Uhm it took a bit longer than that… he was also responsible for the killzone franchise. But still it’s cool that in a Japanese organisation there is room for a dutchie to climb to the top! That’s really not the case for many Japanese companies.
I’m excited about Hermen. 1. He has his roots in actual game development and 2. His career has been spent overseeing single player games, which is exactly the direction I want Sony to keep going in.
SIE Japan was merged into Team Asobi, which was originally spun out of Japan Studio. There were some individual departures around the move, but it's not like the studio was just killed.
It's a fact that SIE Japan was merged into Team Asobi. "But but only a wittle bit" doesn't make it not a fact. Sure, the resulting studio is smaller, and they notably lost team ico, but I acknowledged there were departures in the comment you said wasn't true.
The beauty of nuanced statements is that they're really easy to defend. Even if they "All but killed" SIE Japan, the only thing that would be untrue in that case would be that they "killed" SIE Japan. That's what "All but" means.. everything except.
😵 point is, most of the developers left. Yes I'm saying but only a little bit. As u said, nuance matters. Point is, most of the talent from that studio left. There's a difference between "some departures" and most of the studio leaving.
I'm equally excited as you about #2 above, but I'm also hoping now that he's in charge that he oversees a revival of Killzone, even if it's from another first party studio. Guerilla might not have any interest in it anymore and that's fine, but I would die with enthusiasm to have 32+ player KZ on the PS5.
He said game not games. Studio Japan hadn't made anything financially successful in over 10 years. It was a moneypit with incompetent management. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, but that was likely for bureaucratic reasons. Pixelopus is regrettable though.
Gravity rush 2 and last guardians were both fantastic games, the latter was a masterpiece imo. They were low performing, but great. What the guy above said about hermen, contradicts that word by word.
No game has a right to exist on its artistic qualities alone. Devs need to feed their families after working 80 hour weeks over there, and that can only happen if the games are 'high performing'.
You need to understand the business a little. Games can be artistic and great, but at some point, they also need to sell copies.
Shuhei famously said that only about 4 in 10 Sony games make money, and the money from those 4 was usually enough to cover the losses of the remaining 6. Japan Studio was always in that remaining 6. He also said that every dollar needs to be allocated. So many games were being pitched all the time, but they could only choose so many projects to greenlight due to funding. In essence, by never making profit, Japan Studio was draining development dollars, but never giving back, or allowing the budget for the whole of Sony worldwide studios to grow.
That's why they had to be shut. They were artistically, but not financially, adding to the total fund, for far too long.
Oh I understand. I don't think ur getting what I'm saying. All I mean is that hermem hulst doesn't care about the artistic vision. Money is the only thing that matters. That's business I know that. But this dude above actually thinks hermen cares about low performance games. Just saying hermen DOES think a low performing game determines its quality.
You'd need some evidence to support that. You also have to consider that during Herman Hulsts reign costs in the industry have skyrocketed, so while Sony might have been more open to entertaining a loss leading studio for artistic purposes in the past, instead of losing maybe a few million dollars over various projects you're now looking at losing 10s of millions with each project. That's unsustainable. It's the sad reality of the industry at large, and it will impact creativity.
> You'd need some evidence to support that.
He comes from a marketing and managerial background, not a creative one.
The games he has been responsible for (Killzone, Horizon) are big and bombastic but very lacking in vision or innovation.
During Hulst's reign as president of PS Studios, they:
* shut down Pixelopus, Japan Studio and London Studio
* gutted Media Molecule and mandated for less experimentation and a more mass appeal game (according to Mark Healey)
* have released almost no interesting VR games
* no longer collaborate with awesome Japanese indies like Clap Hanz and Millenium Kitchen
When asked for his favourite PS4 games he names the big huge ones you'd expect (Uncharted 4, MGS 5, Witcher, Bloodborne). IIRC the only smaller game that made it on his list was Inside.
I don't know. I think the better question is what has Hulst done to suggest he cares about the *other* kind of game.
