Support NeoGAF

[Mibu no ookami]

Who makes the most sense to replace Jim Ryan at SIE?

You know it's funny that Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer get so much buzz but I've never heard anyone mention anything about Tatsumi Kimishima or Shuntaro Furukawa.

From my understanding, every CEO/Head of PlayStation has spoken Japanese either because they've been Japanese or because they've wanted someone who can speak directly to the heads of Sony in Japan. They almost always promote internally. Both of these might be hindering them more than they realize.

PlayStation is their most important product, but if you look at Sony Pictures or Sony Music, that hasn't really been the same situation. They moved the HQ to the US because gaming has become a more Western endeavor and that's where the primary business is for them (but they did put it in California which is still relatively close to Japan).

I don't have any knowledge of whether Eric Lempel speaks Japanese, but I've never seen anything to suggest that he does. He's the odds-on favorite for the job based on the current structure of SIE, but he clearly isn't getting the immediate nod, which means there are doubts about him. It's probably between Eric Lempel and Herman Hulst, but I don't think either has the experience to take SIE where it needs to go.

I think Sony realizes that they're a big fish in a little pond and that if they want to become a big fish in a big pond (as little fish in big ponds get eaten) they need the right leadership to leverage their most important product, which is PlayStation.

• Do they speak Japanese?
• Do they understand the games market?
  • Particularly GaaS, PC, Mobile, and Cloud Gaming
• Do they understand the film/TV industry in which Sony will need to partner with for transmedia?
• Do they understand marketing and growth?
• Can they manage M&A

You look at Steve Jobs, Satya Nadella, and Jensen Huang and they're visionaries.

Totoki knows that he's the next CEO of Sony Group, but a lot of that rides on him making the right choice here for CEO of SIE. No offense to Eric Lempel or Herman Hulst, but would you bet your career on either of them? Current Sony Group CEO Kenichiro Yoshida is 64 years old. Totoki is Yoshida's right-hand man and has been for years. It's his job to lose, but he needs to implement serious growth, particularly in operating income.

 

[StueyDuck]

Me.. i do... wouldn't mind the pay increase

 

[Pelta88]

Anyone focused on the job at hand. Not eager to blow meaningless and nonsensical PR smoke.

 

[Flutta]

Someone who would rid the woke plague that’s been sweeping PS studios.

 

[Little Mac]

Bobby Kottick.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I think you have too much free time on your hands, OP.

But to answer your question, probably that marketing VP, Eric Lempel.

 

[demigod]

Kaz Hirai

 

[Hoppa]

I can't name a single person at SIE

 

[mansoor1980]

Tsuyoshi Kodera or eric lampel

 

[Sushi_Combo]

Give it to Phillip Spencer.

 

[proandrad]

Bobby Kottick.

I mean the guy knows how to make shit tons of money and Sony loves money. There is no way a guy as successful as Bobby is just going to not get any work in gaming.

 

[Xtib81]

The Goat, Phil Harrison.
/s

 

[Musilla]

 

[Gudji]

Phil Spender.

 

[SJRB]

Hermen Hulst, of course.

 

[diffusionx]

Phil Spencer

 

[64bitmodels]

Someone who's willing to make more first party beyond just Spiderman, GOW and TLOU. Ryan was way too focused on milking the big AAA when they could really have been leaning into smaller indie/AA releaes which release at a faster cadence.

I don't mind the GaaS stuff, they need it to fund themselves. Just don't let it overtake the singleplayer development

 

[diffusionx]

Hermen Hulst, of course.

If they want to rename it to Horizon Interactive Entertainment

 

[Orbital2060]

 

[64bitmodels]

Appoint him as Xbox CEO instead, let his worst nightmare become true!

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I think you have too much free time on your hands, OP.

But to answer your question, probably that marketing VP, Eric Lempel.

Like I said, not sure that Eric is the person for the job.

He was the head of PlayStation Network since 2015 and has basically been in charge of the PlayStation Store since 2013. And he's basically "the guy".

I'm not sure that he has an MBA.

That's where I think Lin Tao has him beat. She is Japanese and she is herself a CFO with an MBA. Totoki could favor her.

 

[swaffles23]

Shuhei Yoshida

 

[Camreezie]

I'd expect Herman hulst and not a whole lot to change

 

[Venuspower]

 

[proandrad]

This would break the internet.

