed with Jason Villa, manufacturing director at San Diego Studio, and Travis Williams, one among my good buddies who now works at Meta. I landed the job of group supervisor, and I’ve been right here ever since.

I’m guessing meaning you needed to pack every little thing up once more and transfer to San Diego.
I used to be broke, so I couldn’t afford something. At this level, I needed to inform my mother and father as a result of I didn’t have the cash to maneuver. I referred to as my mother, and she or he was furious but additionally pleased. My dad, part of him was proud as a result of I used to be determining my life alone phrases with out calling my mother and father for assist, however one other a part of him was like, “It’s best to have referred to as me if you happen to wanted assist.”

My mother and my ex-girlfriend on the time, who I’m nonetheless good buddies with 15 years later, discovered me a spot to stay and paid for my lease for the primary two months. I used to be dwelling on this little condominium in Mira Mesa, about quarter-hour from the studio. It was horrible. I had this roommate who wasn’t the cleanest man on this planet. The partitions have been initially white, however they have been yellow by the point I moved in. There was a mattress in there, and it was essentially the most disgusting one I had seen in my life. I couldn’t sleep on that, so in fact, I am going to Large Tons, which is once more throughout the road for no matter motive. It’s all the time there for me. I bought three cans of disinfectant cleaner, three mattress sheets, and cleansing provides. I cleaned the lavatory and disinfected the entire condominium and mattress. I used to be sitting with two cans of disinfectant spraying the mattress. I don’t know if it did something. [laughs]

How lengthy did you reside underneath these circumstances?
I lived with him for like a yr, after which I upgraded to a home with roommates and did that just a few occasions earlier than I had sufficient cash to stay alone.

What was your first sport at Sony San Diego?
I used to be engaged on the entire studio’s video games. At the moment, we have been making MLB The Present, a basketball sport, and some different titles. The primary ones I labored on have been MLB The Present and a racing sport referred to as ModNation Racers.

What have been your first duties?

I used to be a group supervisor. For ModNation Racers, I helped arrange the beta and create the grief reporting device for the user-generated content material. I additionally began engaged on MLB The Present 09 proper across the identical time.

What I delivered to MLB was this idea referred to as “group day” that I realized from EA and Will. I strongly advised we must always have some customers out to play the sport, check it, and inform us what works and doesn’t. Once I first pitched it to Chris Cutliff, who continues to be our studio director, he was like, “Okay, I kinda see what that is.” I requested for a comparatively small finances to fly everybody out. I reached out to totally different communities and introduced a bunch of their folks out. The event group beloved it, and we began doing them yearly. We even began doing them twice a yr. It modified how we work on and develop our video games as a result of we speak on to the customers. We discover out precisely what they need. We might ask them issues like, “What are the highest three issues they preferred on this yr’s sport and the highest three issues they didn’t.” You begin to see some commonalities of their responses.

That’s how we approached our group. Relatively than blanket statements of “What do you wish to see,” we targeted on these three issues or what they preferred and disliked essentially the most. We’re nonetheless doing it to today.

Might you give us an instance of one thing that popped up and drove growth otherwise?

The stadium stuff was an enormous one. The way in which that our stadium group works is we’ve got six or seven artists who journey to at least one to 2 stadiums a yr. These different stadiums don’t have many reference factors [for changes year over year]. We labored with the group saying, “Hey, if anyone has any footage from final yr’s season for the stadium and from these particular areas, ship them to us.” Our artist would have a folder full of reference pictures of stadiums that we wanted to repair. We might disseminate that data to our stadium artists for the stadiums they couldn’t go go to.

By way of the years, you’ve turn into one of many faces of MLB The Present. You might be all the time there entrance and heart, speaking about what’s new in every installment. What’s it like being an envoy of this sequence?
That was an accident. (laughs) That each one began again at a CES for ModNation Racers. The advertising and marketing supervisor Chuck Lacson, who can be nonetheless with PlayStation, wanted somebody to speak concerning the sport to a digital camera crew. I feel it was IGN. Chuck was like, “Ramone, they’re going to activate the lights and speak to you in like 5 minutes. Inform them concerning the sport.” He threw me into the hearth, and apparently, I wasn’t horrible at it. Management thought I ought to preserve doing extra of it, and I’m nonetheless doing it.

How has your position advanced alongside the annual launch of The Present?
I moved fully out of group administration perhaps 5 years in the past. Could possibly be longer. I simply began specializing in different areas. As of late, one among my important focuses is being the bridge between advertising and marketing, PR, and our growth group. I’ll get mind dumps from folks on the event group about what makes their work superior, and I’ll relay that to the opposite groups. I’ll speak to everybody on the event group over the course of some months to know precisely what’s on the desk and why they’re happy with it and why will probably be superior. In the previous couple of years, I’ve began to show it round the place I’ve them speak about their very own work [on camera] if they’re as much as it. It’s their child. Streaming helped that and allowed folks to see what we’re engaged on and listen to from the folks engaged on it. I don’t suppose my position change was something that was ever written out or outlined; it simply type of occurred.

Through the years, you’ve been round quite a few Main League Baseball gamers. You have to have some superb tales to inform. Give us one.
There are such a lot of. All of the gamers I’ve labored with are tremendous good. We by no means labored with any athlete that wasn’t skilled and good. I keep in mind some photoshoots again in Florida seven or eight years in the past the place C.C. Sabathia’s youngsters have been on set, enjoying the video games with him.