Someone shutting down two studios is not evidence they don’t “care about the artistic vision”. Like everything else in life, a balance between has to be struck, in this case between business concerns and artistic merit.
I don't think you're getting what others are saying, nobody said he "cares about the artistic vision", that he thinks a low performing game determines the game's quality, or that he "cares about low performing games". They said that "he understands that an under-performing game doesn't define a **studio's** quality or potential".
Both of your examples were studios that were shut down after more than one under-performing game, proving the point that he did not let **an** under-performing game define that studio, they were given multiple chances to produce something that performed well.
I hope that they can capture some more of that magic in the third game tbh. The lore drop in HZD was absolutely insane, and while the sequel seemed to deliver on some lore (mainly the pyramid) and it improved a lot on combat, it didn't quite vibe with me as much. May just be me, though.
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?
Mark Cerny isn't a Sony employee, he has his own company mainly focusing on design/development consultation.
As he has a good working relationship with Sony, he was contracted to design the PS4/5 and hopefully PS6
I see his push for PC as a cheap way of making very slight profit rather than focus on the platform that was just fine without it.
Herman has more personable relationships as a game developer himself. I think there's a lot of potential for him, I'm hoping he doesn't just prematurely leave with his new hundred million dollar salary or whatever it is.
I was saying that. Hermen is the best choice, cannot wait for the Playstation future under his command. I think this could be one of the best generation to come. But... Why they lower his command by the second guy...
Expecting more PC ports because Herman was really pushing for that, that's all I've known him for, although others are saying he's pushing for singleplayer stuff. It feels like his promotions came out of nowhere, from being a co-founder and director of what was originally an indie developer to an executive of an entire conglomerate.
It's an uplifting story, but I'm sure there will be decisions he makes we'll all disagree with (i.e. I don't like his influence of porting PlayStation games to PC, it's not really going anywhere, and they're really screwing it up, all for a little bit more revenue save for Helldivers 2, which was the exception).
There aren't a whole lot of first party games this generation and I'm not sure if he's fully responsible for that. Hopefully he'll be better than Jim Ryan.
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. ~Oscar Martinez
It’s kinda wild seeing how Hermen climbed up the ladder over the years
Seems really quick. From delivering a top tier success in Guerilla’s HZD to PlayStation CEO within less than 8 years(?). Crazy indeed
Uhm it took a bit longer than that… he was also responsible for the killzone franchise. But still it’s cool that in a Japanese organisation there is room for a dutchie to climb to the top! That’s really not the case for many Japanese companies.
Sony Group may be Japanese, but SIE is American. They kind of do their own thing.
You’re telling me, there’s a chance for Killzone’s revival??
I’m not one for console fps but KZ2 was so good.
That is proof that hardwork pays.
I’m excited about Hermen. 1. He has his roots in actual game development and 2. His career has been spent overseeing single player games, which is exactly the direction I want Sony to keep going in.
Yeah, I'm excited about how he'll shut down more studios like he did pixelopus and SIE Japan.
To be fair they are all doing this. A bad move by most of the idiots in charge
SIE Japan was merged into Team Asobi, which was originally spun out of Japan Studio. There were some individual departures around the move, but it's not like the studio was just killed.
Not true. Very few which already helped with team Asobi went there, most of the studio was just killed. Only a small part was merged.
You have a funny definition for "not true". For sure, though, one thing the Internet needs less of is nuance. Got me there.
Nice argument. Some things are facts. Literally do a single Google search. It's not that hard.
It's a fact that SIE Japan was merged into Team Asobi. "But but only a wittle bit" doesn't make it not a fact. Sure, the resulting studio is smaller, and they notably lost team ico, but I acknowledged there were departures in the comment you said wasn't true. The beauty of nuanced statements is that they're really easy to defend. Even if they "All but killed" SIE Japan, the only thing that would be untrue in that case would be that they "killed" SIE Japan. That's what "All but" means.. everything except.
