The new CEO, or rather one of the two new CEOs of PlayStation, Hermen Hulst, is also a passionate gamer: what was needed after Jim Ryan?
Hermen Hulst it’s the new one CEO Of PlayStationindeed one of the two new CEOs together with Hideaki Nishino: the co-founder of Guerrilla Games, already responsible for PlayStation Studios, will be responsible for managing the Studio Business Group and therefore managing not only all the first party Sony studios but also the projects television and cinema.
This is a role that confirms the quality of the work carried out so far by Hulst, extending and reorganizing his duties within a complete control of intellectual properties and talent available to the PlayStation ecosystem. At the same time, Nishino will lead the Platform Business Group, namely hardware, services and third-party relationships.
The comparison between Hermen Hulst and his predecessor, Jim Ryan, is inevitable. In fact, we have often talked about how the now former CEO was a “corporate man” done and finishedattentive to the company’s profits and certainly capable of guiding its strategic choices but not very comfortable with the videogame medium.
Under his direction we witnessed the extraordinary success of PlayStation 4 and to the equally extraordinary debut of the PS5, which has sold 59.3 million units so far: numbers that cannot be erased and which, indeed, its successors will inevitably have to measure themselves against. From a different perspective, however.
A gamer in command
Hired by Guerrilla Games in 2001 to fill the role of managing director, replacing one of the studio’s founders, Martin de Ronde, Hermen Hulst had a central role in the creation of franchises like Killzone and Horizonbefore leaving the team in 2019 to become head of PlayStation Studios.
Working on making video games it in turn made him an avid video gamer: “I went through phases of playing a ton of shooters and thinking about the concept of power fantasy in war scenarios,” Hulst said in an interview some time ago.
“Then I went through that phase where everything became about freedom of choice, representation and exploration, when with my old studio Guerrilla Games we’ve gone from the days of Killzone to those of Horizon.” All narrative-based single player experiences, it should be underlined.
Considering the last period that characterized Jim Ryan’s direction, with the much criticized focus on live services which in some cases produced dramatic disasters, it will therefore be interesting to find out how Hermen Hulst’s approach will influence PlayStation’s strategies.
Will the heart of a developer and a gamer prevail over the pure and simple logic of the market? Let’s talk about.
This is an editorial written by a member of the editorial team and is not necessarily representative of the editorial line of Multiplayer.it.
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