James Sawyer Ford
Gold Member
No im a gamer that had plenty of great games to play
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Where did all the fake hate for Herman Hulst come from?
- Thread starter onQ123
- Start date
No im a gamer that had plenty of great games to play
Radical_3d
Member
The most recent leaders of SIE:
This last guy said that his favourite game of the PS1 was Ridge Racer. I’d love to see him complete a lap in that position.
Bloody bean counters…
You clearly wasn't around for the bad PS1 lens drives when we had to turn the PS1 sideways or upside down
Fabieter
Member
Wasn't it enough to just press down the black plastic piece before inserting the CD? I don’t remember ever having any issues doing it that way.
Depends some times you didn't have to do anything but other times you could just flip it & it worked
Fabieter
Member
I can still hear the sound of that laser drive being forced town with my fingerNever saw his, so our workaround seemed good enough
Edit: I believe this is the reason all other PlayStations have been able to stand vertically lol
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Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
He's handing you the controller. As if to say "Here, you play".The most recent leaders of S
This last guy said that his favourite game of the PS1 was Ridge Racer. I’d love to see him complete a lap in that position.
Bloody bean counters…
saintjules
Gold Member
Hermen*
MarkMe2525
Banned
Pasta la Vista
Member
Actually I was, im 43, so I do remember that. Not fondly, whatever. Herman is a tool, he didn't do that for any other reason, weird that you keep trying to make up excuses for his buffoonery.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
He probably bookmarks tons of his posts and categorizes them.
nial
Gold Member
So, GT7 and ROTR? Ok, I believe that the former is going to have a sequel that is now under Hulst and the latter could have easily been canned as soon as he became head of WWS due to Yasuda being busy with Nioh 2 until early 2020. He still supported those projects going forward, that's the point.
Why didn't we get a major internal project like Astro Bot with Yoshida for a long time? Outside of arguably the first Knack and Gravity Rush 2, Japan Studio used to drop the ball a lot here, with their other major project around that time being the one that was greenlit in frickin' 2006, which is when Shadow of the Colossus and SIREN 2 just came out and were Japan Studio's last major games until Gravity Rush in 2012 (another large gap).
Which changed absolutely nothing about Sony's contribution to the project. DS2 is still 100% a Hulst-era game.
It really shows that you cannot spend 5 minutes without making dumb, flawed correlations.
I'm still waiting for your solid evidence for the claim that he ""fired"" 80% of Japan Studio's workforce.
Stu_Hart
Banned
People seem upset because there were some negative info about him being involved in the closing of sony japan, shutting down days gone sequel talks and pushing for live service games.
www.altchar.com
Days Gone 2 never happened because "Sony higher ups like Hermen Hulst" didn't like the first game
Days Gone Game Director Jeff Ross revealed on social media X that PlayStation bosses didn't really like the game which is one of the reasons why the sequel will probably never happen.
www.altchar.com
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yurinka
Member
This isn't "negative info", it is fake news: who the fuck you think handled Death Stranding Director's Cut, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin and Astro Bot, and are now working on Death Stranding 2, Physint, Convallaria and Lost Soul Aside?
Some magic fairies maybe?
And who gave these two teams a bigger office for each in the same building where they continue and where they can grow? A magic unicorn maybe?
Before the restructuring Japan Studio was making mobile games (greenlighted before him) after 30 years of not being able to release a single internally developed big seller. Hermen Hulst restructured the studio firing the heads who did put them to make mobile games, greenlighted Astro Bot and signed Stellar Blade, Death Stranding 2 and Physint for them, and gave both Japan Studio parts a new and bigger office in the same building where they could grow.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Yup.People seem upset because there were some negative info about him being involved in the closing of sony japan, shutting down days gone sequel talks and pushing for live service games.
Days Gone 2 never happened because "Sony higher ups like Hermen Hulst" didn't like the first game
Days Gone Game Director Jeff Ross revealed on social media X that PlayStation bosses didn't really like the game which is one of the reasons why the sequel will probably never happen.