In 2017, we put Ken Griffey, Jr. on the quilt. That is in all probability one among my finest reminiscences in life. [Sony] despatched me out to his home to speak to him to see if it’s a match for us and a match for him as a result of we had not had a retired participant on the quilt of the sport. I used to be like, “Okay!” I keep in mind enjoying Ken Griffey, Jr. Baseball on my Tremendous Nintendo and watching him play on TV. I flew down with my good buddy and colleague on the time Jake Jones. We had Ken’s tackle, and I assumed we will’t present up empty-handed. We should always deliver his spouse a bottle of wine and a few roses as a result of they’re letting these two strangers go to their dwelling. Additionally, I’m from the South, in order that’s simply what you do. We went to Goal, purchased some flowers, and the most costly Goal bottle of wine. We bought like a $150 bottle, if reminiscence serves accurately. I used to be like, “Okay, we’re good!”

We’re now driving to his home, and we ran right into a wall that ran for like a half mile. We realized it was the wall to Ken’s property. It was large. We acquired to the gate and I had by no means seen wealth like this in my life. We rang the buzzer, and he wasn’t there but. He answered from his cellphone and mentioned he’d be there in like 10 minutes. He was out {golfing}. We waited outdoors. He pulled up and allow us to in. There have been 10 vehicles within the driveway. We acquired out and walked into his storage. It was larger than all of the properties I’ve lived in mixed. His fridge was nicer than something I had seen in my life.

We met his spouse and gave her the flowers and wine. She thanked us, and we began speaking to Ken. He apologized for being late. The golf match he was at ran lengthy. I imagine it was hosted by a winemaker. Ken mentioned since he was sorry, he was going to present us every a case of wine he simply acquired. However we couldn’t match it in our baggage, he gave us this tremendous costly and unique wine, and we walked in with Goal wine. We talked to him, we performed the sport, and I used to be like, “That is actually occurring.”

Ken mentioned he preferred us and insisted he deal with us to dinner. He took us out, we had a blast, and that’s how [MLB The Show’s] relationship with Ken started. He’s nonetheless a buddy of mine to today. It’s surreal.

Constructing off of that, what does MLB The Present imply to you now?
It’s been a beautiful experience. I’ve gotten to do issues I by no means thought I’d. The issues that make me pleased in life, I am afforded the flexibility to do due to this profession at PlayStation. I’ve met some really superb human beings. I imagine the standard of 1’s life is decided by the standard of their relationships. And it’s simply been enjoyable. Not loads of downs. We work arduous, however it’s been a blast.

And what are you most happy with in your profession?
Black illustration within the online game trade has been traditionally low, which is a direct distinction to gaming’s recognition amongst communities of shade. As an organization and studio, we tried to determine some methods we may assist do our half to alter that. By way of Sony Interactive Leisure’s Social Justice Fund, the PlayStation Profession Pathways Program was created. Its purpose is to assist organizations and efforts targeted on offering better instructional and profession alternatives for traditionally deprived communities. Our goal is to drive a brand new period of creativity, growth, and progress within the gaming trade.

The primary initiative is the Jackie Robinson Basis MLB The Present Students created in partnership with the Jackie Robinson Basis. This system gives scholarships, mentorships, paid internships, and assist to college students from underrepresented teams to finish their secondary training and embark on a profession path within the fields of expertise and gaming.

Uniquely, the Jackie Robinson Basis offers a complete set of assist providers to make sure a scholarship recipient’s success in faculty, within the office, and assist develop their management potential, along with the scholarship. Since its inception in 1973 there are over 1,500 alumni and the inspiration has maintained a 98 p.c commencement charge for its scholarship recipients.

We wish to understand the facility of training to generate financial wealth for communities of shade and have extra workers from underrepresented teams inside Sony Interactive Leisure. We’re so excited that the JRF was our first associate to assist us embark on this journey with us.

For MLB The Present 21, we dedicated to donating one greenback for each collector’s version bought to the Jackie Robinson Basis to construct a brand new scholarship particularly for soon-to-be faculty freshman college students of shade who’re pursuing levels and subsequent careers within the online game trade. The Jackie Robinson Basis is choosing our scholarship recipients proper now. As I discussed briefly, we’ve got paid internships connected to our scholarships. There are 5 scholarship recipients from the JRF for 2022, and their mentors will all be workers at PlayStation. Of their junior and senior years in faculty, they’re going to intern right here at San Diego Studio. PlayStation has a wonderful internship program. A good variety of our designers on the MLB The Present growth group began as interns.

I feel that’s what I’m most happy with. It’s bittersweet, although. I’ve been tremendous fortunate and blessed to be on this trade for the previous 15 years. Making the video games is nice, however to have the ability to assist lend a small hand in enacting change, that’s been improbable. These first 10 or so years right here at PlayStation, I used to be very a lot singularly targeted. I simply needed to maneuver up that proverbial company ladder society tells us is so vital, make just a few {dollars} doing it, and assist create some nice video games. I by no means actually took the time to decelerate and actually take observe that I didn’t work together with very many people who seem like me from the developer aspect of issues. At E3, or another convention, there was all the time a stark distinction to the dearth of variety between who was making the video games and the variety you see from everybody who performs them. I didn’t internalize it. I used to be simply attempting to make it. And finally, I had that thought: If you’re in there after you’ve skilled some extent of success, you could have a duty to open that door for another person and pay it ahead.  

Currently, PlayStation has been vigilant in tackling the trade’s lack of variety. I really like working for this firm. I hope I retire right here. It’s been a terrific experience for 15 years. Taking this job all these years in the past fully modified the trajectory of my life. I’ve been to 6 of the seven continents, been fortunate sufficient to fill out one passport, and achieved extra stuff than I may ever think about. All that stems from the alternatives working at PlayStation has supplied.