[GI.Biz] PlayStation names Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino as its new CEOs

[ElephantShell]

I agree with people who look at PlayStation Studios output since Hulst has been in charge there and see a lot of pretty safe stuff and not a lot of risks (lots of sequels, similar genres etc.)

However, I will say that I think a lot of that is driven by what the market clearly wants and he did a good job to recognize that and go after it, with sales numbers and critical accolades to show for it. From a BUSINESS perspective he did an outstanding job with PlayStation Studios which is what got him this gig, even if the creative side felt lacking.

 

[Lord Error]

Congrats! This photo of Hermen's cute cat is the first thing that comes to mind whenever I hear anything about him :)

 

[Dust]

Horizonborne
Gran Horizon
Horizon of War (kinda badass name)
HorizonBot
Horizon and Clank
Horizon-Man

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Having an actual developer (dutch, to boot!) in the driving seat over an empty corpo suit that's just there to squeeze more money from the business is unequivocally a win. He lived it and knows how hard game development can be.

And man, what a massive career Hulst is having right now, they must really have a lot of trust in the guy.

Let's see what the next decade brings as the industry is in troubled waters, but I feel very positive about these two.

Click to shrink...

ha this reminds me of when former game dev Don Mattrick got appointed let's hope it doesn't turn out that way.

Anyway you don't come into such positions for being a man of the people you now command, so yeah I'm indifferent to anyone appointed to such positions but I guess it's still better than some finance bro who is just looking at the bottom line on a excel sheet.

 

[Callibretto]

games take a long time and those sequels people are complaining about is only in 2nd or 3rd game. which most publisher would be crazy to not make sequel when 1st game is a hit.

he let Bend ditch Days Gone for new IP, we know Cory is making new IP. ND is potentially make new IP too, he also let Arrowhead spend 7 years on Helldivers 2 where I could easily see other exec just cut their losses and cancel it mid development.

he takes initiative to let Kojima use Decimal engine, manage to secure next AAA Kojima game, and he keep mentioning From software as partner, so he's probably cooking something with FromSoft too.

seems like he's done pretty great thing for PS imo

 

[IIFloodyII]

One thing that the high ups at Sony probably like from Hulst is he basically oversaw the whole internal change from SIE Worldwide Studios to PS Studios, which was probably his main task when given the head spot 5 years ago, so wouldn't make much sense to change that now that they are basically making the head of PS Studios into the Co CEO, instead of just replacing Jim Ryan.

 

[Agni Kai]

games take a long time and those sequels people are complaining about is only in 2nd or 3rd game. which most publisher would be crazy to not make sequel when 1st game is a hit.

he let Bend ditch Days Gone for new IP, we know Cory is making new IP. ND is potentially make new IP too, he also let Arrowhead spend 7 years on Helldivers 2 where I could easily see other exec just cut their losses and cancel it mid development.

he takes initiative to let Kojima use Decimal engine, manage to secure next AAA Kojima game, and he keep mentioning From software as partner, so he's probably cooking something with FromSoft too.

seems like he's done pretty great thing for PS imo

Click to shrink...

He's the man we needed, but not the one we deserved.

 

[Ara63]

They had a bunch of breakout IPs in the late PS4 era that have or are getting sequels now. I don't see how that's any different to how the industry has ever worked to say that SIE in particular are sequel-heavy - or should Naughty Dog have not made Crash 2, or Jak II, or Uncharted 2?

 

[Random Character]

I can garantee you that I have no love for him and any CEO.
I just like doing memes


And I'm ok if you find it cringe.

Click to shrink...

Probably hasn't been in PS OT as they would know you been doing funny Hermen memes for years.

 

[Putty]

He's a great man for the job.

 

[Jump_Button]

Anyone moan about sequels not work out what use to take 3-4 years takes 6-7years now

 

[Steiner_Zi]

So what happens when the two CEOs disagree on a major business decision? Like what to do with PS6 or PC strategy? It feels like when there are two CEOs then neither of them is really the CEO and the big boss continues to be Totoki.

 

[Xeonidus]

So what happens when the two CEOs disagree on a major business decision? Like what to do with PS6 or PC strategy? It feels like when there are two CEOs then neither of them is really the CEO and the big boss continues to be Totoki.

Click to shrink...

Then they battle for Playstation's soul!

 

[RocknRola]

Inb4 Dwight Schrute stages a revolt.

