Sony has named Hideaki Nishino as its new president and CEO, replacing Hermen Hulst. This also eliminates the co-CEO system that has been in place for the past 8 months.
Back in 2024 when Jim Ryan was departing from Sony, he was replaced by Nishino and Hulst as co-CEOs. Nishino was the CEO of SIE’s platform business group, while Hulst was the CEO of the studio business group. Hulst was most recently the head of PlayStation Studios and Guerrilla Games.
Following the new Sony announcement and structure change, Hideaki Nishino will be both the president and CEO of the whole of Sony starting April 1, while remaining the CEO of the Platform Business Group, which he was already leading.
Hulst is no longer co-CEO of Sony, but is still the CEO of the Studio Business Group like before, and will now report to Nishino.
Hiroki Totoki was the company’s president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer, who was also serving as chairman of SIE, and had both Hulst and Nishino reporting to him. He will now step down from that position and become the president and CEO of Sony Group.
I am truly honored to take the helm at Sony Interactive Entertainment. Technology and creativity are two of our biggest strengths as we continue to focus on developing experiences that deliver entertainment for everyone.
He went on to say that he wishes to grow the PlayStation community in new ways including new IPs, while also improving on the hardware side of things. He also thanked Hermen for his role.
This comes soon after the news that Sony canceled a plethora of games, all of which were going to follow the live-service online-only model. The failure of Concord set the example and forewarned Sony that fans weren’t interested in that kind of a future. Hopefully, Sony can go back to doing what it does best, making great single-play experiences like the upcoming game from Naughty Dog, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which still does not have a concrete release date.