Japan Studio - Wikipedia
| Founded | November 16, 1993; 30 years ago |
|---|---|
| Defunct | April 1, 2021; 3 years ago |
Across late 2020 and early 2021, several notable Japan Studio employees announced that they were departing the company.[6][7][8] According to multiple sources speaking with Video Games Chronicle Sony had not renewed most of the contracts for the studio outside of those on the Team Asobi because the studio was not considered profitable enough to continue with original game development.[9] In a statement, Sony stated that, as of 1 April 2021, Japan Studio would be re-centered around Team Asobi to build on the popularity of Astro's Playroom.[10] Before and shortly after 1 April 2021, several additional Japan Studio staff announced their departure from the studio.[11] Team Asobi was moved into PlayStation Studios in June 2021.[12] Shawn Layden, former chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, stated in 2024 that Japan Studio had been suffering from "legacy malaise", having failed to recreate the successful games they once had and lacked the experience to do so again, and eliminating all but Team Asobi was akin to "trimming a bonsai", hopeful that the smaller team would be able to recapture the earlier successes.[13]
Stu_Hart
Banned
So what? Many of those games have been in development for a while and that doesn't change the fact that he made some questionable decisions. Fake news? Go damage control more.
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ProtoByte
Weeb Underling
Hulst just seems like a more corporate politicking Jim Ryan. He’s got some of the same dumbass delusions about where the market is and where it can go as Phil Spencer, and doesn’t strike me as the kind of leader I would want if my job was to make games.
Obviously, the business sense is very important, but he seems like one of those types who loses touch with the reality. Leaning on fancy projections instead of instincts and actually keeping his finger on the pulse.
He apparently thought Concord was a good idea. I mean, evidently he did, otherwise they wouldn’t have bought Firewalk. His studio made Horizon, but beyond investors jargon, I doubt he could or would bother articulating what it is that makes that IP appealing to its fans.
I don’t think the head of PS Studios has to be a creative visionary, but I do think it needs to be someone who has developed tastes and a clear idea of what fits and what doesn’t.
Obviously, the business sense is very important, but he seems like one of those types who loses touch with the reality. Leaning on fancy projections instead of instincts and actually keeping his finger on the pulse.
He apparently thought Concord was a good idea. I mean, evidently he did, otherwise they wouldn’t have bought Firewalk. His studio made Horizon, but beyond investors jargon, I doubt he could or would bother articulating what it is that makes that IP appealing to its fans.
I don’t think the head of PS Studios has to be a creative visionary, but I do think it needs to be someone who has developed tastes and a clear idea of what fits and what doesn’t.
Reizo Ryuu
Member
I think it's funnier y'all consistently get his name wrong when even when creating posts about him; it's not herman.
I never bookmark anything I just remember what I said
Topher
Identifies as young
I will need a screenshot.
That was a joke not an excuse. This thread isn't to defend him I'm trying to figure out why I'm seeing his name pop up in random threads when we barely hear from him since he has been CEO.
He's chasing big demographic numbers desperately, the answer is definitely a handheld, a console, and a pc.
And when it comes to content, this gen exclusives has zero creativity.
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Where's the raising part?
He's talking about reincarnation as a different being, now it makes since.
PSYGN
Member
Looking back it's kinda funny, I don't know if I would've tried that as an adult, but somehow as a kid with infinite time you try all sorts of shit out of desperation to get your game working or to unlock things and I also ended up doing the same (but mine was like 45deg upside down).
Yeah it's pretty amazing that kids all over the world universally would end up doing the same hacks back in the day without the Internet telling us how to fix stuff lol.
Everyone blew the NES Cartridges
DavidGzz
Gold Member
Yeah, he seems to suck. Pushing Horizon and ignoring Bloodborne is all I need to know.
FoxMcChief
Gold Member
It’s not fake. Fuck this guy for thinking Horizon is better than Killzone. Fuck anyone that thinks Horizon is better than Killzone.
Fabieter
Member
Exactly. Those guys are happy with hulst having like 5 Asian games in 5 years which are mostly a continuation of previous work from house and yoshida. He just sucks and get credit for all the strong work of other guys.
Horizon sold like 25 million KillZone never came close to this type of success what do you expect him to think?
Feel Like I'm On 42
Member
What a dumb ass take. The "hate" comes from people who are actually invested the console not from "the losing side". How much you want to bet that 90% of who you perceived as "haters" own a PS5? It's always the same with you fanboys, any criticism is always taken as coming from the other "side", because you see everything through the lens of console wars. Having passion, being invested in something is what leads to the anger you're seeing being levied towards people like Hulst. You're not going to get that anger from an Xbox fanboy. Think about it. Use logic for a change.
