• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PlayStation names Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino as its new CEOs

Fabieter

Member
I find it hard to believe they'd say don't use PS5 specific features, yes. In fact I find it hard to believe what suits even know or understand what those features even are (Ryan and Spencer in particular, Hulst has worked around game development for a long time so will have some understanding)

I loved the games but almost all 1p exclusive felt like third party games this gen which makes sense given the goal they have.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
Well you don't know that for certain as none of us are Devs at those studios to know the workings of the engines, in fact Insomniac are certainly using the IO to massively speed up traversal, and allow for quick scene transitions , they have now made a game that you cannot turn off ray tracing. And beyond that we haven't really seen PS5 exclusive stuff from the other studios to know either way.

To say that they aren't using any PS5 specific functions because Ryan and Hulst are telling them not to so they can be ported easily us quite the leap
They aren't using any of the features in a way that would cause a major headache or roadblock for porting to PC. Its all generic PC-esq development, regardless of how well it has been done. A far cry from the accurate but unfulfilled sales pitch of Cerny's road to PS5.
 

Fabieter

Member
They aren't using any of the features in a way that would cause a major headache or roadblock for porting to PC. Its all generic PC-esq development, regardless of how well it has been done. A far cry from the accurate but unfulfilled sales pitch of Cerny's road to PS5.

They probably could just do a their own steam like machine as a ps6 next gen at this point, it wouldn't make much of a difference.
 

midnightAI

Member
They aren't using any of the features in a way that would cause a major headache or roadblock for porting to PC. Its all generic PC-esq development, regardless of how well it has been done. A far cry from the accurate but unfulfilled sales pitch of Cerny's road to PS5.
Like what? The only real difference between PC (at the time) was the I/O which does allow for faster streaming, allows for prevention of loading screens or loading areas such as corridors or lifts, but that's just streaming tech, Spider Man 2 utilised that. Other than that the GPU is basically standard (primitive shaders instead of mesh shaders but those are basically the same thing or rather you can get the same results with both).

But regardless, it doesn't matter what features it has, you are claiming that higher ups are telling studios and Devs not to use certain features so they can port more easily, which to me sounds very unlikely
 
Nope.

Watched a Layden interview recently and he takes credit for it all and wanted everything on pc

JFC, it's like a speedrun to push PlayStation off the cliff.

The Road to PS5 is the sales pitch for multidecade gamers like myself, and three and half years on, we've had nothing from PlayStation's first parties that justifies the great hardware design to support a REYES paradigm shift that Cerny described.

It isn't that the games couldn't paradigm shifting and tailored to the hardware, but a business strategy from suits like Hulst that really just want PS5 games to be easy PC games they can port for more sales. The creativity is being stifled by the generic solutions, and that is why those three generations have noteworthy catalogues that weren't the uncurrated "ps5" games that include mobile to ps4 cross-platform fodder that fills the million rows of PSN IMO.

Well there is HFW: Burning Shores' DLC with that end boss fight. Which, even now, is still immensely impressive on the technical side of things, and feels "next-generational" in terms of scale and scope compared to boss encounters in past generations. Though ironically one of the few games comparable is Shadow of the Colossus; BS just does it with a lot more things happening at once (and better frame rate, higher resolution etc.).

Aside that though, yeah most SIE games this gen so far, while high-quality and polished, haven't been that much beyond PS4 games in terms of complexity. I partly blame that on escalating budgets for AAA game development; the more those games cost, the more risk-adverse publishers will get, and they also usually wait to push the biggest-budget games until well later in the gen (when the install base is large enough).

That's why I felt things like VR could help with increasing the sense of immersion for gaming, and benefit game design, but only if it can be standardized as a default option. SIE are still in the best position to do that IMO, if they can scale down production costs for "good enough" VR/MR gaming to make default with a console, but it doesn't seem like they'll be too interested in that going forward.