 

[Gavalanche]

So what happens when the two CEOs disagree on a major business decision? Like what to do with PS6 or PC strategy? It feels like when there are two CEOs then neither of them is really the CEO and the big boss continues to be Totoki.

Click to shrink...

Well they are in different departments right? I imagine Hurst has final say on first party, and Nishino on ps6.they have both been doing this a long time, I am sure it will be fine.

 

[CosmiKu]

The fact that they split the role into two distinct responsibility areas shows Sony has slightly differing directions for both, and needs a CEOfor each to keep focus.

Or I could be reading into it too much and this is just a response to Jim Ryan retiring. Clearly the workload and responsibility was too broad for him, and maybe they assessed that it wasn't a Jim thing but a problem with the role itself.

Regardless, it's a shame they can split a high level role in two, but then cut jobs further down the chain, presumably expecting those who remain to pick up the slack (aka doing two people's work).

 

[IIFloodyII]

So what happens when the two CEOs disagree on a major business decision? Like what to do with PS6 or PC strategy? It feels like when there are two CEOs then neither of them is really the CEO and the big boss continues to be Totoki.

Click to shrink...

1v1 quickscope match.

They probably have final say over their things is my guess, so on Hulst sode it is all things 1st party software (both games and TV/movies) and he just keeps Hideaki in the loop if need be, as I would imagine knowing that is important for the hardware side. But otherwise both mostly do their own thing and it's ultimately not their problem what the other is doing.
Hideaki having PSN probably puts him higher up the food chain though, given it is by far their biggest money maker and always will be.

 

[bitcloudrzr]

games take a long time and those sequels people are complaining about is only in 2nd or 3rd game. which most publisher would be crazy to not make sequel when 1st game is a hit.

he let Bend ditch Days Gone for new IP, we know Cory is making new IP. ND is potentially make new IP too, he also let Arrowhead spend 7 years on Helldivers 2 where I could easily see other exec just cut their losses and cancel it mid development.

he takes initiative to let Kojima use Decimal engine, manage to secure next AAA Kojima game, and he keep mentioning From software as partner, so he's probably cooking something with FromSoft too.

seems like he's done pretty great thing for PS imo

Click to shrink...

These new games are also breaking records for every studio, which means significantly more people want continuations of the current series. He is also willing to let something like TLOU Factions get cut, instead pushing ND down a road they do not want to go.

The fact that they split the role into two distinct responsibility areas shows Sony has slightly differing directions for both, and needs a CEOfor each to keep focus.

Or I could be reading into it too much and this is just a response to Jim Ryan retiring. Clearly the workload and responsibility was too broad for him, and maybe they assessed that it wasn't a Jim thing but a problem with the role itself.

Regardless, it's a shame they can split a high level role in two, but then cut jobs further down the chain, presumably expecting those who remain to pick up the slack (aka doing two people's work).

Click to shrink...

One of Jim's complaints was having to fly between the JPN and the US since he was responsible for both sides. This should ease some of that even if there will still be a lot of travel.

 

[Steiner_Zi]

Well they are in different departments right? I imagine Hurst has final say on first party, and Nishino on ps6.they have both been doing this a long time, I am sure it will be fine.

Click to shrink...

I get they have different domains but that's what VP roles are for. Eventually some decisions which are transcendent have to go up the chain and a single person needs to approve. I don't expect this setup to last for a long time, it feels like the two CEOs are pitted against each other to see who the winner will be.

 

[JurassicJack17]

?
Wait I'm confused what has he done that's been so horrible?

Click to shrink...

One time Hermen knocked a coffee out of my hand and pushed me to the floor after I said I hadn't played Forbidden West yet.

 

[PapaJustify]

One time Hermen knocked a coffee out of my hand and pushed me to the floor after I said I hadn't played Forbidden West yet.

Click to shrink...

Rightfully, then.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

If Hulst is becoming co-CEO for SIE then who is taking over as head of PS Studios?

pretty incredible how hermen went from forming guerrilla studios, to join sony playstation studios, to vice president of ps studios, to head of ps studios, to CEO of PLAYSTATION, this guy is incredible really, congratulations to him!

Click to shrink...

It's especially interesting considering how mediocre Guerrilla Games were when they started (Shellshock: Nam '67 and Killzone) and how they kept being given chances and had this incredible upswing into being a technological powerhouse.