Senua
Member
ProtoByte
Weeb Underling
Ted Price? I think he’s good at his job, but Insomniac isn’t perfect. The speed of their releases clearly comes at the cost of serious recycling, and their culture is such that their writing has degraded.
Price let Intihar sacrifice actually fleshing out the Spider-Man parts of SM2 so that they could get in more MJ gameplay sections.
SkylineRKR
Member
Under Hulst leadership they pushed for GaaS and DEI. He's also synonymous with Concord, a project he personally vouched for. In this light I understand why some gamers dislike him.
Hypereides
Member
Its a relief we got some sensible Sony folks here. Some of us Sony fans want them to do well and better. To do that, concerns have to be voiced.
Complacency is what leads to stagnation and degradation. That's not in our best interest as PS fans. Everything about their status quo does not inspire much faith. I don't give a shit if their finances are "fine" or "record breaking" in the moment. What the fuck does that have to do with us, as gamers, anyway? How does that provide actual value for us? Decisions that are currently being made have a delayed effect and may consequently impact them negatively unless the fanbase speaks up. Customers should hold these companies accountable when they're straying away from their path. They shouldn't be praised merely for existing. That's backwards logic. That's the kind of thinking that lead us to "Horse armour" taking over the industry.
Let's take a bird's view on Sony's PS leadership in the PS1 to early PS3 era:
CEO: Ken Kutaragi
Background: Engineer/creator/mad man
WW Studios president: Phil Harrison
Background: Graphic design
Result: Forward thinking, risky, vivid, varied, aesthetically/visually pleasing games and ideas. Trendsetters.
Lets compare what their leadership looks like now:
COO (Interim): Hiroki Totoki
Background: Finance
co-CEO: Hideaki Nishino
Background: Computer science
(co-CEO) WW Studios president: Hermen Hulst
Background: Marketing
Result: Safe and marvel-esque, sterile, bland, lacking an identity, pursuing "growth". Trendchasers.
The above should illustrate enough to validate people's concerns. There's a stark contrast and its worrisome. Its pretty clear priorities have shifted. The kind of creativity and ambition they used to push is being sidelined. There are indicators the current folks in management have a primary interest in money. Everything else is secondary.
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RCU005
Member
Stellar Blade was being supported by Sony before Hulst became PS Studios head. Astro Bot, Death Stranding and Ghost of Tsushima are franchises that started and were stablished before he was in charge of anything. Death Stranding uses Decima Engine, but that doesn't mean he green lit the project.
The facts are that as PS Studios head, he didn't do anything worthy. No relevant new IPs and just push of GaaS. People saying it was Jim Ryan who made the call might be right, but he was still part of that administration. Also, he is only focused on Horizon. He wants to run that franchise to the ground as if it was Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed.
Hero of Spielberg
Member
Thank goodness somebody is thinking of the poor CEO
Majormaxxx
Member
We need a Japanese CEO. A JEO.
yurinka
Member
The supposed closure of Japan Studio is fake news because all these titles are made by them after the restructuring and rebranding.
Astro Bot by their internal development team (now called Team Asobi, which merged the different internal development teams they had) and the other ones by their external development publishing and support team (now called XDEV Japan, or the Japanese office of XDEV).
Both teams continue doing the same work they had before the restructuring in the same building they were before the restructuring: The SIE Japanese HQ building. But in a new office because they were supposed to grow after the restructuring, since as an example the XDEV team now handles all the 2nd party games developed in the whole Asia, and not only Japan as before.
Astro Bot, Stellar Blade, Death Stranding 2, Convallaria, Lost Soul Aside and Physint were greenlighted (or signed their 2nd party publishing deal) by Hermen.
These are are facts, not damage control.
Fake news, Hermen became head of PS Studios in November 2019 and Stellar Blade started its development in 2019 and signed with Sony in 2021.
The Astro Bot game released this year started just after releaseing Astro's Playroom late 2020, so it was greenlighted by Hermen because back then he was the head of PS Studios (he started November 2019).
Ghost of Yotei started after releasing GoT in 2020, so it was greenlighted by Hermen.
Death Stranding 2 started late 2019/early 2020 and Physint development will start after DS2 is completed. They are greenlighted by him.
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