 

[TrueLegend]

Honestly I will like the one who is pushing demons souls like games on PlayStation and not Ray traced ones. Apart from first party PlayStation has been sub1080p shimmering shitshow in order to chase raytracing which I do love but that slight visual return by self proclaimed graphic enthusiasts had made developers lazy in setting compelling art direction and most importantly fun physics driven gameplay. Look at switch that's where people are getting more actual gaming than at PlayStation. PlayStation which is literally named PlayStation is less about playing and more about being cinematic these days. I am not against it. I like cinematics as much as next guy (probably even more) but I want push on physics and fun aspect with the abundant cpu horsepower that PS5 has over PS4 instead of being bogged with all this raytraced single threaded soupy shit.

Probably should not have been this honest here but whatever.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Someone who's willing to make more first party beyond just Spiderman, GOW and TLOU. Ryan was way too focused on milking the big AAA when they could really have been leaning into smaller indie/AA releaes which release at a faster cadence.

I don't mind the GaaS stuff, they need it to fund themselves. Just don't let it overtake the singleplayer development

Really poor take to think that Jim Ryan who became CEO of SIE in 2019 determined the games released in the last few years, when it takes 4+ years to develop games. Most of these games that have released so far would have already been in production let alone greenlit by the time Jim Ryan became CEO.

And indie and AA games don't sell consoles nor do they make a large sum of money.

Jim Ryan has steered the ship pretty well in my estimation. PlayStation hasn't been this strong since the PS2 days.

I think you have the options of Eric Lempel, Lin Tao, Herman Hulst if you're looking internally. Kiichiro Urata could be a surprise pick.

I think you could also think about bringing back Andrew House, but he never really had much experience with M&A.

 

[Kilau]

Ass of Can Whooping is the only logical choice, have to fight dirty.

 

[squidilix]

Tsuyoshi Kodera

This guy have censored japanese game and increase PS+ Price.

 

[Katajx]

Someone that sees more than the west as a market, and wants to build big and small games.

 

[64bitmodels]

And indie and AA games don't sell consoles nor do they make a large sum of money.

it does decently cover the long gap between big releases as we could see with most of this year before Spiderman 2 released. Sure, this game cadence looks amazing compared to Xbox, but it's lackluster in comparison to Nintendo. Also, Playstation isn't exactly hurting for money or console sales. They can be a bit bold and experimental as a side hustle.

if they decided to revive some of their older IPs as bluepoint remakes or AA reboots and get some indie devs with potential to make PS/PC exclusive games, it'd be great.

 

[Altares13th]

Shuhei Yoshida-San.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

This guy censored japaneese game and increase PS+ Price.

It's weird how Nintendo is the platform with the most sexually graphic games now.
I bet most people don't even know that.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

He's likely next up for head of PlayStation Studios after Herman Hulst. He could also be on his way out... who knows.

 

[KimDongHwan]

Someone who would rid the woke plague that’s been sweeping PS studios.

I would really love to know who started this thing on PS. Was it a marketing manager? was it a HR Business Manager? was it Neil Druckmann? whoever it was, I think this has damaged PS image more than any possible bad game combined.

Also, whoever thought that Conferences were out of fashion also contributed, hype has really gone down after E3 died and PS decided to announce GaaS on its main event.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

it does decently cover the long gap between big releases as we could see with most of this year before Spiderman 2 released. Sure, this game cadence looks amazing compared to Xbox, but it's lackluster in comparison to Nintendo. Also, Playstation isn't exactly hurting for money or console sales. They can be a bit bold and experimental as a side hustle.

if they decided to revive some of their older IPs as bluepoint remakes or AA reboots and get some indie devs with potential to make PS/PC exclusive games, it'd be great.

Only if you're only looking at 1P and exclusives, but that isn't how the market looks at it.

Sony put a lot of muscle into marketing and promoting Sifu, Stray, and Kena, all of which were timed exclusives and they did it without having to develop those titles themselves. It's way less risky and more cost-effective and has the same result. They don't care if these games pop up on Xbox or PC a year later.

Then they also have games like Stellar Blade and Concord that won't be AAA either.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I would really love to know who started this thing on PS. Was it a marketing manager? was it a HR Business Manager? was it Neil Druckmann? whoever it was, I think this has damaged PS image more than any possible bad game combined.

Also, whoever thought that Conferences were out of fashion also contributed, hype has really gone down after E3 died and PS decided to announce GaaS on its main event.

Maybe it's time for you to explore yourself and your own obsession with this.

Do I like a lot of the narrative choices in the games? No, but they don't bother me nor do I harp on them.

Sony's games have never sold better and PlayStation has never sold better, so keep telling yourself this has damaged the PS image or that hype has really gone down.

