• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PlayStation names Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino as its new CEOs

Topher

Topher

Gold Member
"Both leaders will report to Sony Interactive Entertainment chairman Hiroki Totoki, who has been acting CEO of the division since Jim Ryan stepped down from the role at the end of March. "

Snl Season 47 GIF by Saturday Night Live
 
James Sawyer Ford

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Tiago Rodrigues said:
Im surprised about most reactions here.
At least the guy ahead of the studios is someone that used to be a game developer and knows his way around the industry and isn’t a corporate suit only.

The way they split the business is actually interesting. Herman gets the software and the other guy the hardware (which is developed in japan anyway) snd the more burocratic side of the business it seems, like deals, etc
Click to expand...

Yeah this is the best news for a Sony executive in a long time.....

Most of these guys say really stupid things (Jim Ryan, some marketing guy....)

Hulst is a gamer and a developer, and he seems like a cool dude that doesn't speak a bunch of nonsense. Should be good
 
Loomy

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
James Sawyer Ford said:
Yeah this is the best news for a Sony executive in a long time.....

Most of these guys say really stupid things (Jim Ryan, some marketing guy....)

Hulst is a gamer and a developer, and he seems like a cool dude that doesn't speak a bunch of nonsense. Should be good
Click to expand...
I'm just glad Hiroki Totoki's tenure wasn't longer. After his studio tours and meetings back in February, I assumed he'd be directly leading the group for most of this year. Glad it was short lived.
 
Mibu no ookami

Mibu no ookami

Member
Loomy said:
I'm just glad Hiroki Totoki's tenure wasn't longer. After his studio tours and meetings back in February, I assumed he'd be directly leading the group for most of this year. Glad it was short lived.
Click to expand...

Given that Jim Ryan just resigned as of April 1st, this was a pretty quick turnaround.

I think the decision to make this quickly MAY MAY have been pushed by Sony's inability to quickly resolve the Helldivers 2 issue.

Ironically though, I still don't know who would be responsible for resolving that.

From the publisher side it is Hulst but from the platform side it is Nishino... My guess is that Hulst will be more responsible for stuff like this, but as Nishino eventually rolls out a PC launcher and more PC based PSN features, my guess is his side will become more involved.

Whoever grows the business better is going to be the next true CEO but Herman has a huge advantage, but even more reason for Nishino to roll out a handheld and PC launcher sooner rather than later. PSVR3 will be a major initiative as well.
 
ProtoByte

ProtoByte

Member
mortal said:
Why do some have beef with Hulst?
Click to expand...
It comes down to the live services that they wasted half the generation trying to build up only to cancel the projects that were never going to work out and PC ports.

The former, I think, was inevitable. At some point, someone at Sony was going to try and propel their career by promising live services cash. There's too much money in it for it not to be something that a corporation bets on, even if just to satiate what they think shareholders want to hear in the short term.

On the latter, I think it's a bad idea in the long term for both PlayStation users and PlayStation's business. Even in the short term, it hasn't added that much value. Porting games to PC didn't change the situation for Xbox, if anything it made things materially worse, all around.
 
Last edited:
GHG

GHG

Gold Member
Loomy said:
I'm just glad Hiroki Totoki's tenure wasn't longer. After his studio tours and meetings back in February, I assumed he'd be directly leading the group for most of this year. Glad it was short lived.
Click to expand...

Totoki is still in charge, these two will just be the face of the operation (and the ultimate fall guys when shit hits the fan).
 
Loomy

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
GHG said:
Totoki is still in charge, these two will just be the face of the operation (and the ultimate fall guys when shit hits the fan).
Click to expand...
He's the chairman, he's not making day to day, decisions. Totoki will give them goals to hit based on what SIE needs to deliver for Sony as a whole, and it'll be up to Hulst and Nishino to decide what the best strategy to make those targets are.
 
Topher

Topher

Gold Member
GHG said:
Totoki is still in charge, these two will just be the face of the operation (and the ultimate fall guys when shit hits the fan).
Click to expand...

Really not much has changed at all except the hardware side has a boss now. Hulst has added movies and TV but as far as gaming is concerned he will pretty much be doing what he has been doing already. He was given a new title and probably a big pay raise. This does come across to me as a major shakeup from where things were before.
 
Last edited:
Schmendrick

Schmendrick

Member
solidus12 said:
So who’s replacing Jim Ryan’s role as CEO of SIE?

Edit: never mind I read the article.

Let’s hope that they focus more on their core audience and console instead of pc and mobile going forward.
Click to expand...
With the core audience crowd size being nearly stagnant for almost 2 decades and development budgets still rising.... Very unlikely.
 
semiconscious

semiconscious

Member
adamsapple said:
Hulst has had a rocket strapped to his ass, the way he's gone up the corporate ladder last few years.
Click to expand...
well, either that or he's just very good at kissing other people's...

edit: I've seen the future of sony (horizon: forbidden west): big, gorgeous, soulless games that sell millions...
 
Last edited:
Perrott

Perrott

Member
Hugare said:
Executives always fail upward

Incredible
Click to expand...
Fail? PlayStation's first-party output so far into the generation has been very solid, with arguably only one dud in the form of Destruction AllStars.

PlayStation hardware has also been superb under Nishino's lead.
 
Mibu no ookami

Mibu no ookami

Member
Perrott said:
Fail? PlayStation's first-party output so far into the generation has been very solid, with arguably only one dud in the form of Destruction AllStars.

PlayStation hardware has also been superb under Nishino's lead.
Click to expand...

Destruction All-Stars wasn't first party and it was a throw away game trying to get content for launch, which happens... checks notes... every system launch.
 
bitbydeath

bitbydeath

Gold Member
Shits_McGiggles said:
Uh, no. Japan Studio had way more than just the “Knack” team. Stellar Blade is Korean, and Rise of the Ronin wasn’t made with supplemental staff like Bloodborne was. A lot of staff were laid off and a lot of talent was let go.
Click to expand...
Knack was their main IP at the time.
Japan Studio got split in two.

Team Asobi
XDev - Japan

It was the latter who worked on Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Sony XDEV Japan working on Stellar Blade
News
18
3K
Crayon replied
Sony president Hiroki Totoki officially begins his role as interim CEO of PlayStation
Social 2 3
120
7K
Men_in_Boxes replied
Hermen Hulst: PlayStation is “Reevaluating how we operate” in light of the recent layoffs
Game Dev 5 6 7 8 9
420
25K
Fredrik replied
Sony president wants Bungie to be better at ‘assuming accountability for development timelines’
2 3 4
170
10K
Solarstrike replied
  • Poll
Who makes sense as the next CEO of SIE?
2 3
115
6K
rofif replied
Top Bottom