Though if forced to choose between continuing VR or developing a new complementary portable handheld, business sense would suggest you do the latter. How much sense that'd make if SIE continue with an aggressive PC push though, I don't know.
 

yurinka

Member
I know it was Layden's push initially. But Layden's push was also specifically with smaller GAAS titles (Predator: Hunting Grounds) and certain 1P games like Horizon, which were 3 years after the PS4 release.

Layden's idea seemed to be, to offer a sampling of SIE games to PC gamers in convincing a portion of them to buy a PlayStation console over time. The current strategy has forfeited all of that because SIE have given PC more or less the full slate in the span of four years.
Layden was only chairman during a year and a half, in fact Yoshida (president of WWS) would be the one who greenlighted the GaaS before Hermen. GaaS greelighted by Yoshida before Hermen got in charge of PS Studios in November 2019:
  • Helldivers 2 (2016)
  • PlayStation Destruction AllStars (couldn't be made in less than 2 years)
  • Gran Turismo 7 (2017, and GTS before it)
  • Horizon Online (2018, hired its game director there)
  • Firewalk's game (2018, studio founded there)
  • TLOU Online (somewhere in 2019, pretty likely not greenlighted by Hermen)
  • London Studio's new IP (somewhere in 2019, pretty likely not greenlighted by Hermen)
2nd party games started before Hermen got in charge of PS Studios seem pretty likely signed by Hermen:
  • Convallaria
  • Lost Soul Aside
Games greenlighted/signed/acquired by Hermen,:
  • Destiny 2
  • Marathon
  • Fairgame$
  • Deviation's game
  • Bend's new IP
No idea when they started/got greenlighted/signed by Sony:
  • Firesprite's MP game (if it was ever greenlighted)
  • Insomniac's cancelled/not greenlighted MP game (if it was ever greenlighted)
  • MLB 21 GaaS stuff
Regarding PC, the initial plan (or more exactly, the PR message) was for at least the non-GaaS titles release only some games on PC and around 2 or more years after the original PS release. Did different tests changing the range, but they seem happy with it, and worked so well that apparently are now porting everything. Shawn later mentioned that the idea was to do it with all the big games because of the huge costs of AAA games.
 
Last edited:

Kumomeme

Member
1.
Screenshot-2024-05-13-230951.jpg


2.
giphy.gif


3. =
jim-ryan-laughing.gif
 
Last edited:

yurinka

Member
He was since April 1, 2016. Every WWS game produced from this time to his retirement credits him as chairman of the division.
I double checked it and yes, he was there since 2016. I thought that he moved in 2018 from SCEA to WWS, but seems that from 2016 to 2018 was both sin SCEA and chairman of WWS:
https://sonyinteractive.com/en/pres...ment-announces-organizational-transformation/

So he was chairman of WWS -with Shuhei Yoshida being WWS president- during 3 years.

According to what source?
One of the Firewalk mentioned that Sony joined them just after starting at Probably Monsters, not sure if when they announced the publishing deal with Sony or when they announced the acquisition.
 
Last edited:

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
How terrible, I bet it wouldn't have been him, they would call Niel Drunkmann's , how horrible.

This idiot is going to do things wrong, Hulst.
 

nial

Gold Member

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
PS business is too big for one man to handle. Part of the reason why Ryan has left.

It sounds logical and both CEOs are from Sony, so it could’ve been way worse.

I actually love this move. 2 CEOs is needed. I hope this means Playstation execs will be allowed to talk more starting June 1st. Because so far, the Jim Ryan era has been too BORING!!!!
 

nial

Gold Member
and now with a carefully written post
SIE Group has new leaders this month.
Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst both got appointed as CEO and President of Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC in United States today.
In addition to both becoming Representative Director and President of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. in Japan yesterday.
Nishino and Hulst will also remain leading the Platform Experience Group and PlayStation Studios divisions respectively, both with global operations in Tokyo, San Mateo and London.
7eREy1g.jpeg
 
Top Bottom