Dang, Hulst really shot up the career path.

Click to shrink...

Having watched him speak a few times, he is charismatic and engaging. I'm not surprised he's moving along this path so quickly.

i dont know about blandest, but he sure likes his sequels.

Click to shrink...

That's every publisher nowadays though - find a successful formula and exploit it as much as possible. Sadly just due to the cost of AAA productions they're all much more risk averse.

 

[Tsunami561]

Suddenly, 20 more Horizon projects were greenlit

 

[Danielsan]

Congrats! This photo of Hermen's cute cat is the first thing that comes to mind whenever I hear anything about him :)

Click to shrink...

The only thing I can think of when seeing this photo, is that the CEO of Playstation has his PS5 upside down.

Also congrats to the both of them. Based on the recent trajectory, it always seemed like to most likely outcome that Herman would be the next Playstation CEO. That said, I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. Outside of slow embracing PC, I don't really like the current gen trajectory of Playstation. Basically ever since Sony closed down Japan Studios and moved away from making more interesting titles to supplement their blockbusters. The current Playstation line up is safe and boring. Also they seem hell bend on torching any PC good will at the moment.

 

[Ushay]

This could end up being a very good idea with 2 CEOs. Good choices both.

 

[FF Seraphim]

Are people really complaining about sequels to games that sell a massive amount?

Look at the industry, we want devs to keep their job.
Hopefully under Hulst Playstation Studios will flourish and maybe we will get some Sony Indie games like during the PS3 era. However, with cost of gaming development increase during the years, I am just happy we are getting good games.

 

[Ruruja]

The rise and rise of Hermen Hulst

 

[Lampa]

If Hulst is becoming co-CEO for SIE then who is taking over as head of PS Studios?

Click to shrink...

I don't think anyone is, because he is a co-CEO for software side of things. He is essentially keeping his role as a head of PS Studios, but reports directly to the head of Sony, instead of head of Playstation.

 

[bitcloudrzr]

It's especially interesting considering how mediocre Guerrilla Games were when they started (Shellshock: Nam '67 and Killzone) and how they kept being given chances and had this incredible upswing into being a technological powerhouse.

Click to shrink...

Sony saw something with that studio back in 2005 when they bought them, and they are now releasing one of the best selling franchises in company history.

 

[Necron]

Time to blame both when the eventual Horizon Zero Dawn remake gets announced before a Bloodborne remake.

Fun times ahead.

 

[TheRaidenPT]

It's an interesting strategy to move Service and a Head of Software into a CEO role.

Just shows how Sony is planning on having both things as important.

I suppose Hermen will be the man showing face for the Showcase then

 

[ioriyagami]

So, Hermen is charismatic, but I can't say he has proven he "gets it" yet. Under his direction Sony overspent in a lot of acquisitions, several of them for new studios with no track record, that had a real negative impact on profits, leading to closures, layoffs and cancelations. He was there taking all the bad decisions with the recent Helldivers 2 debacle (though at least he corrected direction), and seems like GoT PC is going straight into a repeat. I am sure the push for GaaS is mainly coming from him which...well we'll see how that goes, but it's not looking great.

And about Nishino, the PlayStation hardware/peripheral output has been sometimes questionable: PSVR2's price, less comfortable design than PSVR and lack of backwards compatibility, PS Portal with no Bluetooth or native cloud streaming, PS5 Slim's weird detachable disc unit, PS5 Pro feeling like a pointless upgrade for some developers... Awkward, inelegant or half-assed design decisions in almost all recent PS products.

I feel like someone more experienced like Eric Lempel would've been a safer option, but I think Sony wants a real change of direction for PlayStation. I am skeptical, and mostly not a fan, buy we'll see how that goes.

 

[Dust]

I don't hate Hulst (Nishino is outright positive) but I also have to see how will Hulst handle the very tricky financial part of being CEO.

 

[Damien1990]

Makes sense to split hardware and software, I guess. Anyone have any info on Hideaki Nishino as a hardware person?

Click to shrink...

Nishino oversaw the release of the Portal which was a success:

Exclusive: The making of the PlayStation Portal

Project lead Hiromi Wakai explains Sony's goals and why the Portal isn't a Vita 2.

www.gamefile.news

She credits the idea of playing PlayStation's best games without a TV to Hideaki Nishino, the head of Sony's PlayStation Experience Group.

