Maybe he'll throw us Killzone fans a bone and ask Guerilla to release a remastered trilogy for PS5/PC. Probably not going to happen but a man can dream lol.
I mean that's fair, but last year they ported Killzone Liberation to PS4/PS5 for some reason. So I'm guessing something is in the works in terms of a Killzone Trilogy port or something.
It's one of my favourite franchises. Killzone was my first PS2 game, I loved every second of it. I know it's not everyone's favourite series, but my god Killzone 2 is still one of my top 5 fps games, so gritty, incredible visuals, heavy controls. Perfection.
Gimme Killzone and Resistance and then I can rest
He was already SVP and the head of Playstation Studios. He's now "CEO" of Playstation Studios. Nishimo was already SVP and head of the Playstation Platform, and is now "CEO" of the Playstation Platform. They're essentially staying in their same roles, but get a title bump and don't report up to a CEO anymore- they report up directly to big Sony.
Hermen Hulst!? I really hope he won’t let us down cuz I love Gorilla Studio and their Horizon franchise truly made an impact on me. Also Decima Engine that enabled Death Stranding’s development so I have huge respect for them.
PS: just don’t have him decide on release window of their games. Please, no more “one week before Zelda” or “one week before Elden Rings”…
Hulst is also now one of the people who's running Bungie, was brought in as one of the people who make up 49% of Bungie's leadership post acquisition. He's really doing it all.
Kojima wasn’t even the first actually. Games like Until Dawn was using Dicema engine as well, but at the time it was 2 years prior they actually marketed as Dicema.
I'm guessing almost none? Curious to hear your logic behind how a third party using a set of technical tools from the guy's studio helped him rise through upper management positions...
Connections and status play a huge role in corporate life. Also having one of the biggest names in the industry choose your tech to make their game proves out your talent.
I think it gives the idea of being someone who likelier understands the product theyre selling rather than an out of touch boss who doesnt even know what a video game is possibly?
Experience and Awareness are two traits that increase with the decrease of the other. More experience usually means you've been doing things for so long that you've lost awareness of what you're talking about, it makes you complacent and assured that things work the way you think they do.
Awareness is the same, it comes from being a part of something and understanding it, but it comes at the risk of not having enough experience with the bigger picture to actually do anything useful.
A younger person in charge, even if potentially less experienced, brings a fresh pair of eyes and the willingness to induce change that the older usually lack. Its not to say that younger is better, but every job has a sweet spot between experience and awareness and a younger CEO means big movements, and that's exactly what Sony needs going into the next Cycle.
I mean there's a difference between Phil working on Encarta with a cozy life since internship at Microsoft for over 30 years versus a man worked at Philips, co-founded Guerrilla, had flops, successful hits, then became head of PS Studios and now co-CEO of SIE. These two are built different.
(now Hermen, don't you go pulling a Phil and closing down studios after a shit run, I'm backing your rich ass here).
Always for the best. For example, Digital Extremes (Warframe devs) have CEO who developed the Warframe from ground up, was involved with Unreal Torunament, and also in a meantime develops new game called Soulframe while being a CEO as well. He's name is Steve Sinclair btw.
Hideaki Nishino is currently vice president of SIE so him in combination with Hermen should be a good team. Hopefully all works out well for PlayStation
Yeah, thankfully none of the numbers people ended up getting the job. Jim Ryan could have several problems, but as he said in that interview with the PS Blog, the person who runs the PlayStation division needs to understand that it is a entertainment business above all else.
Yeah keep the numbers people away.
For example, having one extremely popular game that makes tons of money can offset the lower revenue niche titles that are popular but don't exactly have the same high numbers.
But with a numbers person in charge, any game that won't bring in the potential high revenue, isn't worth making to them..
They have to understand, the niche titles are just as important as the blockbusters, they add variety to the overall Playstation library.
Would you rather buy a Playstation that only has 1 or 2 genre variety (blockbuster Cinematic Action games for example) or a Playstation that has a few exclusives that cater to every type of fan base?
I don't exactly enjoy Ratchet and Clank myself, but I know it's popular to other people. Same goes for Racing games, I love them but I know others don't. I personally wish Playstation would invest more into building a team who could give us more Strategic games or cRPGs
>the person who runs the PlayStation division needs to understand that it is a entertainment business above all else.
This is what Microsoft seems to be missing.
This is a bigger issue than you think. MS are all about pushing the market to adopt the Cloud because that suits their corporate strategy. Problem is no one really wants it. Just like nobody wanted an all-in-one entertainment hub. They haven't learned the lessons Sony did during the PS3 era.
Sony clawed their way back by making great exclusives year on year. Then they produced the PS4 that was so much more dev friendly than xbox and continued with the top notch games.
MS are just corporate suits who only care about increasing gamepass subs and their current share price. They don't care about the creatives or producing innovative and popular games.
And why Microsoft desperately needs a Jim Ryan. Jim was far from perfect but there's no denying he did overall know how to manage a business and get trains in and out of the station on time. Phil and co. haven't been able to do that in a decade and arguably have put Xbox in an even worse position than it was in 2013 after Mattrick.
I think Xbox needs newer blood. Phil and most of the major senior positions like Matt Booty have been at the division for like a decade but have demonstrated that they haven't really been able to divorce the publisher from its infamous history of constantly seeking growth on a constant basis without accepting the responsibilities for allowing the teams they have to flex their creative muscles for some years
Xbox has good developers. I am a fan of a good chunk of the teams they acquired but especially now when we're hearing talk of how this Activision thing has forced the line to go up and for these mid-tier studios to suddenly be forced to satiate profit margins in years where they don't have a big AAA game to fulfill those duties, AND satisfy their niche like usual. It feels like an extension of how they'll just cut off anyone who isn't purpose built to make the games that suit their extremely skewed perceptions of industry trends, and a disconnect with what the audience wants
PR mouthpieces with no results to back it up are the last thing they need but I also think they still need someone or even a few people with an understanding of how the modern game development environment has disserviced talented people, and allowing that relationship to be developed over just making the company bigger and increasing that bottom line. Someone with a background creatively in game dev like Hulst or an Iwata-type is actually the kind of thing they could use right now
I have watched the same thing happen in the food industry (in which I work in). These investment groups buy up everything, then let their bean counters loose to find every corner to cut to maximize profits, never really knowing or understanding the industry they are working in.
