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Will Hermen Hulst get the axe for Concord?

will he?

  • yes, and he should

    Votes: 150 29.4%
  • yes, but he shouldn't

    Votes: 1 0.2%
  • no, but he should

    Votes: 274 53.7%
  • no, and he shouldn't

    Votes: 85 16.7%

  • Total voters
    510

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
Jesus. 80% of Gaf want him gone.

The A Team 80S GIF
 
Hulst is a clown.



Cerny is the only good thing they have.


Shuei Yoshida. He made the deal with Mihoyo when nobody in the West knew them and has brought good games from new studios, offering Sony's support. A true gamer who is constantly seeking out new games/devs, a stark contrast to the remaster + GaaS insanity from the Western side of the brand.

Playstation must get back to what made them successful.
 

Three

Gold Member
"Concord is supposed to be the company's biggest product of all time!"
"Huh, so don't expect any big sellers in FY 24-25, investors".
this shit doesn't make any sense
Exactly, they told investors that they have no major franchises planned for the fisical year (hence they expected declines in first party software) yet according to some they expected this to be the companies biggest product of all time, comparable to star wars?

Yeah, I very much doubt that. Somebody somewhere is over exaggerating for dramatic effect.
 
I'm actually trying to imagine this scenario.

Imagine what's bouncing around Sony japan's heads, and how uncomfortable it must be between Hulst and Japan now.

I can only imagine what these western employees have been spouting to the heads in Japan for years. Hurst will have probably been pitching concord as this huge franchise, westerners will love it, it's inclusive, all the full marketing shebang.

What they witness is the biggest flop in gaming history. They're probably sat there like what the fuck are these Gaijin smoking.
It's such a damn shame that so many Japanese companies allow Western offices to dictate the creative path because the NA market is the biggest. Americans have truly awful taste. It's beyond abhorrent. Sony Japan really needs to reign Cali Sony in.
 
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He should definitely get the axe if any of this is true but I doubt he will. Probably too much politics involved.

I seriously wish it was Shu heading Playstation right now. Hermen doesn't seem like someone who knows what he is doing.
 

Bernardougf

Member
He should definitely get the axe if any of this is true but I doubt he will. Probably too much politics involved.

I seriously wish it was Shu heading Playstation right now. Hermen doesn't seem like someone who knows what he is doing.
I fail to see how a japanese company would spare a western ceo because of politics.. but someone who knows the details of sony upper manegement can enlighten me.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
He'll have a bunch of data to hide behind that shows that Concord should have been a big success, ROI predictions blah blah blah. They will fire the guy who compiled the data though.
 
I know this is almost beating a dead horse at this point but why would they spend countless millions more to retool the game F2P? Even if they do nothing else to address the issues with maps and character design, they would have to fundamentally rework the entire game to add a MTX and battle pass system.

Completely retooled UI, a whole bunch of paid cosmetics that people would want to buy, and a massive marketing push to try and wash the stink of the previous flop off the IP… just so they could launch into the same oversaturated market where no one would choose them over Overwatch, Apex, Valorant, or Marvel Rivals, just like the first time?

Spending any money to do anything with this game further would be their second biggest blunder behind launching it in the first place.
Because they need to show some return in the investment. If making it free to play brings in more than not doing the work then they probably would do it. I was just making a guess because why else would they just pull it? Lower the price first eventually to nothing even and they could say as a free game if you have PS plus. Give the people who bought early the option for refunds. It would’ve cost less and it would’ve bought some good will. There’s something else going on I feel, but I’m wrong all the time. I guess we’ll see.
 
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nial

Member
Exactly, they told investors that they have no major franchises planned for the fisical year (hence they expected declines in first party software) yet according to some they expected this to be the companies biggest product of all time, comparable to star wars?

Yeah, I very much doubt that. Somebody somewhere is over exaggerating for dramatic effect.
I seriously wonder how nobody was able to comment on the $400M budget and the supposed VERY high expectations from Sony before.
Critical thinking is completely lost when it comes to anything you hate.
 
