A few months ago, Jim Ryan left his place as CEO of PlayStation to whoever could succeed him. He who participated in the design and launch of the PS5 spent the last 30 years at Sony Interactive Entertainment before taking a well-deserved retirement. If the circumstances surrounding his departure were never very clear, especially as to his reasons for wanting to leave, those of his replacement were even less so.
Today, Sony announced who will be at the head of PlayStation in place of Jim Ryan. Not one, but two men have been named CEO. The first is Hermen Hulst, well-known to gamers, and Hideaki Nishino. The two businessmen will share the reins of the company equally by splitting it into two parts. As usual, Hermen Hulst will take care of the entire studio part, first-party games, but also the adaptation of intellectual properties to cinema or television.
Hideaki Nishino will take care of the business and platform part. We are talking here about the entire section dedicated to hardware (consoles, accessories, etc.), development, engineering, the PlayStation Network and all collaborations with third-party studios (Square Enix for example and to name just one). He has also been present at SIE for many years, a little more in the shadow of business than his colleague.
The two men will take up their positions as of June 1. Until then, Hiroki Totoki will still be at the helm of PlayStation. He was the one who was entrusted with the company following Jim Ryan's announcement last October, and it is to him that Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino will still have to answer once their positions are taken.
What does this change for players?
Obviously, a CEO is the image that we have of a company, but he is also the one who will give the direction that this company must take over the coming years. Whether decisions need to be made in the short or long term, everything is approved and defined by the CEO. Having two of them could be a strength for PlayStation, after years of turmoil on the Jim Ryan side. Indeed, the businessman has been heavily criticized for some of his choices, notably concerning the launch of the PS5, its price increase, but also more recently with his stance on the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
With all due respect to the detractors, he has also been the standard-bearer of some good decisions, such as the gradual opening up to other ecosystems, although he will no longer be in office to benefit from the result. Since the position goes to two Sony veterans, the differences in direction should be fairly minimal, but we are not immune to a turnaround in the situation in a few years.
0 Comments