One key guiding principle for the Portal project that helps explain its uncomplicated feature set that simply apes the PS5's controls and display proportions: "We also did not want to ask for any additional work from game creators to achieve this goal." PS5 games needed to work on the Portal with no strings attached.

The Portal was never meant to be a dedicated handheld, Wakai said. "The initial discussions of this product started out from the question of how to expand the PS5 console game experience, not launch a separate handheld device."

Click to shrink...

and he was the one who talked about potentially adding cloud support to the Portal in the future.

新PS5と“PlayStation Portal”はなぜ生まれた? SIEプラットフォーム責任者に聞く「年末商戦」で狙うもの【西田宗千佳のRandomTracking】

PlayStation 5が発売になって3年が経過し、またホリデーシーズンがやってくる。

av.watch.impress.co.jp

In terms of Portal, remote play and the cloud are only different in terms of where the server is, and there are no technical problems. We will start with remote play and proceed with verification.

Click to shrink...

He was in that role as SVP of Global Product Strategy and Management since 2016 so would have been involved with the PS5 and the PSVR2 too.

 

[MadMod]

Hulst oversaw the blandest, most default Sony games ever made, so this stinks.

Click to shrink...

Literally made one of the most "controversial" AAA games of all time haha.

 

[Thorrgal]

Yesssssssssss

Figured Hermen Hulst would be the next CEO, interesting that it's co-CEOs now. Hopefully they do better than Jim Ryan's tenure.

Click to shrink...

Hopefully they do better but I'd sign if they do as well as Ryan, which won't be easy

 

[Lydecker]

When I read this over on the Killzone Wiki, I was excited for Hulst:

His favorite PS4 games of all time are Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, The Last Guardian, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Inside, Until Dawn, and Street Fighter V. His favorite PS2 games of all time are God of War, Ico, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Click to shrink...

So Hermen, give my Last Guardian PS5 patch and my Ico remake.

Thank you!

 

[Tea-Stance]

Literally made one of the most "controversial" AAA games of all time haha.

Click to shrink...

Oh jesus christ these gifs are terrible.

 

[Jqydon]

Excuse my pessimism but to me this kinda reads like Totoki is going to continue to have significant influence which means business first decisions (like the ones that fans have not liked as of late). I can see this accelerating their business growth but I'm not sure how popular this tenure will be with fans.

 

[bixente]

To be honest, Shuhei Yoshida is the only old timer that I remember that used to back indie dev and started in the era where cool games are still being published on PS platform. Even though he is still around the indie push seems to be gone, maybe they have moved on to the china hero thing and reach out to Korean dev like stellar blade for AA games. Smaller size games seems to be gone from PS

Click to shrink...

Who was responsible for the closure of Japan Studio, I'm wondering?

 

[St. Elmo's Fire]

Me running around my house when the brand new non VR full fledged Astrobot game is finally announced in the showcase

View: https://i.giphy.com/2wZ0a48mcgHN7qVdzk.webp

Click to shrink...

VR? Sorry bud.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

People keep bringing up that one game as an argument, but it doesn't change what happened to studios like ND. Or the Bungie failure

Click to shrink...

• What Bungie failure, and how was that the fault of Sony? We had reports saying it was Bungie management cutting people to reduce expenditures because if they went below a revenue threshold that could trigger a full Sony takeover. At the moment Bungie have a lot of autonomy and it's likely to stay that way until the founders cash out and leave, which is expected to be 2026 IIRC.
• Most of the GaaS projects they greenlit haven't released yet. The Last of Us Online was cancelled because the scope was too big for the studio and it would have swallowed all of their resources (and they want to go back to focusing on single-player games). Twisted Metal seems like it never really got off the ground, so who knows what was going on there. Concord is likely coming later this year but we haven't seen anything of it yet, same for Fairgames (except the later this year part). We might see Marathon for the first time this year and with the Bungie audience and usual level of polish/presentation it's likely to be very popular unless they steal defeat from the jaws of victory, the Deviation project seems as though it fell apart because of poor leadership at the studio, but it also seems like Sony is trying to pick the best parts from that corpse and start over. Elsewhere we've got the Horizon co-op project which should be set to release in the next couple of years, and I think that's all the ones we know about? Meaning so far we've got one full development cancelled because the studio underestimated it/the scope grew too large, and another game cancelled which seems like it was never even in full production.