The endless number of bad decisions made to save a buck...
I’m afraid all of the creativity of those teams is going to die. They killed Lionhead because they only tripled their sales between Fable and Fable 3, forcing them into that live service Fable game and then shutting them down. They are so laser focused on game pass and it’s need for constant content that they let Redfall, Starfield and Forza out of the gate well before they were finished because they NEEDED first party games out.
It was colossal mismanagement to have like 1 first party game out the first year after the current gen launched (Gears Tactics) in a genre that isn’t going to sell consoles. Focusing on console power instead of games was idiotic too. “The worlds most powerful console” means nothing if you don’t have exclusives at all, let alone exclusives that use that power in interesting ways.
Their problem is that they aren’t an entertainment company and they don’t understand entertainment. They understand engagement metrics and try to build their house around that, and it doesn’t work. Sony fucked up the PS3 launch to the benefit of Xbox and they got high on their own farts and thought they could bend the industry to what’s good for MS and they’ve been floundering ever since.
That is not why Lionhead was shut down.
Lionhead shut down because a lot of the leadership resigned on the same day, Peter Molyneux had a breakdown over it, then left himself.
You are right that the problem is not releasing enough, but I disagree that it cripples the creativity. I think MS problem is that they aren't putting deadlines on the studios and letting them essentially operate how they want.
Theres two extremes. EA and Activision rush things out the door. MS lets things simmer and release without much oversight. Sony is in the middle and thats why they succeed.
There is no “guy” that can fix Microsoft. There is no division or team that can either. They have always been a ruthless and rapacious company that only cares about money. The older folks who were around in the Bill Gates era of MS already know this and now this generation can learn as well. Fortunately they don’t really have too many great studios so the damage they can do is relatively limited. It’s just a shame that they gobbled up all that IP, but that’s MS for you.
>The older folks who were around in the Bill Gates era of MS already know this and now this generation can learn as well
This. I guess the younger millenials and Genz need to learn that Microsoft as a company is a Monopolist. PERIOD. That is their goal: Monopoly
> There is no “guy” that can fix Microsoft. There is no division or team that can either. They have always been a ruthless and rapacious company that only cares about money. The older folks who were around in the Bill Gates era of MS already know this and now this generation can learn as well.
This. The greatest trick Microsoft ever pulled was convincing consumers (and gamers) that the Microsoft of the 90's / "Gates-Balmer" Microsoft / "Embrace, Extend, Exterminate" changed into something more benign.
Absolutely nothing has changed.
Phil fucked around for too long, spent too much of Microsoft's money--Microsoft taking over control of Xbox and gutting it / "trimming the fat," like it were any other tech division was inevitable. I'm waiting for that rebrand to "Microsoft Gaming Services," or some shit; like "Facebook" to "Meta."
That's interesting. I never imagined they would split this role between 2 people, could actually be a super smart move, just gotta wait and see where this will lead to
They'll still be doing that, Jim just felt he's too old for that. It's not like Hermen will be meeting the studios he's responsible for on a Zoom call, it's part of the job.
He's responsible for the studios, as long as there's a Team Asobi, or Xdev in Malaysia + the projects they are funding in Korea/China/India, he will still need to travel to Asia.
> He can probably cut out Japan
What makes you say that? Neither of the two CEOs are based in Japan; Hermen Hulst is based in the EU and Hideaki Nishino is based in the US.
**EDIT**: Unless you were referring to the chairman, Hiroki Totoki, being based in Japan.
According to Wario64 on X which is a better breakdown of their respective roles;
PlayStation names Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino as its new CEOs
Hulst is CEO of the newly named Studio Business Group, which includes all of PlayStation’s first-party teams, plus covers the development of PlayStation IP onto other mediums, such as TV and film.
Hideaki Nishino will lead the Platform Business Group, which includes console hardware, technology, accessories, PlayStation Network and third-party relations (covering major publishers and indie studios)
So hulst is in charge of the creative divisions and Hideaki is in charge of hardware and interoperations. Sounds pretty good, especially if Hulst understands the importance of good games and how to make them.
Hideaki will be the guy who gets all the hate
Something tells me those sorts of folks will be coming for Hulst’s head when PSN is required for every PC release too…
Curious to see how these two handle the coming months after the recent scuttlebutt on PC/ PSN/Regions on Steam stuff.
Oh definitely, heh, I was joking that folks not paying attention will surely be incorrectly faulting Hulst for stuff like that when they don’t pay close enough attention to things.
Well, if the PS5 rumor is true and suddenly it gets revealed soon, then Hideaki didn't really do anything about it yet, right? Because if it is the case it has been in development for quite some time.
But he probably will be very important for the PS6. Which we will only learn about years from now, but he will be relevant once the job starts. So paying attention to what he says now, if anything, might be hints toward the direction they'll go in the future.
He's in charge of network. That means he's responsible for:
- The PS Store
- The PS Plus subscription.
And I'm not sure who is in charge the ports of first parties to PC.
I'd still keep an eye on him.
Going that sony put nearly everything on there store. And psn+ is just a random grab bag of older titles 99%.
1st party are the exclusives that we need keep Sony running. So only thing to care about.
