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[Baki]

Totoki is a bean counter, CFO, who spent his entire career running Sony Mobile and Networks, which as you can all see, didn't work out too well (Mobile went from selling 103M mobiles a year to less then 0.8K devices in 2026).

Here's the problem with Totoki, if you know remotely anything about the stock market, you will know that Sony is priced as a stagnant company, despite having the #1 gaming company in the world and some genuinely high growth potential businesses. That's because, investors do not trust Sony to be able to take advantage of any of these opportunities, because when you put bean counters like Totoki in charge, you don't get innovation or real growth, just same old, boring returns.

So how does this relate to PlayStation (SIE)? Totoki took over SIE in 2024 and instituted the layoffs, and as a bean counter, couldn't wrap his head around the creative process at SIE. He saw what was happening with Bungie (and Sony did overpay for them) and decided that the whole SIE needs to put on timeout mode until he can trust them again. But in the grand scheme of things, taking a $0.2B write down on Bungie is nothing for the PlayStation division which has generated >$15B PROFIT this gen (Sony as a whole has posted about ~$40B profit in the same time period). You need to take some fucking risks, to actually grow your business, but if the bean counter is cracking the whip, what happens is that you slowly milk and kill the golden goose. He's instituted austerity into a division that is #1 for the company, with the highest growth potential now that Xbox has essentially exited the market, in a period where they need investment because as we've seen from the studios business, are unable to maintain 1P games output. But when your boss is a bean counter, who's holding a tight leash on the comapny, what happens is, you get a studio like Bluepoint that gets shutdown for <$10M savings/year (because they can 'outsource') instead of taking one of the best remake studios in the history and putting them to work in filling out the release calendar with remakes of PS3 gen games (Warhawk, Twisted Metal, Killzone 2 etc...).

So now you know why the stock market values Sony as a stagnant company.
Edit: Great post from Z zedinen emphasizing my point.

Totoki is draining cash flow from G&NS to fund share repurchases and underperforming segments. He is the reason G&NS missed out on the chance to make high-profile M&As in Asia.

Furthermore, Totoki and Lin Tao have turned PS Studios into a Profit Center, an organization with an independent profit structure designed to be a primary growth driver for Sony. They have explicitly prioritized the transition of PS Studios to a recurring revenue model (GaaS), and have advocated for a multiplatform strategy (PC) alongside significant cost-cutting initiatives.

GaaS, PC ports and studio closures are here to stay, with or without Hermen.

PlayStation Games for PC - New and upcoming PC games | PlayStation

Explore PlayStation PC Games - and PC features and requirements - now available and coming soon to PC.

www.playstation.com

On top of that, the PS5 has been too expensive to overtake the PS4. Nishino is following orders: "short-term profits over long-term growth"

 

[Tobimacoss]

Totoki is the reason why PS isn't doing worse. He likely saved Sony from several Concords, but they will still end up with couple more.

 

[Roni]

We need to accept gaming as we knew it is dead. Year after year, releases like Cyberpunk, RE and Dark Souls will be fewer and farther in between and stuff like Fortnite and Roblox will become even more prevalent.

Shit, stuff from those games will probably invade current IP, as we saw with the most recent mobile Resident Evil.

The future is now and we're the fossils.

 

[Perrott]

Sony almost acquires Kadokawa during Totoki's tenure as CEO of SIE, which was a role on top of his Sony CFO responsabilities, something that would've resulted in FromSoftware, of which SIE owns a percentage of the shares, getting integrated into PS Studios, as well as other operations such as Spike Chunsoft and Acquire.

Sure, the acquisition talks then ended up in an investment into Kadokawa instead, but knowing what the original plan was, how can you say with a straight face that he wouldn't make investments that'd be benefitial to PlayStation?

 

[mckmas8808]

Totoki is the reason why PS isn't doing worse. He likely saved Sony from several Concords, but they will still end up with couple more.

EXACTLY! These numnuts have not been paying attention.

 

[peish]

herman hurst

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Hiroki Totoki literature club? I played that game once

 

[Idleyes]

I'll happily take $15B in profits for stagnation.

 

[ReBurn]

Sony needs a CEO who hates the stock market.

 

[Baki]

Totoki is the reason why PS isn't doing worse. He likely saved Sony from several Concords, but they will still end up with couple more.

Break a few eggs to make an omelette.

I'll happily take $15B in profits for stagnation.

