Sony appointed co-chief executives Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino to lead the PlayStation business starting June 1. Hermen Hulst, currently head of PlayStation Studios, will be appointed CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) Studios Business Group. Hideaki Nishino will be appointed CEO of SIE’s Platforms Business Group, and both will report to Sony Chief Financial Officer and SIE Chairman Hiroki Totoki.
The unusual appointment of a co-chief executive comes just months after the retirement of former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan. Totoki has been serving as SIE’s interim CEO and is working to find a successor for the SIE CEO position, but Sony has now decided to separate responsibilities for leading the PlayStation business across platforms and games. Nishino and Helst are both veterans of Sony, with Nishino having worked at Sony for more than 20 years and holding various positions.
This is the first time Sony has appointed a co-chief executive to run its PlayStation business, and the appointment comes as the gaming industry has struggled with layoffs over the past 18 months. Sony laid off 900 PlayStation employees earlier this year and closed its London, England, studio that developed PlayStation VR games.Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees at Activision and Xbox earlier this year and subsequently closed the Bethesda studio behind it Hongluo and Hi-Fi Audio Sprint There was another round of layoffs last week.
Sony’s announcement of a new PlayStation leader comes just hours before the company releases its latest financial results. Sony lowered its PS5 console sales forecast last quarter, so all eyes are now on how many PS5s the company manages to sell in its 2023 fiscal year, which ends on March 31. We may also get further hints about Sony’s ambitious PlayStation PC plans.
In an earnings call earlier this year, SIE Chairman Hiroki Totoki also said discussed Opportunities to develop PlayStation games on PC/multi-platform. “In the past, we wanted to popularize consoles… but there’s a synergy,” Totoki said. “So if you have strong first-party content, not just on our consoles but also on other platforms like computers, that first-party content can grow across multiple platforms and that helps improve operating margins.”