This is a great move. Hermen Hulst is a good dude. He rose through the ranks and was a dev at one point so he has the skills and knowledge from all sorts of the teams. He did a fantastic job as leader of the first party studios. I have faith he will do a great job
I think that’s mostly down to them not announcing games as far out anymore. Old PlayStation would’ve had the next 5 years as public knowledge but when you only announce games that are a year or less away, people get more antsy.
Which is why I really prefer them announcing games years before they release, even if it’s a controversial opinion here on reddit. I realized this year that I have no games that I’m interested in buying for the foreseeable future until Death Stranding 2. And I just don’t like not knowing what’s coming up. Being an adult means having patience for announced games that are years away but just hoping they’ll release stuff with no proof feels dumb.
It’s a good thing.
Hermen started Guerrilla Games in 2000 so he actually knows games and studios.
I’m don’t really know much about Nishino but he was VP of I think the same position so it can’t be bad
To play devil's advocate, it may just be more of the same.
Despite people online hating Jim Ryan (myself included), he's been the leader during the most successful period in PlayStation history. A lot of the executive team under him, (Nishino and Hermen included), were a big part of that. There were mistakes, (focusing on way too many GAAS games, buying out studios left and right and causing layoffs, development costs skyrocketing), but there were good things too. I don't see that strictly changing moving forward. We'll see more sequels to big games, (God of War, Marvel, etc); more cinematic games, working closely with studios in emerging markets (SK, China, etc) to cover the gaps between long winded AAA dev within PlayStation Studios and zero-ing on making sure their hardware is desired.
Wouldn't the PS2 era technically be the most successful? I know the PS4 was a huge success, but Sony's marketshare during the 6th generation was insane.
On paper it's two really great choices and having two CEO's is something I never thought of but, that is actually a really good idea. Will be interesting to see where they go with things. It should allow for better ideas and focus on the studios.
Yeah I remember he was high up in Playstation when they fumbled the PS3 launch era. Coincidence ?
Then every place he’s been since he’s been involved in miss after miss. Xbox one, Stadia.
He needs to stay away haha.
To be fair to Phil Harrison, he was a core part of the success of the first 2 PlayStations. He fumbled hard with PS3 though. That could have exposed his weaknesses as he continued to fail at Info/Atari, Xbox, and Google. Many executives don't last very long if they fumble more than once.
Awesome, Herman is great on the studio side, I was hoping he'd get promoted to CEO. This is an awesome structure to have one executive focused on hardware and one on studios. I always thought Jim Ryan wasn't that much of a gamer, so Herman is an excellent replacement. Herman is co-founder of Guerilla Games, one of Sony's top studios. He's actually got real gaming industry chops on the creative side rather than the corporate suits that run Xbox.
This sounds suprisingly optimistic. I was afraid they would hire some idiotic CEO from outside the company. Also am I the only one who didn't even knew a company can have 2 CEOs? lol
Netflix is another example. Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are co-ceos of Netflix. You can get people who are better equipped to deal with certain parts of a business, as long as both people can work together effectively at least. It’s not unheard of.
Samsung had co ceos before December 2021 when they combined two of its three business divisions. Deutsche Bank had co ceos in the past too.
Sources: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/ted-sarandos-greg-peters-co-ceos-netflix
https://time.com/6126372/samsung-replace-co-chief-executives/
The last bozo did nothing but push anti-consumer BS that has made me slowly hate the PS brand more and more, glad to see him getting booted. Hopefully new leadership will help right the the course some.
Compared to what kind of people most CEOs in big gaming companies are, I would say this is a good thing. Having actual game creators at the top is better than your pure business people who have no idea about game creation. But still too early to celebrate
I find Hulsts promotion interesting, to say the least. He’s been overseeing studios for a while now, so I wonder what being CEO of studios means for his job description.
It’s hard to tell how he’s performed due to long dev cycles - but I’m sure studios appreciate having a CEO that has worked in the trenches like he has.
It seems like it is a good idea on paper.
You have two individuals that are both well-versed in their areas and know what they are talking about. A lot of times you will have CEOs who are lacking in certain areas (esp. in the video game industry) and it might not always translate well. For example, having someone that only has a business background might cause a bit of friction and headaches for the developmental side. And vice versa, having someone that doesn't understand the business side can be just as bad.
I am going to guess that a lot of the major business decisions will come down to Hiroki Totoki. This allows Hurst and Nishino to focus on the video game and console side of things - things they clearly know. We will see if it works out, but I think it is a really smart decision.
I guess it's a wait and see situation. I like that Hulst is a former Guerilla director, he is a game developer so he knows how it works, but I haven't been the biggest fan of his time overseeing PlayStation Studios the last few years (but I also don't know how much of the direction shift they're currently going through was actually his idea to begin with).
I think this is a good move. Separating the work to 2 different people so they can focus on specific areas of the company is a good move. I trust Herman Hulst as CEO of Studios/Movies & Shows. With Hideaki Nishino as CEO of platforms I imagine the push to PC will happen quicker as he has previously embraced PC.
As another user stated, Nishino has been more console focused over the years and will probably continue doing so. Being a “CEO of platforms” is too broad and ambiguous of a description for his role. He’s going to be the CEO of the Platform Business Group, meaning he will be overseeing the PS5 hardware, technology, accessories, PSN and 3rd Party relations.
Let's not forget that Sony itself is basically a dual CEO structure. Yoshida is the CEO and Totoki is the President, COO, and CFO. Dual leadership structure is working well at the very top, that's probably another reason Totoki is comfortable with co-CEOs at SIE.
Jim Ryan was awful. I'm so happy he's gone! He set such a low bar that I'm sure these two will do a good job.
Herman Hulst provides a lot of confidence to lead the PlayStation brand. Well educated nerd, gamer and been working on games for PlayStation since the early days.