I said "priced" as stagnant. Clearly the business fundamentals show something different, which means the market does not trust management to properly support and grow the business. Another thing to consider, the $15B profit is a lagging indicator, and is a result of the work done by the previous management (mainly Kaz Hirai tenure as CEO), with the concern being, will the business continue to be healthy and growing with someone in charge that doesn't understand the business. Totoki became CEO in 2025.

 

[Fake]

Sony needs a CEO who hates Fortnite.

FTFY

 

[Baki]

Sony almost acquires Kadokawa during Totoki's tenure as CEO of SIE, which was a role on top of his Sony CFO responsabilities, something that would've resulted in FromSoftware, of which SIE owns a percentage of the shares, getting integrated into PS Studios, as well as other operations such as Spike Chunsoft and Acquire.

Sure, the acquisition talks then ended up in an investment into Kadokawa instead, but knowing what the original plan was, how can you say with a straight face that he wouldn't make investments that'd be benefitial to PlayStation?

The key being, who couldn't get the deal done. Bean counter probably balked at paying a bit more. Not to mention, Kadokawa was a deal that was primarily about anime and IP and Totoki favourite division, Sony Music Japan lol.

 

[Kacho]

He hasn't been there long enough to make a choice. He's been busy cleaning up the mess Jim Ryan left him.

 

[Baki]

He hasn't been there long enough to make a choice. He's been busy cleaning up the mess Jim Ryan left him.

Yoshida was shit too and Totoki is carrying on his legacy. Totoki was CFO since 2018, so he's had a big hand in the clear culture of fear, rather than innovation, that's currently plaguing SIE.

 

[Kacho]

Yoshida was shit too and Totoki is carrying on his legacy. Totoki was CFO since 2018, so he's had a big hand in the clear culture of fear, rather than innovation, that's currently plaguing SIE.

I think it's best to judge him when PS6 launches since that will be entirely under his watch. Right now he's managing a portfolio of games Jim Ryan and Hulst left him. Will we see a strategy shift? Doubt it, but we'll see in a few years.

 

[Idleyes]

Break a few eggs to make an omelette.



I said "priced" as stagnant. Clearly the business fundamentals show something different, which means the market does not trust management to properly support and grow the business. Another thing to consider, the $15B profit is a lagging indicator, and is a result of the work done by the previous management (mainly Kaz Hirai tenure as CEO), with the concern being, will the business continue to be healthy and growing with someone in charge that doesn't understand the business. Totoki became CEO in 2025.

Respect. So you're saying the company has been on autopilot since Kaz left? If that's the case, Totoki's done a pretty good job not breaking something that didn't need fixing. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point (highly likely because I'm not all that bright), but I would expect Sony to trade at a lower multiple given the markets it operates in. It's a cyclical hardware business layered with music, film, image sensors, and insurance. That's very different from something like Microsoft, which has dominant enterprise positioning and Azure-driven cloud growth. Those differences matter a lot for valuation. When you say the market is pricing Sony as a stagnant company, what peer group are you using? Nintendo? Disney? Warner Bros? From what I can see, Sony's valuation isn't materially out of line with them.

 

[Hudo]

I know one thing about the stock market: It's a fucking fantasy land of bullshit. Billionaire CEOs can generate "value" out of nothing and circle jerk that around. So if the stock market doesn't like a CEO, that might actually be a good sign.

 

[blacktout]

Totoki is the reason why PS isn't doing worse. He likely saved Sony from several Concords, but they will still end up with couple more.

Exactly this. Sony's gaming division is in "austerity mode," as OP calls it, because prior to Totoki they recklessly burned through a lot of money on short-sighted gambles that didn't pay off. The core business is still doing fantastically, but that doesn't change the fact that they overspent on bad bets and that spending needs to be reigned in and redirected towards the parts if their gaming division that are actually producing profits. Closing Bluepoint was a bad decision, no doubt, but the reckless and stupid choices that led to its closure are on Hulst and Ryan, not Totoki. He's just cleaning up their mess.

That said, if Totoki is committed to taking a more conservative approach, Hulst needs to fucking go yesterday.

 

[Idleyes]

He hasn't been there long enough to make a choice. He's been busy cleaning up the mess Jim Ryan left him.

Good point, I'm not sure how I overlooked that. I do think there's a fair argument that he's not an inspirational figure, which seems to be part of the OP's concern. I can be wrong.

 

[Kacho]

Good point, I'm not sure how I overlooked that. I do think there's a fair argument that he's not an inspirational figure, which seems to be part of the OP's concern. I can be wrong.

To be clear, I'm not defending Totoki. I just haven't seen enough to form a strong enough opinion. Like, generally speaking do I have faith in the guy? Not really.

