The announcement had been awaited for several months. We now know who replaces Jim Ryan at the head of PlayStation. Surprise, not one, but two people will replace him.
In September 2023, Sony announced that PlayStation boss Jim Ryan would be leaving his position after nearly 30 years of service for the brand. We now know the identity of his replacements. In the plural, because Sony made the rather curious choice of appointing two CEOs at the head of PlayStation.
Who are the new bosses of PlayStation?
The first replacement did not surprise analysts and industry observers. This is the European Hermen Hulst who has climbed the ranks in recent years and was tipped to be Jim Ryan’s successor. After leading Guerrilla Games during the creation of the hit franchise Horizon, Hermen Hulst has been named boss of all PlayStation Studios. From now on, he becomes CEO of a new branch of the group: Studio Business Group. He will be responsible for all the games designed by Sony, but also the film or series adaptations.
At his side, we will now find the Japanese Hideaki Nishino as CEO of another branch: Platform Business Group. He will therefore be responsible for the development of new PlayStation consoles such as the future PS5 Pro, services such as PlayStation Plus, or relations with external developers and publishers.
Hiroki Totoki, who was the boss of PlayStation while waiting to find permanent replacements for Jim Ryan, remains both CFO and COO of Sony and keeps a role as president of PlayStation. Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino will be under his hierarchical supervision.
This new structure is reminiscent of that adopted by Microsoft for its gaming division. If Phil Spencer remains the head of all video game activity, the Xbox service, relations and console activity is headed by Sarah Bond while Matt Booty supervises the internal studios Xbox Game Studios and Zenimax Bethesda.
The uncertain future of PlayStation
With its PlayStation 5, Sony is the big winner for the moment in the new generation of consoles. The home console champion manages to sell on average two PS5s when an Xbox Series is sold. However, the success of the PlayStation 5 is largely a continuation of the success of the PlayStation 4 and Sony has been trying, for several years, to find new growth drivers.
During the presentation of financial results this Tuesday, May 14, Sony confirmed that the PlayStation 5 had exceeded 59 million consoles sold. An impressive figure, but disappointing for the firm. Indeed, the brand sold 20.8 million consoles over the fiscal year, far from the 25 million originally targeted and lower than the revised target of 21 million sales. The PS5 continues to follow the same curve as the PS4 in its time.
Sony recalled that the firm did not have a sequel planned over the next 12 months for one of its strong franchises. Fortunately, the brand was able to count on the success of Helldivers 2 at the start of the year, which exceeded 12 million copies on PC and PS5 in 12 weeks. As long as Sony doesn’t sabotage the game obviously.