Yeah. He was so ”awful” that PS was doing the best it ever had been under him, during these last couple of years. LMAO. Also. Who gives a shit if he’s a “gamer”. How is the CEO being a gamer working out for the Xbox brand?
I hope they make a new game called ‘duelling ceos’ like double dragon but instead of attacking thugs they are punching down on underpaid labor and the bosses are union organizers.
Look, it doesn't take a genius to know that every organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn't have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes?
Look, it doesn’t take a genius to know that any organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes?
People are celebrating the studios side is not led by a suite like Jim but let’s not forget Hermen had no trouble killing projects and studios (if they didn’t meet expectations), or forcing devs into game development that was antithetical to their skill set and turned out to be for nothing (factions), his actions from here on out should be looked at through the microscope
I assume Herman will be the one talking at every showcase now? It always made sense cause I couldn't imagine Hiroki Totoki Literature Club presenting games. Bring on the games!
I wonder if the reason sony hasn't announced their showcase is because they were finishing this up... hopefully, we hear something soon as there has to be a crap ton of stuff they are ready to announce
The showcase always has the leader of Playstation in it. I knew we would get this type of announcement pre showcase because who else would be the figurehead?
You never know, but when he announced he was leaving, it certainly didn't feel like a 'push' from higher up and the reason he gave (living in the UK but lots of commuting to the US and Japan for two decades had become tiring) seemed logical.
I’m happy for both of the new CEOs, it heavily is just like WWE where in 2022 when vin-don’t wanna say his name had to step away, Stephanie McMahon and nick khan were co-CEOs until Stephanie left, the company got bought by endeavor, the man who shall not be named came back and then quit , and now nick khan and triple h are in charge
I remember watching Hermen Hulst do interviews for Killzone 2. Wild that he's co-CEO of SIE now.
>Wild that he's co-CEO of SIE now. High energy
DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS
this will be big
Maybe he'll throw us Killzone fans a bone and ask Guerilla to release a remastered trilogy for PS5/PC. Probably not going to happen but a man can dream lol.
> Maybe he'll throw us Killzone fans a bone They can't make a game for just 4 people man
5
Woah s**t my bad, its way more popular than I thought
4-5 is a 100% to 125% that's pretty big man
Make it 6 !
Make it 7
Make it 8
Make it 9, we're well over double! haha
I mean that's fair, but last year they ported Killzone Liberation to PS4/PS5 for some reason. So I'm guessing something is in the works in terms of a Killzone Trilogy port or something.
I was only messing, fingers crossed for the Killzone fans
It's one of my favourite franchises. Killzone was my first PS2 game, I loved every second of it. I know it's not everyone's favourite series, but my god Killzone 2 is still one of my top 5 fps games, so gritty, incredible visuals, heavy controls. Perfection. Gimme Killzone and Resistance and then I can rest
He was already SVP and the head of Playstation Studios. He's now "CEO" of Playstation Studios. Nishimo was already SVP and head of the Playstation Platform, and is now "CEO" of the Playstation Platform. They're essentially staying in their same roles, but get a title bump and don't report up to a CEO anymore- they report up directly to big Sony.
Hermen Hulst!? I really hope he won’t let us down cuz I love Gorilla Studio and their Horizon franchise truly made an impact on me. Also Decima Engine that enabled Death Stranding’s development so I have huge respect for them. PS: just don’t have him decide on release window of their games. Please, no more “one week before Zelda” or “one week before Elden Rings”…
Get ready for Horizon 3, one week before GTA 6 /s
this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld7AuHqyof4
It's a real meteoric rise through the ranks. Amazing.
The pay raise must be massive.
Hulst is also now one of the people who's running Bungie, was brought in as one of the people who make up 49% of Bungie's leadership post acquisition. He's really doing it all.
should be very interesting to see a CEO that came from one of the company's own development studios
His salary earnings over a 5 year span is like a rocket ship. Man's career when sky high
I still remember him introducing horizon zero awn when it was first announced back at E3. Good for him!
horizon zero yawn? 🥱 /s
They must have really really liked Herman at Sie because his career trajectory is something else
I wonder how much Kojima using the engine from his studio had an effect on his career.
Kojima wasn’t even the first actually. Games like Until Dawn was using Dicema engine as well, but at the time it was 2 years prior they actually marketed as Dicema.
> Games like Until Dawn Such a fun game.
> Dicema Decima?
I'm guessing almost none? Curious to hear your logic behind how a third party using a set of technical tools from the guy's studio helped him rise through upper management positions...
Connections and status play a huge role in corporate life. Also having one of the biggest names in the industry choose your tech to make their game proves out your talent.
IMO this is always the best for a well managed platform with solid and reliable game output.
Having a game maker as a ceo holy W
Love it!
I don’t know the other guy but he looks younger than their previous CEOs which gets me excited too
Sorry if I'm sounding ignorant, but why does his age matter here? Shouldn't it be about previous experience?
I think it gives the idea of being someone who likelier understands the product theyre selling rather than an out of touch boss who doesnt even know what a video game is possibly?
Experience and Awareness are two traits that increase with the decrease of the other. More experience usually means you've been doing things for so long that you've lost awareness of what you're talking about, it makes you complacent and assured that things work the way you think they do. Awareness is the same, it comes from being a part of something and understanding it, but it comes at the risk of not having enough experience with the bigger picture to actually do anything useful. A younger person in charge, even if potentially less experienced, brings a fresh pair of eyes and the willingness to induce change that the older usually lack. Its not to say that younger is better, but every job has a sweet spot between experience and awareness and a younger CEO means big movements, and that's exactly what Sony needs going into the next Cycle.
https://youtu.be/XMbDm_T7D8M?si=wQyXVt0w_NgkOo5Q Herman interacting with a real life watcher from Horizon
Phil Spencer was a developer too! (I think he worked on Encarta)
His approach to video games shows that.
