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PlayStation names Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino as its new CEOs

sono

Gold Member
Jim was a bit (dare I say it) boring for me

Can we have some great first party (Killzone4 ) Hermen

We want hype trains galore!
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Ok Im reading that Hermen Hulst was the one who was pushing for more Blockbuster games.

All may not be lost if thats the case. Anything but Pass GAAS games as the major focus
 
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hinch7

Member
I'm okay with this.. Hust is probably the best guy for the job currently. Guy knows his stuff about the inner workings of a studio and has the technical know-how, which will hopefully translate into good results. Hideaki Nishino on the other hand is a bit of a mystery.
 
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I'm making my list of everyone talking shit.
Warning Anthony Anderson GIF by HULU
 
Ok Im reading that Hermen Hulst was the one who was pushing for more Blockbuster games.

All may not be lost if thats the case. Anything but Pass GAAS games as the major focus
the dude was in charge of guerrilla, giving a master class of how to transition a studio that made FPS to make a third-person game, in addition to the creation of the best engine within SEI.

Horizon may be lackluster in storytelling , but it's a technical and artistic achievement with a superb gameplay
 

nial

Member
Stellar Blade started development before 2019. Dont think that Herman was responsible for securing it as an exclusive.
It was picked up as a PS Studios game in 2021, guess who's the president of the division.
Yeah, like Microsoft wouldnt lie about Hi-fi Rush being a resounding success after release.
Which I knew you would mention, and that's why I said over an externally-developed title. Tango Gameworks was an internal studio of Microsoft.
Housemarque wasnt Sony's studio yet, but they have been practically one for decades. Every game from the studio was a Sony exclusive.
Irrelevant, I don't know what would Sony gain with lying to make a developer partner look good.
And discussions were definitely happening at the time already.
All which would have surely stopped once they deduced it was a financial failure from the start.
Returnal's game director that was there for 14 years leaving the studio and Sony not greenlighting a sequel isnt a coincidence. Connect the dots.
Just like Resogun? I don't know man. Either way, Sony acquiring Housemarque and giving them the budget to develop another project in the same vein of Returnal is already much more than whatever Microsoft has done with Tango.
 

CosmicComet

Member
God damn not Hulst I absolutely hate this boring dutch fuck.

How the hell did this guy go from a mere game director at Guerilla (a studio whose only real hit was Horizon) all the way to CEO of Playstation in less than 10 years?
 

Varteras

Member
One thing is for sure. If Concord is shown off this year, it doesn't matter how shit it looks. Men_in_Boxes Men_in_Boxes will be here to tell us why it deserves more love than our own children. Meanwhile, rofif rofif will lament that Sony once again neglected using air time to remind us that Forspoken is a masterpiece. So either Hulst is the man, or a piece of shit.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
One thing is for sure. If Concord is shown off this year, it doesn't matter how shit it looks. Men_in_Boxes Men_in_Boxes will be here to tell us why it deserves more love than our own children. Meanwhile, rofif rofif will lament that Sony once again neglected using air time to remind us that Forspoken is a masterpiece.

NeoGAF: Live Service is saturated luck.

Men_in_Boxes: Helldivers 2 and Concord become grand slam hits.

NeoGAF: Why didn't Men_in_Boxes tell us?
 

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member
I don't know why, I cannot place my finger on "it" but... he became insufferable after Horizon: Zero Dawn shipped. That's just my take, though. More so, after he got the Promotion @ PlayStation.
 
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tmlDan

Member
Oh that's the exact opposite of what they are gunna do according to absolutely everything said. They want to make money. They NEED to make money. Their profit margins have gotten razer thin bc the console market is stagnant. PS will collapse in 3 years if they don't find a much wider audience to sell their games. PC day one will be more common than not very soon. Mobile will grow for them and they may even send a few games to Xbox. And the consumers will be the big winners. We need to stop rewarding console makers and companies like apple for anti-consumer practices like walled gardens and forced exclusivity
Wtf is the bold, are you drunk? LOL
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
So Hiroki Totoki is still in charge then
And Hulst is still in charge of First Party but has new job title.
They just got someone to handle the hardware side of things..
 

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member
Oh that's the exact opposite of what they are gunna do according to absolutely everything said. They want to make money. They NEED to make money. Their profit margins have gotten razer thin bc the console market is stagnant. PS will collapse in 3 years if they don't find a much wider audience to sell their games. PC day one will be more common than not very soon. Mobile will grow for them and they may even send a few games to Xbox. And the consumers will be the big winners. We need to stop rewarding console makers and companies like apple for anti-consumer practices like walled gardens and forced exclusivity
Bro, we have a better chance at collapsing as a global society than PS brand collapsing in 3 years...(shit.. that is kind of hypocritical in a sense. LOL)
 

Shakka43

Member
As I expected, Hulst has been fast tracking the ladder these past few years and now he's the top dog. I don't necessarily like him for the role as he is too DEI-ish but we'll see, hopefully this duo does a good job.
 

yurinka

Member
Oh snap a PC fanboy as CEO that's scary, hopefully Noshino can balance things up, I don't know him but he's Japanese so he can be more trusted, at least more than Herman "PC fanboy" hulst
but given Hulst was the one pushing for shorter PC stagger windows
According to them, the ones who started the PS Studios expansion to PC were Shawn Layden and Shuhei Yoshida. Hermen just continued their work.

What do we know about this Nishino guy?
Has been at SIE since 2006, before that he also was at Sony Ericsson. He was in charge of Sony Network Entrtainment (PSN & services) and later he also became in charge of R&D, hardware and accesories. He will be doing the same, but now will also handle 3rd party relationships.

In the same way, Hermen will continue doing the same, but on top of PS Studios he now will be also handling Bungie and PlayStation Productions (and other potential future adaptations of SIE game IPs to other mediums).
 
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ShaiKhulud1989

Gold Member
People are still coping with Sony doomed?

From my perspective, it’s the best decision possible. The job is finally evenly distributed between two CEOs that are not competing and, as did Ryan, both report to Sony’s CEO. Previous PS CEOs were so stressed even with smaller scale PS Division that typical leader burned out in 5 years or so. This was not very healthy.

Now, about the hires. You can trash Hulst as much as you want, but Guerilla in 2005 was a trash-level Eurojank developer lacking in both tech and talent. Killzone 2 was a freaking miracle after 1 and that shitty Nam game, and Horizon breakthrough into new tech and genre solidified Hulst as one of the best studio heads out there. Plus, he was one of the main forces behind the creation of ICE Team. Considering the geography and the number of proprietary tech involved, his leadership over PS Studios is at least not something to frown upon. Just look at Matt Booty for comparison heh.

Nishino is the right type of internal veteran to lead the hardware team too. He has deep understanding of Sony’s hardware legacy and culture, had a shtick with big Sony during SE days so he actually can feel the internal management dynamics, and is a perfect guy to lobby PS interests in Japanese HQ.

Both CEOs are already familiar with their areas of expertise, now they have more autonomy and less management layers so the transition will happen without needless wrinkles too.

If anything, it’s way better turn of event than rumored promotion of marketing head Eric Lempel and show us that current Sony leadership has a good understanding of its businesses inner dynamics.
 
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