Maybe realize that the average consumer has never heard of E3 and the average consumer sees these storylines and either doesn't care or they actually like them, because again, sales are higher than they've ever been.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Ybarra

Then they decide to sell to MS

 

[64bitmodels]

Sony put a lot of muscle into marketing and promoting Sifu, Stray, and Kena, all of which were timed exclusives and they did it without having to develop those titles themselves. It's way less risky and more cost-effective and has the same result. They don't care if these games pop up on Xbox or PC a year later.

Then they also have games like Stellar Blade and Concord that won't be AAA either.

That works too, though judging by Returnal the best results are when Sony owns them, or are heavily involved in development

The issue is that we saw a lot of that early in the gen, (2020/2021) but 2 years later Sony hasn't released many AA/indie projects of note, besides Stray. A bit disappointing since I feel like those projects are when Sony shines the most.

 

[Jen_yakzua]

Lin tao or urata

 

[YukiOnna]

Someone who has their domestic market in mind and actually thinks about WWS than just California/US and knows it's not just a "western endeavor". Also, someone willing to cut out the nonsense censorship regulation and artificial inclusive checkboxes. Also, they need a new marketing team since they barely know what works when copying Nintendo's streams.

 

[cormack12]

Big energy

 

[Mibu no ookami]

That works too, though judging by Returnal the best results are when Sony owns them, or are heavily involved in development

The issue is that we saw a lot of that early in the gen, (2020/2021) but 2 years later Sony hasn't released many AA/indie projects of note, besides Stray. A bit disappointing since I feel like those projects are when Sony shines the most.

Sifu sold significantly better than Returnal. Stray also outsold Returnal.

As for not having as much of that in 2022 and 2023, I think you have to remember a lot of that external budget went to FF16 and FF7R2 and they have a lot of games that are AA slated for next year.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Ideally someone who is "bad" at their job (someone pro-consumer)

Where is that neogaf member who wanted to preserve physical media?

 

[Elios83]

Jade Raymond obviously
Bobby Kotick second place
Ken Kutaragi closing the circle around and ushering the era of neural consoles




Seriously I don't know, there are clear signals that Eric Lempel is being seriously probed at the moment for the role but there will be other candidates we don't know and they might try to consider someone external as well.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Jade Raymond obviously
Bobby Kotick second place
Ken Kutaragi closing the circle around and ushering the era of neural consoles




Seriously I don't know, there are clear signals that Eric Lempel is being seriously probed at the moment for the role but there will be other candidates we don't know and they might try to consider someone external as well.

I'd be stunned if they go external.

I'm pretty confident that there are only 4 real candidates.

Eric Lempel - Longest tenured of the candidates. Managed PS Network. Probably the leading choice.

Lin Tao - CFO, MBA, Japanese, has been around Sony since PS2, though worked at the failure of Sony Ericsson. She was chief of staff for Yoshida, so she has an excellent chance at getting the nod here.

Kiichiro Urata - Responsible for one of Sony's biggest growth areas, Japanese, has more external experience than everyone, head of Capcom USA/Europe, MBA?

Hermant Hulst - Has the best understanding of the games.

Sony NEVER goes external with these choices. Urata is about as external as it gets and there is a decent chance he was brought it with this in mind. I'd bet big it'll be one of the 4 and I think it is in that order Lempel > Tao > Urata > Hulst

Yoshida was a CFO, Totoki was a CFO, there is a good chance they'll want Tao to lead as they work through M&A and growth. The only reason I don't have her ahead of Lempel is because she hasn't been with SIE as long.

Negatives for Urata would be just how short a time he's been with Sony. For Hulst, I'm not sure how good of a job he has done as head of PlayStation Studios and he's never managed the operational side of things.

I really think it comes down to Lempel or Tao

 

[BennyBlanco]

Hermen

 

[64bitmodels]

Sifu sold significantly better than Returnal. Stray also outsold Returnal.

I'd like sources for one, but also I was talking in terms of quality. Regardless of sales, of all those 3 Returnal is the darling. People rave on about it, and for good reason, it's an incredibly tight feeling fun arcade shooter with a great visual presentation and aesthetic. That's what I mean when I say "best results", best game overall.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I'd like sources for one, but also I was talking in terms of quality. Regardless of sales, of all those 3 Returnal is the major darling. People rave on about it, and for good reason, it's an incredibly tight feeling fun arcade shooter with a great visual presentation and aesthetic. That's what I mean when I say "best results", best game overall.

That's subjective.

Both Sifu and Stray sold over a million copies, potentially more than 2 million respectively. That's easy to look up.

Returnal barely did half a million, maybe a bit more on PC, but wasn't a big hit on PC.