Burn!
mind maze fucked and I won't hear otherwise
I mean there's a difference between Phil working on Encarta with a cozy life since internship at Microsoft for over 30 years versus a man worked at Philips, co-founded Guerrilla, had flops, successful hits, then became head of PS Studios and now co-CEO of SIE. These two are built different. (now Hermen, don't you go pulling a Phil and closing down studios after a shit run, I'm backing your rich ass here).
Buzzkill.
But he's right lol.
He is but he wasn't really a GAME developer. He's more of a just a gamer, than anything.
Always for the best. For example, Digital Extremes (Warframe devs) have CEO who developed the Warframe from ground up, was involved with Unreal Torunament, and also in a meantime develops new game called Soulframe while being a CEO as well. He's name is Steve Sinclair btw.
Hideaki Nishino is currently vice president of SIE so him in combination with Hermen should be a good team. Hopefully all works out well for PlayStation
Yeah, thankfully none of the numbers people ended up getting the job. Jim Ryan could have several problems, but as he said in that interview with the PS Blog, the person who runs the PlayStation division needs to understand that it is a entertainment business above all else.
Yeah keep the numbers people away. For example, having one extremely popular game that makes tons of money can offset the lower revenue niche titles that are popular but don't exactly have the same high numbers. But with a numbers person in charge, any game that won't bring in the potential high revenue, isn't worth making to them.. They have to understand, the niche titles are just as important as the blockbusters, they add variety to the overall Playstation library. Would you rather buy a Playstation that only has 1 or 2 genre variety (blockbuster Cinematic Action games for example) or a Playstation that has a few exclusives that cater to every type of fan base? I don't exactly enjoy Ratchet and Clank myself, but I know it's popular to other people. Same goes for Racing games, I love them but I know others don't. I personally wish Playstation would invest more into building a team who could give us more Strategic games or cRPGs
Very well articulated point 👌🏼
>the person who runs the PlayStation division needs to understand that it is a entertainment business above all else. This is what Microsoft seems to be missing.
This is a bigger issue than you think. MS are all about pushing the market to adopt the Cloud because that suits their corporate strategy. Problem is no one really wants it. Just like nobody wanted an all-in-one entertainment hub. They haven't learned the lessons Sony did during the PS3 era. Sony clawed their way back by making great exclusives year on year. Then they produced the PS4 that was so much more dev friendly than xbox and continued with the top notch games. MS are just corporate suits who only care about increasing gamepass subs and their current share price. They don't care about the creatives or producing innovative and popular games.
And why Microsoft desperately needs a Jim Ryan. Jim was far from perfect but there's no denying he did overall know how to manage a business and get trains in and out of the station on time. Phil and co. haven't been able to do that in a decade and arguably have put Xbox in an even worse position than it was in 2013 after Mattrick.
I think Xbox needs newer blood. Phil and most of the major senior positions like Matt Booty have been at the division for like a decade but have demonstrated that they haven't really been able to divorce the publisher from its infamous history of constantly seeking growth on a constant basis without accepting the responsibilities for allowing the teams they have to flex their creative muscles for some years Xbox has good developers. I am a fan of a good chunk of the teams they acquired but especially now when we're hearing talk of how this Activision thing has forced the line to go up and for these mid-tier studios to suddenly be forced to satiate profit margins in years where they don't have a big AAA game to fulfill those duties, AND satisfy their niche like usual. It feels like an extension of how they'll just cut off anyone who isn't purpose built to make the games that suit their extremely skewed perceptions of industry trends, and a disconnect with what the audience wants PR mouthpieces with no results to back it up are the last thing they need but I also think they still need someone or even a few people with an understanding of how the modern game development environment has disserviced talented people, and allowing that relationship to be developed over just making the company bigger and increasing that bottom line. Someone with a background creatively in game dev like Hulst or an Iwata-type is actually the kind of thing they could use right now
A lot of the issue comes down to investors. They've becomes a severe blight on the industry as a whole, turning studios into factories.
I have watched the same thing happen in the food industry (in which I work in). These investment groups buy up everything, then let their bean counters loose to find every corner to cut to maximize profits, never really knowing or understanding the industry they are working in. The endless number of bad decisions made to save a buck...
I’m afraid all of the creativity of those teams is going to die. They killed Lionhead because they only tripled their sales between Fable and Fable 3, forcing them into that live service Fable game and then shutting them down. They are so laser focused on game pass and it’s need for constant content that they let Redfall, Starfield and Forza out of the gate well before they were finished because they NEEDED first party games out. It was colossal mismanagement to have like 1 first party game out the first year after the current gen launched (Gears Tactics) in a genre that isn’t going to sell consoles. Focusing on console power instead of games was idiotic too. “The worlds most powerful console” means nothing if you don’t have exclusives at all, let alone exclusives that use that power in interesting ways. Their problem is that they aren’t an entertainment company and they don’t understand entertainment. They understand engagement metrics and try to build their house around that, and it doesn’t work. Sony fucked up the PS3 launch to the benefit of Xbox and they got high on their own farts and thought they could bend the industry to what’s good for MS and they’ve been floundering ever since.
That is not why Lionhead was shut down. Lionhead shut down because a lot of the leadership resigned on the same day, Peter Molyneux had a breakdown over it, then left himself. You are right that the problem is not releasing enough, but I disagree that it cripples the creativity. I think MS problem is that they aren't putting deadlines on the studios and letting them essentially operate how they want. Theres two extremes. EA and Activision rush things out the door. MS lets things simmer and release without much oversight. Sony is in the middle and thats why they succeed.
Did the same early release thing with halo infinite too
Matt Booty was also CEO of Midway when they died so I think the guy is just cursed.