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Humdinger

Gold Member
Gottam I hope so, but I don't see it happening. What a douchebag, though. As a PS5-only owner, I'm embarrassed to have him in charge of Sony games.
 

simpatico

Member
It's not too late to make Hideo Kojima the head of PlayStaion. That's the good timeline. Somewhere out there, there's a version of GAF that lives in that timeline. They're probably just getting classic after classic. Imagine just the console itself. Man, I envy those guys. I'd buy a PS6 on day 1 if they go this route.

Right after making this post I clicked over to IG and look what I see. It's destined GAF.

 
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Shuei Yoshida. He made the deal with Mihoyo when nobody in the West knew them and has brought good games from new studios, offering Sony's support. A true gamer who is constantly seeking out new games/devs, a stark contrast to the remaster + GaaS insanity from the Western side of the brand.

Playstation must get back to what made them successful.
Yes I thought about making Yoshida the new Playstation boss (again). The problem is Sony have a stupid policy about retiring everyone at 60 and he is 60.
 

Barakov

Member
No but he should. Everything about Concord, despite whatever you think about the gameplay, screamed that this was going to be a massive flop. They were going after an audience that doesn't play games.

Some key personnel on the dev team should shoulder the blame, Hulst however as a co-CEO thought whatever they were making was going to be future of Playstation which is laughable at best. Thank God it failed spectacularly.

At the very least Hulst needs to be demoted to whatever he was at Guerilla Games and stay in that particular part of Europe.
 

vpance

Member
The rot runs deeper at Sony. Won't end with hulst.

So true. How can they make new IP that people want to play while being held hostage by DEI ideology? It can't happen.

Sony first party is kind of dead until the madness ends.
 

Audiophile

Member
If anyone looked at this game and thought it was the next big thing then they're living in a bubble or completely off their rocker.

Even worse if it's an exec who needs to have their finger on the pulse.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Moriarty on Sacred Symbols just dropped the megaton of the day - Concord was referred to as a game with Star Wars-like potential inside Sony and the "The Future of PlayStation", despite allegedly looking like shit in alpha after drowning 200mil, just to make Sony to drop another 200 to reach a bare MVP...
At 400 000 000 USD, excluding studio purchase costs! And GaaS running cost budget, at the end making 0 USD profit.
It's the biggest game Sony has ever released and most likely the biggest financial flop in the history of the videogame industry.

Episode 1 Mind Blown GIF by The Office


Moriarty says the game was "Hermen Hulst's baby" championed by himself this hard internally.

What happens now? Is this the end of Hermen Hulst as the CEO at Playstation?

I don't think so.

Reason being is until I see more concrete evidence, I don't believe Concord cost 400mil.
 

DanielG165

Member
No, I think they just gambled on Concord and it backfired.

It happens.
The budget for Concord was apparently 400 million dollars. That is not, in any way, an “it happens” scenario. No corporation worth its salt is going to look at a colossal failure and enormous loss of money, and merely shrug and say, “it happens”.

EDIT: I see you cleared things up and gave greater context on page 2, so forgive me for being unfairly harsh.
 
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dano1

A Sheep
I'm just shocked they never even went the F2P route before the quick axe. That strikes me as Japan coming down hard and readying a restructure of power and decision making.
It might go free to play but you can’t just flip a switch.
 
Sony PlayStation needs to put a 90's kid in charge and bring back the glory days.

I could lay down the ground work on a fucking napkin. Not just from a software perspective.

Hulst likes to run his mouth whilst running everything into the fucking ground.
 
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Kerotan

Member
Probably not but he'll get a good telling off for allowing stuff like 'toxic positivity' and 'The Professor' to happen under his watch.

Oh and I forgot about this guy

LeC6b1.jpg
White racism is hurting these companies. No wonder diversity teams are getting fired lately. The white race has been very successful and is now rich. Not smart to discriminate against such a valuable market. I'm White and proud these rats deserve their sinking ships.
 
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