Genuinely, what games were greenlit and released since 2019 when he got the WWS role that suggest this? For me, it'll be the next 5 years that make a mark to assess performance, as that'll be the rough time frame given game dev time under his leadership. I have no real idea yet to make that call.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, agreed. Concord will likely be the first original game which has been entirely or almost entirely developed under his tenure, I think? It will also give us a good insight into their confidence in Firewalk.

The Battle for Playstation's soul starts now. Also, didn't realize there was Hulst hate. Did it transfer from Jim?

Click to shrink...

I think it's mostly people disliking the current Live Service trend in the industry, not realising all publishers are like this and it is far from a Sony-specific issue.

Hell, just last week we had a niche-but-beloved Microsoft studio closed down after the were shoehorned into making a GaaS game which didn't turn out well. Did people want the same thing to happen to Firesprite or Naughty Dog, which could cause serious harm to or potentially even end up closing a studio?!

Makes me wonder, has there ever been a female CEO of a major console manufacturer?

Click to shrink...

Sarah Bond is CEO of Xbox I believe.

Hopefully Nishino completely 180s on the PS6 design.

Click to shrink...

What does this mean?

It will be interesting to hear what the new strategy is at the Sony Group meeting later this month. Also may be the end of selling hardware at a loss.

Click to shrink...

I don't think they've sold hardware at a loss in a very long time now? Not since the early PS3 days was my understanding.

That's why he's the goat ceo that understood gaming

Click to shrink...

Lol

Horizonborne
Gran Horizon
Horizon of War (kinda badass name)
HorizonBot
Horizon and Clank
Horizon-Man

Click to shrink...

The Hori of Zon
Ghost of Horizonshima
HorizEout
HZD The Show

So what happens when the two CEOs disagree on a major business decision? Like what to do with PS6 or PC strategy? It feels like when there are two CEOs then neither of them is really the CEO and the big boss continues to be Totoki.

Click to shrink...

I presume if it can't be resolved between them and they have equal say then they both present a business case to Totoki to make the final decision.

Are people really complaining about sequels to games that sell a massive amount?

Look at the industry, we want devs to keep their job.
Hopefully under Hulst Playstation Studios will flourish and maybe we will get some Sony Indie games like during the PS3 era. However, with cost of gaming development increase during the years, I am just happy we are getting good games.

Click to shrink...

Yep; this. For a long time Sony had a bunch of reasonably successful IPs which did okay but didn't sell a lot (Ratchet, Wipeout, Infamous, Resistance, GoW pre-2018, Motorstorm, etc) and then once they got into this current groove after Uncharted 2 they've striven more to launch games which can become franchises.

I don't think anyone is, because he is a co-CEO for software side of things. He is essentially keeping his role as a head of PS Studios, but reports directly to the head of Sony, instead of head of Playstation.

Click to shrink...

Oh, that's interesting. Thanks!

Sony saw something with that studio back in 2005 when they bought them, and they are now releasing one of the best selling franchises in company history.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it really is kind of fascinating. Unfortunately that would never happen any more as developers couldn't weather a weak first game launch and then get a huge budget increase for their second game. Hermen must have really sweet-talked the PS higher-ups back then!

 

[Triggerhappytel]

VR? Sorry bud.

Click to shrink...

Non VR

 

[Lord Error]

The only thing I can think of when seeing this photo, is that the CEO of Playstation has his PS5 upside down.

Click to shrink...

That's why I posted that photo. The fact he doesn't know something so basic about the product he's the president of, is the actual first thing I always think about when I hear his name. He's probably a good schmoozer though.

 

[Squarealex]

Literally made one of the most "controversial" AAA games of all time haha.

Click to shrink...

Well TLOU2 was greenlight before Hermen

 

[BitterFig]

That sounds like the same job he has now. I'm guessing there won't be a replacement for him as head of PSS

 

[Shemhazai]

Well TLOU2 was greenlight before Hermen

Click to shrink...

So were the rest of the games released in the past few years.

 

[NewDust]

Having an actual developer

Click to shrink...

Hermen is not a developer though.

 

[Darth Smurf X]

I like Herman. That's it. That's my entire reply. Are you still reading this?

 

[Deluxera]

"Divide and conquer". It seems pretty obvious that reason the CEO position was split in two was for Totoki and the rest of Sony HQ to have more direct power over SIE.