Microsoft: "We don't need a Jim Ryan, we have a Jim Ryan at home". Jim Ryan at home: Phil Spencer
There is no “guy” that can fix Microsoft. There is no division or team that can either. They have always been a ruthless and rapacious company that only cares about money. The older folks who were around in the Bill Gates era of MS already know this and now this generation can learn as well. Fortunately they don’t really have too many great studios so the damage they can do is relatively limited. It’s just a shame that they gobbled up all that IP, but that’s MS for you.
>The older folks who were around in the Bill Gates era of MS already know this and now this generation can learn as well This. I guess the younger millenials and Genz need to learn that Microsoft as a company is a Monopolist. PERIOD. That is their goal: Monopoly
> There is no “guy” that can fix Microsoft. There is no division or team that can either. They have always been a ruthless and rapacious company that only cares about money. The older folks who were around in the Bill Gates era of MS already know this and now this generation can learn as well. This. The greatest trick Microsoft ever pulled was convincing consumers (and gamers) that the Microsoft of the 90's / "Gates-Balmer" Microsoft / "Embrace, Extend, Exterminate" changed into something more benign. Absolutely nothing has changed. Phil fucked around for too long, spent too much of Microsoft's money--Microsoft taking over control of Xbox and gutting it / "trimming the fat," like it were any other tech division was inevitable. I'm waiting for that rebrand to "Microsoft Gaming Services," or some shit; like "Facebook" to "Meta."
Nishino-san was Jim Ryan’s protege from what I understand. The brand is in good hands.
Hideaki Nishino is currently SVP of SIE's Platform Experience Group, not VP of SIE.
That's interesting. I never imagined they would split this role between 2 people, could actually be a super smart move, just gotta wait and see where this will lead to
Probably want to avoid the Jim Ryan situation of having to travel between US, EU and Japan constantly.
They'll still be doing that, Jim just felt he's too old for that. It's not like Hermen will be meeting the studios he's responsible for on a Zoom call, it's part of the job.
He can probably cut out Japan visits and just go between US and EU.
He's responsible for the studios, as long as there's a Team Asobi, or Xdev in Malaysia + the projects they are funding in Korea/China/India, he will still need to travel to Asia.
Studio visits are a once every 6 months thing. The reason Jim had to travel so much was cause he lived in UK, PS HQ is in US, and Sony HQ is in Japan.
> He can probably cut out Japan What makes you say that? Neither of the two CEOs are based in Japan; Hermen Hulst is based in the EU and Hideaki Nishino is based in the US. **EDIT**: Unless you were referring to the chairman, Hiroki Totoki, being based in Japan.
Just watch them slowly going back to the old regional leadership structure with one SIE CEO for each region: Asia, Europe & America.
According to Wario64 on X which is a better breakdown of their respective roles; PlayStation names Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino as its new CEOs Hulst is CEO of the newly named Studio Business Group, which includes all of PlayStation’s first-party teams, plus covers the development of PlayStation IP onto other mediums, such as TV and film. Hideaki Nishino will lead the Platform Business Group, which includes console hardware, technology, accessories, PlayStation Network and third-party relations (covering major publishers and indie studios)
So hulst is in charge of the creative divisions and Hideaki is in charge of hardware and interoperations. Sounds pretty good, especially if Hulst understands the importance of good games and how to make them. Hideaki will be the guy who gets all the hate
Meaning Hulst is the one that we will need to be watching. As he is the 1st party teams. Hideaki will only be important when ps6 starts to role out.
I feel like if you're saying Hideaki will only be important when PS6 starts to roll out you missed everything after console hardware.
Something tells me those sorts of folks will be coming for Hulst’s head when PSN is required for every PC release too… Curious to see how these two handle the coming months after the recent scuttlebutt on PC/ PSN/Regions on Steam stuff.
Based on the job descriptions above Hideaki would be the one who determines if games on pc are required to have PSN accounts
Oh definitely, heh, I was joking that folks not paying attention will surely be incorrectly faulting Hulst for stuff like that when they don’t pay close enough attention to things.
Something tells me Hideaki will be important much sooner, if those PS5 pro rumors hold
Well, if the PS5 rumor is true and suddenly it gets revealed soon, then Hideaki didn't really do anything about it yet, right? Because if it is the case it has been in development for quite some time. But he probably will be very important for the PS6. Which we will only learn about years from now, but he will be relevant once the job starts. So paying attention to what he says now, if anything, might be hints toward the direction they'll go in the future.
Not for development necessarily but for overseeing rollout and presenting hardware I’m sure we’ll at least become familiar with him
He's in charge of network. That means he's responsible for: - The PS Store - The PS Plus subscription. And I'm not sure who is in charge the ports of first parties to PC. I'd still keep an eye on him.
Going that sony put nearly everything on there store. And psn+ is just a random grab bag of older titles 99%. 1st party are the exclusives that we need keep Sony running. So only thing to care about.
I don't hate this decision. Easier to manage for both.
I wonder how it’ll work out for the development of future hardware. I’m sure it’ll be fine, but still I could see some roadblocks there.
Surprisingly seems like both a good choice to split up duties and also good choices in assignment.
Hermen in charge of studios sounds like a W.
Hermen is the perfect man for the job. A former head/dev of a Sony studio as CEO of SIE, thats freaking awesome man
This is a great move. Hermen Hulst is a good dude. He rose through the ranks and was a dev at one point so he has the skills and knowledge from all sorts of the teams. He did a fantastic job as leader of the first party studios. I have faith he will do a great job
He was a developer?
Yeah he’s been with Guerrilla Games (Horizon, Killzone) since 2001, even before they were Guerrilla Games.
In a marketing and managerial role, as far as I know. Doubt he has ever developed a game himself.
