Guerrilla Games' Hermen Hulst is PlayStation's new head of Worldwide Studios

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PlayStation has named Guerrilla Games managing director and co-founder Hermen Hulst as its new head of Worldwide Studios.

He starts the role immediately and will manage all of Sony's game development across its 14 internal studios.

Meanwhile, Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida will leave his current role to lead a new initiative that will look after and nurture external, smaller independent studios.
The changes are part of Sony Interactive Entertainment's restructuring ahead of the launch of PS5

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“I am thrilled to announce Shu Yoshida as head of this new initiative. Everybody knows just how passionate Shu is about independent games – they are lifeblood of the industry, making our content portfolio so special for our gamers. These wildly creative experiences deserve focus and a champion like Shu at PlayStation who will ensure the entire SIE organization works together to better engage with independent developers through a culture of supporting and celebrating their contributions to PlayStation platforms,” added Ryan

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holy shit, did the guerilla games guy just bump shu down a peg?  

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3 minutes ago, Bodycount N said:

holy shit, did the guerilla games guy just bump shu down a peg?  

I think the guy has fatigue, and wants an easier job.

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literally everyone BUT Phil has left lmfao

[lynux3 2,052]

57 minutes ago, Bodycount N said:

holy shit, did the guerilla games guy just bump shu down a peg?  

He basically replaced Gio Corsi.

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i guess he didn't want to go thru the whole process again next gen.

 

Either way I credit Shu with getting deals like Bloodborne and Nioh done, he had huge sway with japanese games and I'd prefer him to stick around as long as possible/

[jehurey 3,227]

Guerilla Games has become a much more interesting studio ever since they stopped becoming a studio designed to go head-to-head against the Halo franchise (Killzone) and decided to do their own thing.

 

They are into single player campaigns and cool sci-fi stuff.

 

So, I hope that guy has a good eye for managing and coordinating Sony's studios.

[Voidler 1,675]

So is Shu essentially in Adam Boyes old role and Herman is in Shi’a old role? Actually seems like a good fit as Guerrilla have been huge for technology sharing and promoting WWS

[madmaltese★ 2,550]

Nice! Herman is a great pick for the role and it shows their focus on Europe too. 

Shu's new role also seems much more aligned to his tastes also. 

 

Happy they didn't just get some random business head from another company.

[Remij 4,670]

I'm happy for both of them.  Hermen is definitely a good choice for the job.  I always liked the guy.  He's got the right amounts of passion, knowledge, and experience to do the job well.

 

Shu is going exactly where he wants to be right now and leading up to his retirement.  The dude's got enough blockbuster AAA open world games under his belt.. it's not surprising that he wants to be involved with smaller projects which can be more daring and experimental.

 

The fact that they're coming with the new indie dev push has me excited for what we might see on the PS5 and possibly even PC.  Hope it turns out well for them.

[jehurey 3,227]

5 hours ago, Remij_ said:

I'm happy for both of them.  Hermen is definitely a good choice for the job.  I always liked the guy.  He's got the right amounts of passion, knowledge, and experience to do the job well.

 

Shu is going exactly where he wants to be right now and leading up to his retirement.  The dude's got enough blockbuster AAA open world games under his belt.. it's not surprising that he wants to be involved with smaller projects which can be more daring and experimental.

 

The fact that they're coming with the new indie dev push has me excited for what we might see on the PS5 and possibly even PC.  Hope it turns out well for them.

The next step for "indie gaming" has to be for these studios to now be stable mid-tier studios that grow in size.

 

Because, as it seems now, I'd say that only 10-20% of these indie game makers are ever able to find success, and then make another game, be it a new IP or a sequel.

 

I think its kind of hard for Sony or MS or Nintendo or Steam to recruit an indie studio, they make a pretty good game, and then that studio sorta just ends a couple of years later, and they need to recruit completely different people again. The paperwork to sign them and do a business contract over and over because they keep on being one-and-done business entities must be annoying for the platform guys.

[Remij 4,670]

14 minutes ago, jehurey said:

The next step for "indie gaming" has to be for these studios to now be stable mid-tier studios that grow in size.

 

Because, as it seems now, I'd say that only 10-20% of these indie game makers are ever able to find success, and then make another game, be it a new IP or a sequel.

 

I think its kind of hard for Sony or MS or Nintendo or Steam to recruit an indie studio, they make a pretty good game, and then that studio sorta just ends a couple of years later, and they need to recruit completely different people again. The paperwork to sign them and do a business contract over and over because they keep on being one-and-done business entities must be annoying for the platform guys.

Yea I agree.  That's what I'm hoping they do.. is essentially grow them into mid-tier studios which put out solid content between the big AAA blockbusters.

 

We need to bring back the idea of the AA studio.  Lower budget games which can succeed.

 

I think for your last point.. when a big publisher or platform holder makes an initiative like this... not meant as a general "let's pick and choose indie games for our program" but rather working with select high quality indie developers build relationships with them and fund quality games which aren't just filler or fodder, then it's much more likely to succeed and continue.  Studios like Moon Studios with Ori is a perfect example.  If you foster that company... they'll do amazing things.

 

That's why MS was really successful with indie games on the 360 and why Sony was interested in the beginning of the gen.  They had fewer, higher quality titles.  They also built up followings and some became extremely popular.  The magic, of course, was lost when any and everyone could release any shit they wanted thanks to platforms like Steam.  Greenlight back in the day was a cool initiative because it limited the new games to ones the public thought were either interesting or higher quality.  Games that DID release had a better chance of succeeding.

 

Hopefully Sony works with promising indie devs to help them realize their visions and foster that "quality first" ideology.  High quality indie games can be quite the force when they're of a consistent quality.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Remij_