 

[Loomy]

Not sure you fully understand what you're talking about.

You seem to be very emotional over the closure of Bluepoint and are lashing out about the CEO who - prior to making becoming CEO and making all these decisions - went around on a studio tour. It's why we know how ineffective Bungie's leadership was, and how Sony knew they had to take over. So he obviously gives a shit about the product.

The only people who see Sony Group as 'stagnant' are r/wallstreetbets dumbasses with only enough brain capacity to understand stock price.

Record profits, spending on fortune on share buyback. But sure, "stagnant" lol

 

[Magic Carpet]

Who is in charge of the Anime library? Why have they not done anything with it? Why is the Netflix where I'm doing all my Anime watching instead of some Sony thing?

 

[IntentionalPun]

The only people who see Sony Group as 'stagnant' are r/wallstreetbets dumbasses with only enough brain capacity to understand stock price.

Record profits, spending on fortune on share buyback. But sure, "stagnant" lol

Their revenue has been basically stagnant for 5 years and their profit kept going down YOY during that time.

Hell their revenue has only gone up about 25% in 15 years. Comparatively companies like Microsoft increased their revenue by 400%.

 

[AmuroChan]

Their revenue has been basically stagnant for 5 years and their profit kept going down YOY during that time.

Sony the parent company, yes. But OP is trying to pin the blame on SIE specifically when that's the one Sony division that's seen revenue growth and record profits YOY. It's been the Consumer Electronics and Financial segments that have been dragging Sony down.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Sony the parent company, yes. But OP is trying to pin the blame on SIE specifically when that's the one Sony division that's seen revenue growth and record profits YOY. It's been the Consumer Electronics and Financial segments that have been dragging Sony down.

Well the person I quoted said "Sony Group."

The stock price isn't based on Playstation, it's based on the company as a whole.

And long term honestly nobody is expecting gaming to be a growth sector either, Sony has just been killing it with Playstation profits despite not really "growing" their base.

 

[Loomy]

Their revenue has been basically stagnant for 5 years and their profit kept going down YOY during that time.

Hell their revenue has only gone up about 25% in 15 years.

Early 2000s were rough, followed by almost a decade of straight losses, until 10 years ago when things started trending upwards again. To say Sony is stagnant is to ignore the shit storm they went through over the last 25 years.

Also, OP thinks the 'bean counter' is the reason they're making cuts and not taking risks. It was Kaz Hirai - of Playstation fame - who saved Sony when he became CEO. He did that by cutting a shit ton. Sacrificing parts of the company that were underperforming to save the whole.

It's not just 'bean counters' that do this. It's good leaders.

Comparatively companies like Microsoft increased their revenue by 400%.

Sony & Microsoft aren't remotely comparable companies lol. They both have a gaming division. That's where it starts and ends.

And long term honestly nobody is expecting gaming to be a growth sector either, Sony has just been killing it with Playstation profits despite not really "growing" their base.

Peak PSN MAU has grown by 20m users over the last 5 years. That's growth. And growth they can monetize.

 

[AmuroChan]

The stock price isn't based on Playstation, it's based on the company as a whole.

And long term honestly nobody is expecting gaming to be a growth sector either, Sony has just been killing it with Playstation profits despite not really "growing" their base.

Yes of course. We all understand the stock price is for the entire company. Hardware has probably reached saturation when it comes to the userbase. So the only way for PS to grow is through software. It's also why they keep chasing live service games because they want that recurring revenue instead of relying so heavily on tentpole games that have dev cycles of 5+ years.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

No, he's a shitty CEO. Bring back Kaz!

 

[IntentionalPun]

Sony & Microsoft aren't remotely comparable companies lol. They both have a gaming division. That's where it starts and ends.

I didn't say the companies should be compared directly; I'm simply showing an example of a company that's actually doing well in the stock market / market cap wise and the type of revenue gain that's possible. MS is at the high end, but 25% over 15 years is stagnant as all hell.

Peak PSN MAU has grown by 20m users over the last 5 years. That's growth. And growth they can monetize.

PlayStation is doing very well, that doesn't mean the future has enough growth potential to offset how poorly the rest of the company is doing or to satisfy Wall Street.

And they had 114 million MAUs in June of 2020 and 123 in June of 2025, with a lot of that growth coming from PC gamers creating accounts.

 

[PeteBull]

Ridge Racer Kaz together with Crazy Ken would fucking make sony come back to the late 90s/early 2000s, maybe profits wouldnt be there but fun and core audience would feel like kid in a disneyland.