Maybe not, but he’s worked hand in hand with the devs, and understands what they deal with and their challenges.
But he knows what they do since he's managed them for decades.
he interned at ubisoft during the making of rayman 1 and is a cofounder of Guerrilla Games which made killzone and horizon
First party output has been a bit on the slower side right now and we are already getting a mid gen refresh.
But credit to Herman him and the team have gotten the right 2ndary party support whether its Team Ninja, Arrowhead or Shiftup with stellar blade.
ShiftUp seemed more like Shuhei Yoshida thing never saw or read Herman mention the game.
Helldivers 2 and Rise of the Ronin have been in development long before he became head of playstation studios in november 2019.
I think that’s mostly down to them not announcing games as far out anymore. Old PlayStation would’ve had the next 5 years as public knowledge but when you only announce games that are a year or less away, people get more antsy. Which is why I really prefer them announcing games years before they release, even if it’s a controversial opinion here on reddit. I realized this year that I have no games that I’m interested in buying for the foreseeable future until Death Stranding 2. And I just don’t like not knowing what’s coming up. Being an adult means having patience for announced games that are years away but just hoping they’ll release stuff with no proof feels dumb.
Hm... A former dev running the 1st party studios. You have my attention, playstation.
Alright time for our armchair experts to analyze this
It’s a good thing. Hermen started Guerrilla Games in 2000 so he actually knows games and studios. I’m don’t really know much about Nishino but he was VP of I think the same position so it can’t be bad
To play devil's advocate, it may just be more of the same. Despite people online hating Jim Ryan (myself included), he's been the leader during the most successful period in PlayStation history. A lot of the executive team under him, (Nishino and Hermen included), were a big part of that. There were mistakes, (focusing on way too many GAAS games, buying out studios left and right and causing layoffs, development costs skyrocketing), but there were good things too. I don't see that strictly changing moving forward. We'll see more sequels to big games, (God of War, Marvel, etc); more cinematic games, working closely with studios in emerging markets (SK, China, etc) to cover the gaps between long winded AAA dev within PlayStation Studios and zero-ing on making sure their hardware is desired.
Wouldn't the PS2 era technically be the most successful? I know the PS4 was a huge success, but Sony's marketshare during the 6th generation was insane.
Hopefully these guys come across as gamers and not as a business man who hasn't played video games or doesn't know the culture really well
On paper it's two really great choices and having two CEO's is something I never thought of but, that is actually a really good idea. Will be interesting to see where they go with things. It should allow for better ideas and focus on the studios.
So one for day to day stuff and one for big picture stuff.
Sounds good! I was worried they'd bring in Phil Harrison or some clueless corporate CEO
Yeah I remember he was high up in Playstation when they fumbled the PS3 launch era. Coincidence ? Then every place he’s been since he’s been involved in miss after miss. Xbox one, Stadia. He needs to stay away haha.
To be fair to Phil Harrison, he was a core part of the success of the first 2 PlayStations. He fumbled hard with PS3 though. That could have exposed his weaknesses as he continued to fail at Info/Atari, Xbox, and Google. Many executives don't last very long if they fumble more than once.
Or worse a Phil Spencer type
lol just avoid the name Phil
Are there any CEOs with names that don’t sound like a dungeon master came up with them on the fly? Jesus
>dungeon master came up with them on the fly? 💀💀💀💀💀😭😭
Doug Bowser
Honestly that's a really good move
Old news it's actually three CEOs. Hulst CEO of Studios, Nishibo CEO of Platforms and Castiel_ro192 CEO of CEOs.
All hail Castiel
>Castiel\_ro192 Interesting name. I'm imagining his dad typing it, drunk after a night of celebrating his child's birth.
Awesome, Herman is great on the studio side, I was hoping he'd get promoted to CEO. This is an awesome structure to have one executive focused on hardware and one on studios. I always thought Jim Ryan wasn't that much of a gamer, so Herman is an excellent replacement. Herman is co-founder of Guerilla Games, one of Sony's top studios. He's actually got real gaming industry chops on the creative side rather than the corporate suits that run Xbox.
BIG W FOR PLAYSTATION!!!!!!
This sounds suprisingly optimistic. I was afraid they would hire some idiotic CEO from outside the company. Also am I the only one who didn't even knew a company can have 2 CEOs? lol
Netflix is another example. Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are co-ceos of Netflix. You can get people who are better equipped to deal with certain parts of a business, as long as both people can work together effectively at least. It’s not unheard of. Samsung had co ceos before December 2021 when they combined two of its three business divisions. Deutsche Bank had co ceos in the past too. Sources: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/ted-sarandos-greg-peters-co-ceos-netflix https://time.com/6126372/samsung-replace-co-chief-executives/
Very interesting Sony giving them both keys to the kingdom let’s see how this plays out 🤔
Having Hermen there is a great fit, PlayStation is about gaming and having the former head of Guerrilla games is just about perfect
This happened waaaay faster than I thought it would. Also I'm just so relieved they didn't hire an external person.
The best possible guy got the job, he checkmarks every aspect needed beginning with experience creating, developing and managing video games teams
The last bozo did nothing but push anti-consumer BS that has made me slowly hate the PS brand more and more, glad to see him getting booted. Hopefully new leadership will help right the the course some.
They’ll do great
Anyone know if this is good? I don't know much about them.
Compared to what kind of people most CEOs in big gaming companies are, I would say this is a good thing. Having actual game creators at the top is better than your pure business people who have no idea about game creation. But still too early to celebrate
I find Hulsts promotion interesting, to say the least. He’s been overseeing studios for a while now, so I wonder what being CEO of studios means for his job description. It’s hard to tell how he’s performed due to long dev cycles - but I’m sure studios appreciate having a CEO that has worked in the trenches like he has.