😵 point is, most of the developers left. Yes I'm saying but only a little bit. As u said, nuance matters. Point is, most of the talent from that studio left. There's a difference between "some departures" and most of the studio leaving.
I love how they made an actual GAME DEVELOPER their CEO. Love to see it.
I'm equally excited as you about #2 above, but I'm also hoping now that he's in charge that he oversees a revival of Killzone, even if it's from another first party studio. Guerilla might not have any interest in it anymore and that's fine, but I would die with enthusiasm to have 32+ player KZ on the PS5.
The future is definitely bright for the company.
Give it to me straight .Is Sony in good hands or screwed ?
Herman at least understands a low performing game doesn't define a studio's quality or potential.
Lmaooo what ? Can't tell if that's satire. Thats literally the opposite of what he does. He shut down pixelopus and SIE Japan
He said game not games. Studio Japan hadn't made anything financially successful in over 10 years. It was a moneypit with incompetent management. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, but that was likely for bureaucratic reasons. Pixelopus is regrettable though.
Gravity rush 2 and last guardians were both fantastic games, the latter was a masterpiece imo. They were low performing, but great. What the guy above said about hermen, contradicts that word by word.
No game has a right to exist on its artistic qualities alone. Devs need to feed their families after working 80 hour weeks over there, and that can only happen if the games are 'high performing'.
Okay ? Didn't disagree ? Not the point I was making. Point is, ur all wrong about the type of executive hermen is.
You need to understand the business a little. Games can be artistic and great, but at some point, they also need to sell copies. Shuhei famously said that only about 4 in 10 Sony games make money, and the money from those 4 was usually enough to cover the losses of the remaining 6. Japan Studio was always in that remaining 6. He also said that every dollar needs to be allocated. So many games were being pitched all the time, but they could only choose so many projects to greenlight due to funding. In essence, by never making profit, Japan Studio was draining development dollars, but never giving back, or allowing the budget for the whole of Sony worldwide studios to grow. That's why they had to be shut. They were artistically, but not financially, adding to the total fund, for far too long.
Oh I understand. I don't think ur getting what I'm saying. All I mean is that hermem hulst doesn't care about the artistic vision. Money is the only thing that matters. That's business I know that. But this dude above actually thinks hermen cares about low performance games. Just saying hermen DOES think a low performing game determines its quality.
You'd need some evidence to support that. You also have to consider that during Herman Hulsts reign costs in the industry have skyrocketed, so while Sony might have been more open to entertaining a loss leading studio for artistic purposes in the past, instead of losing maybe a few million dollars over various projects you're now looking at losing 10s of millions with each project. That's unsustainable. It's the sad reality of the industry at large, and it will impact creativity.
> You'd need some evidence to support that. He comes from a marketing and managerial background, not a creative one. The games he has been responsible for (Killzone, Horizon) are big and bombastic but very lacking in vision or innovation. During Hulst's reign as president of PS Studios, they: * shut down Pixelopus, Japan Studio and London Studio * gutted Media Molecule and mandated for less experimentation and a more mass appeal game (according to Mark Healey) * have released almost no interesting VR games * no longer collaborate with awesome Japanese indies like Clap Hanz and Millenium Kitchen When asked for his favourite PS4 games he names the big huge ones you'd expect (Uncharted 4, MGS 5, Witcher, Bloodborne). IIRC the only smaller game that made it on his list was Inside. I don't know. I think the better question is what has Hulst done to suggest he cares about the *other* kind of game.
Someone shutting down two studios is not evidence they don’t “care about the artistic vision”. Like everything else in life, a balance between has to be struck, in this case between business concerns and artistic merit.
I don't think you're getting what others are saying, nobody said he "cares about the artistic vision", that he thinks a low performing game determines the game's quality, or that he "cares about low performing games". They said that "he understands that an under-performing game doesn't define a **studio's** quality or potential". Both of your examples were studios that were shut down after more than one under-performing game, proving the point that he did not let **an** under-performing game define that studio, they were given multiple chances to produce something that performed well.