 

[EN250]

Bring back Kaz and Jack Tretton.

 

[zedinen]

Totoki is draining cash flow from G&NS to fund share repurchases and underperforming segments. He is the reason G&NS missed out on the chance to make high-profile M&As in Asia.

Furthermore, Totoki and Lin Tao have turned PS Studios into a Profit Center, an organization with an independent profit structure designed to be a primary growth driver for Sony. They have explicitly prioritized the transition of PS Studios to a recurring revenue model (GaaS), and have advocated for a multiplatform strategy (PC) alongside significant cost-cutting initiatives.

GaaS, PC ports and studio closures are here to stay, with or without Hermen.

PlayStation Games for PC - New and upcoming PC games | PlayStation

Explore PlayStation PC Games - and PC features and requirements - now available and coming soon to PC.

www.playstation.com

On top of that, the PS5 has been too expensive to overtake the PS4. Nishino is following orders: "short-term profits over long-term growth"

 

[Hyper_hyper]

He hasn't been there long enough to make a choice. He's been busy cleaning up the mess Jim Ryan left him.

I think it's best to judge him when PS6 launches since that will be entirely under his watch. Right now he's managing a portfolio of games Jim Ryan and Hulst left him. Will we see a strategy shift? Doubt it, but we'll see in a few years.

Good point, I'm not sure how I overlooked that. I do think there's a fair argument that he's not an inspirational figure, which seems to be part of the OP's concern. I can be wrong.

Well despite some GAAS failures and cancelations ( Helldivers 2 success alone pretty much overweights it alongside with GT7, yet to see what Marathon and Horizon online will bring) i think Jim did a good job. Especially during Covid. But that's my take.

 

[rochet]

Don't forget that its probably the same CFO that bean crunched the TV business and gave 51 percent to TCL, and have TCL manage Bravia.
Sony and TCL Sign Memorandum of Understanding for Strategic Partnership in Home Entertainment Field

Sometime the Finance department is so short sighted for cash that it ruins an entire companies long term strategy for short term share holder gains. They can twist a CEO arms.

 

[Loomy]

Totoki is draining cash flow from G&NS to fund share repurchases and underperforming segments. He is the reason G&NS missed out on the chance to make high-profile M&As in Asia.

Which high profile M&As, specifically?

Furthermore, Totoki and Lin Tao have turned PS Studios into a Profit Center, an organization with an independent profit structure designed to be a primary growth driver for Sony. They have explicitly prioritized the transition of PS Studios to a recurring revenue model (GaaS), and have advocated for a multiplatform strategy (PC) alongside significant cost-cutting initiatives.

I don't think you know what most of those words mean.

And the focus on a recurring revenue model started long before Totoki. It started when they introduced PS Plus and got rid of the free tier. This was over 10 years ago. Everything now is a continuation of that.

On top of that, the PS5 has been too expensive to overtake the PS4. Nishino is following orders: "short-term profits over long-term growth"

wtf are you even talking about?

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

We need to accept gaming as we knew it is dead. Year after year, releases like Cyberpunk, RE and Dark Souls will be fewer and farther in between and stuff like Fortnite and Roblox will become even more prevalent.

But it won't, though. There have been so many high-profile GAAS flops that publishers will want to, at the very least, diversify their output. We've had several years of publishers chasing the GAAS gold rush, I think the pain of major flops and studio closures will inevitably change their thinking.

 

[Roni]

But it won't, though. There have been so many high-profile GAAS flops that publishers will want to, at the very least, diversify their output. We've had several years of publishers chasing the GAAS gold rush, I think the pain of major flops and studio closures will inevitably change their thinking.

Ok, sure, so the youth which is already addicted to masked gambling will all of a sudden start buying and consuming long form single-player content?

They can't stay off their phones 15 minutes watching Jurassic Park. They can't bother sit through a 5 minute explanation to play a normal RPG.

The millennial demographic is both not large enough to sustain those types of games taking front and center anymore and even amongst millennials there's a good chunk that enjoys the matchmaking stuff way more than single-player experiences.

I don't see it.

 

[Merline]

Totoki is the common denominator in everything that's gone wrong. Blaming Hermen Hulst alone is lazy. He's part of the problem sure, but the live service catastrophe was orchestrated at the top, and that's on Totoki.

 

[Danjin44]

We need to accept gaming as we knew it is dead.

Nope. Sony 1st party might gone to shit but we are still getting quality 3rd party games almost every year.

Heck my dream just came true with the announcement of new .hack.