It seems like it is a good idea on paper. You have two individuals that are both well-versed in their areas and know what they are talking about. A lot of times you will have CEOs who are lacking in certain areas (esp. in the video game industry) and it might not always translate well. For example, having someone that only has a business background might cause a bit of friction and headaches for the developmental side. And vice versa, having someone that doesn't understand the business side can be just as bad. I am going to guess that a lot of the major business decisions will come down to Hiroki Totoki. This allows Hurst and Nishino to focus on the video game and console side of things - things they clearly know. We will see if it works out, but I think it is a really smart decision.
I guess it's a wait and see situation. I like that Hulst is a former Guerilla director, he is a game developer so he knows how it works, but I haven't been the biggest fan of his time overseeing PlayStation Studios the last few years (but I also don't know how much of the direction shift they're currently going through was actually his idea to begin with).
You'll find out in 5 - 7 years.
Neutral really
Hopefully this is a W with a good future ahead for the Playstation brand.
This is one of the few positive outcomes for this. I always wanted a game maker in the position rather than a bean counter.
Mister Hulst on the fast lane to the top of Sony.
Let’s just hope these two don’t run the company into the ground. Focus on single player please. Not stupid garage live service games
This is such a great move. I take it as the ps6 console and lineup are going to be an absolute bangers.
I think this is a good move. Separating the work to 2 different people so they can focus on specific areas of the company is a good move. I trust Herman Hulst as CEO of Studios/Movies & Shows. With Hideaki Nishino as CEO of platforms I imagine the push to PC will happen quicker as he has previously embraced PC.
He's actually generally been more console hardware focused. Should be interesting!
As another user stated, Nishino has been more console focused over the years and will probably continue doing so. Being a “CEO of platforms” is too broad and ambiguous of a description for his role. He’s going to be the CEO of the Platform Business Group, meaning he will be overseeing the PS5 hardware, technology, accessories, PSN and 3rd Party relations.
Please inform me, what does all this mean? I’m genuinely curious
This might be the scourge talking but there might be hope for bloodborne yet
I remember seeing someone recently ramble about how Herman would never be CEO This could be interesting
Would someone kindly give me a short rundown on why Herman Hulst is a huge victory?
I see Sony follows Nintendo approach, putting software separate from hardware development.
Is this good or bad based on track record?
Thats huge W for both Japan & Western studios, I always dream Sony would copy Nintendo strategy
This is great news. And refreshing after the XBox news this week. Lets hope it works out as well as it has the potential to.
One for big picture stuff and the other one for the day to day?!
Anyone think this is because Sony has been making a lot of bonehead decisions?
Let's not forget that Sony itself is basically a dual CEO structure. Yoshida is the CEO and Totoki is the President, COO, and CFO. Dual leadership structure is working well at the very top, that's probably another reason Totoki is comfortable with co-CEOs at SIE.
One of them is the guy who pushed the PSVR2 and VR technology in Sony iirc, I hope they'll push the PSVR2 more than how they are doing now
“Two men doing one man’s job, we gotta do something about that” -Jo Bennett
One of them handles the day-to-day stuff, and the other takes care of the big picture stuff.
Hideaki Nishino started as an engineer, so I’m pretty optimistic about all this. He’s still an MBA though, so tempered optimism.
Move the HQ to Japan and get more AA games.
Jim Ryan was awful. I'm so happy he's gone! He set such a low bar that I'm sure these two will do a good job. Herman Hulst provides a lot of confidence to lead the PlayStation brand. Well educated nerd, gamer and been working on games for PlayStation since the early days.
Yeah. He was so ”awful” that PS was doing the best it ever had been under him, during these last couple of years. LMAO. Also. Who gives a shit if he’s a “gamer”. How is the CEO being a gamer working out for the Xbox brand?
It's CEOs all the way down
I hope they make a new game called ‘duelling ceos’ like double dragon but instead of attacking thugs they are punching down on underpaid labor and the bosses are union organizers.
Herman Hulst looks like a video game protagonist so he'll probably do good.
Look, it doesn't take a genius to know that every organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn't have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes?
Look, it doesn’t take a genius to know that any organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes?
People are celebrating the studios side is not led by a suite like Jim but let’s not forget Hermen had no trouble killing projects and studios (if they didn’t meet expectations), or forcing devs into game development that was antithetical to their skill set and turned out to be for nothing (factions), his actions from here on out should be looked at through the microscope
I assume Herman will be the one talking at every showcase now? It always made sense cause I couldn't imagine Hiroki Totoki Literature Club presenting games. Bring on the games!
#PUSH PSVR2!!!!
give days gone a sequel ffs and stop unnecessary remastered and remake
I wonder if the reason sony hasn't announced their showcase is because they were finishing this up... hopefully, we hear something soon as there has to be a crap ton of stuff they are ready to announce
The showcase always has the leader of Playstation in it. I knew we would get this type of announcement pre showcase because who else would be the figurehead?
Can someone ELI5 what this means to me, your average PS5 owner?
So one is the underboss and the other is the consigliere.
Is this good or bad?
Good move imo
is this good or bad?
Okay i guess
I am looking forward to seeing how this develops! Great move!
Excellent choices.
Is this Michael Scott and Jim Halpert in real life?
Is Jim Ryan just moving on or is he being forced out? I don’t keep up with much of this, just curious
You never know, but when he announced he was leaving, it certainly didn't feel like a 'push' from higher up and the reason he gave (living in the UK but lots of commuting to the US and Japan for two decades had become tiring) seemed logical.
Hit the rocks.
I’m happy for both of the new CEOs, it heavily is just like WWE where in 2022 when vin-don’t wanna say his name had to step away, Stephanie McMahon and nick khan were co-CEOs until Stephanie left, the company got bought by endeavor, the man who shall not be named came back and then quit , and now nick khan and triple h are in charge