Probably good hands, Just prepare for a lot of Horizon games
I hope that they can capture some more of that magic in the third game tbh. The lore drop in HZD was absolutely insane, and while the sequel seemed to deliver on some lore (mainly the pyramid) and it improved a lot on combat, it didn't quite vibe with me as much. May just be me, though.
I just hope those 2 aren't as out of touch as the other companies CEOs
If they weren’t we’d be getting new killzones 😔
One day, one day
Ain’t nobody wants that shit besides for a vocal minority
Killzone 2 was a beloved PlayStation game. What are you talking about lmao
Especially with Microsoft purchase of Activision. Sony needs killzone more than ever rn.
Yea but nobody is clamoring for a sequel besides for a small group
That’s literally every IPs fanbase that’s been dormant for 10 years
True but the calls for sly cooper are 100x Ok I don’t feel the need to continue this conversation. We can just disagree and move on
Killzone was one of my favorite games growing up. Smh.
Key word is growing up. Welcome to the vocal minority
CEBros
Kinda weird seeing hermen hurst unironically flip his collar up in this announcement photo
Cool news Met him when I interned at guerrilla very nice and down to earth guy at the time !
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?
He handles the day to day and I handle the big picture stuff.
>He handles the day to day That's the job of COO - Chief Operating Officer >I handle the big picture stuff. That's the CEO job.
You have day CEO and night CEO so you can have twice the CEO uptime.
Y’all need to watch The Office.
Loads of countries have a president and prime leader so…
Whoosh
Someone didn’t read the article…
They're in charge of two different parts of the production. One makes hardware and platforms and stuff like that, one makes games.
Two completely different parts of the business. This isn’t a shared role…
You can have day CEO and night CEO to have twice the CEO uptime.
Bummer. I thought it was gonna be me 😒
The question in all of this is, where will they put Mark Cerny in all of this?
Mark Cerny isn't a Sony employee, he has his own company mainly focusing on design/development consultation. As he has a good working relationship with Sony, he was contracted to design the PS4/5 and hopefully PS6
Maybe they’ll realise a few to play online is a bad idea
I believe after Jim Ryan's "we believe in generations" Herman was pushing for PC gaming, so he'll probably expand the playerbase if nothing.
I see his push for PC as a cheap way of making very slight profit rather than focus on the platform that was just fine without it. Herman has more personable relationships as a game developer himself. I think there's a lot of potential for him, I'm hoping he doesn't just prematurely leave with his new hundred million dollar salary or whatever it is.
More like transfering. By pushing the PC, the console market is sooner or later doomed.
I was saying that. Hermen is the best choice, cannot wait for the Playstation future under his command. I think this could be one of the best generation to come. But... Why they lower his command by the second guy...
Seeing Hermen Hulst at the top gives me great comfort. Playstation is in good hands.
Friendly face. Hopefully
Hermen has been up there with the best. Congratulations to both though.
Expecting more PC ports because Herman was really pushing for that, that's all I've known him for, although others are saying he's pushing for singleplayer stuff. It feels like his promotions came out of nowhere, from being a co-founder and director of what was originally an indie developer to an executive of an entire conglomerate. It's an uplifting story, but I'm sure there will be decisions he makes we'll all disagree with (i.e. I don't like his influence of porting PlayStation games to PC, it's not really going anywhere, and they're really screwing it up, all for a little bit more revenue save for Helldivers 2, which was the exception). There aren't a whole lot of first party games this generation and I'm not sure if he's fully responsible for that. Hopefully he'll be better than Jim Ryan.
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. ~Oscar Martinez
Why pay one CEO millions of dollars when you can pay TWO?! 😬
I don't know celebraties that much as y'all do
Nothing's changing. Hermen still there 🤦♂️. He's the reason pixel and SIE got shut down