 

[llLeonhart]

Both Totoki and Hulst need to leave ASAP. PlayStation is still riding high thanks to past laurels, but that won't last for too long. Long term fans are already unhappy with things since Jim Ryan, and not only haven't they corrected anything, they are making some of the same mistakes

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Is this Herman trying to save his neck?

 

[Durin]

Hasn't been long enough to know, since many of these game projects have been active for years.

I'm just hoping they cancel Fairgame, because that thing looks more dead on a arrival than even Highguard, and start shuffling resources back into stuff that makes money.

If they have to piss away more money on live-service stuff, it should be Helldivers 2 budget experiments until they can find a hit. The rest should be single-player games that are Yotei level 60 million affairs, and make some new more new IP.

 

[seb85]

I don't understand why he isn't firing hulst , he did fire Jim.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Hasn't been long enough to know, since many of these game projects have been active for years.

I'm just hoping they cancel Fairgame, because that thing looks more dead on a arrival than even Highguard, and start shuffling resources back into stuff that makes money.

If they have to piss away more money on live-service stuff, it should be Helldivers 2 budget experiments until they can find a hit. The rest should be single-player games that are Yotei level 60 million affairs, and make some new more new IP.

They probably will can Haven. But need to spread out the news. One big chop looks worse than small cuts.

 

[TheLikou]

Sony needs a CEO who hates the stock market.

They should put people like the ones in the Nintendo investors meeting. Sometimes they basically say "we are doing good, shut up" with fancy words.

 

[JoeBlack2027]

Afaik Sony is mostly interested in churning out playstations. We get like one, maybe two first party games per year? What is the new ceo going to do about it, close more studios?

 

[existensmaximum]

We need to accept gaming as we knew it is dead. Year after year, releases like Cyberpunk, RE and Dark Souls will be fewer and farther in between and stuff like Fortnite and Roblox will become even more prevalent.

Shit, stuff from those games will probably invade current IP, as we saw with the most recent mobile Resident Evil.

The future is now and we're the fossils.

This is so incredibly sad, and it has taken me years to accept and admit.

 

[Idleyes]

We need to accept gaming as we knew it is dead. Year after year, releases like Cyberpunk, RE and Dark Souls will be fewer and farther in between and stuff like Fortnite and Roblox will become even more prevalent.

Shit, stuff from those games will probably invade current IP, as we saw with the most recent mobile Resident Evil.

The future is now and we're the fossils.

Wait, what? You're telling me monster sales from BG3, Clair Obscure, Elden Ring, and soon Crimson Desert are somehow going to scare studios away from the still-profitable side of the market just because Fortnite and Roblox exist? Yes, Fortnite prints money. That doesn't mean every studio will try to compete with Fortnite instead of making serious money serving an audience that's clearly still there. Not everyone needs to fight for the same pie when there's a segment happily buying single-player games.

The same thing was said during the MMORPG gold rush. Every studio was supposedly going to cram as many players as possible into one giant online world and single-player games were doomed. Yet here we are, approaching the alleged second "apocalypse."

The sales charts still aren't in agreement with gaming as we know it being dead.

 

[Roni]

Wait, what? You're telling me monster sales from BG3, Clair Obscure, Elden Ring, and soon Crimson Desert are somehow going to scare studios away from the still-profitable side of the market just because Fortnite and Roblox exist? Yes, Fortnite prints money. That doesn't mean every studio will try to compete with Fortnite instead of making serious money serving an audience that's clearly still there. Not everyone needs to fight for the same pie when there's a segment happily buying single-player games.

The same thing was said during the MMORPG gold rush. Every studio was supposedly going to cram as many players as possible into one giant online world and single-player games were doomed. Yet here we are, approaching the alleged second "apocalypse."

The sales charts still aren't in agreement with gaming as we know it being dead.

Yes, a starved demographic shows up when something they like is released. Y'all still fail to show me how the shrinking millennial crowd is supposed to stay relevant against the incoming youth.

When we were kids, we and our friends all played something. How many of our friends still play regularly? And I don't mean the close inner circle. I mean think of your high school class, your middle school class. How many of those people, who shared interest in the games we played back them, are still in the market?

Even the most hardcore of us who still play in our 30's and beyond don't have the money or the time to play a plethora of releases targeted at us.

Mark my words, clones and analogues of all those games you mentioned will come out and they'll fail. Because the millennials can't sustain the entire market.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

He's a Finance guy and does what Finance guys do. Strategic vision is not one of those things.

I'd love to see his gaming profile. Maybe he secretly plays Firewatch or Goldeneye.