
For a site like ours, which lives and breathes PlayStation, we’d be lying if we said it hadn’t been a frustrating generation. The reality is our daily schtick has always hinged on Sony being vocal and fan facing, but since the release of the PS5, the platform holder has become quiet and secretive. The engagement we used to feast on has become a thing of the past.
Speaking with Variety, co-CEOs Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino said that’s because the company has adopted a “show don’t tell” mantra. “It’s important we convey our strategy,” explained Hulst. “But at the end of the day, I am with the creators a big chunk of time.”
Nishino agreed: “To me, the product, the content, it should be the forward-facing things. Behind the scenes, who is the guy doing it? It doesn’t matter.”
While we somewhat agree with what Hulst and Nishino are saying here, we do think it’d be beneficial to get more communication from the company. Interviews like this one – which is staggeringly brief – have become rare affairs, and the platform holder hardly ever communicates with fans to clarify concerns.
What does the future hold for PSVR2, for example? How does the organisation intend to address bloating development cycles? And how does it balance maintaining an attractive ecosystem with ports to PC and other platforms?
None of this is asked or answered in this Variety interview, of course, because Sony doesn’t want to comment.
We think on the spectrum of “show don’t tell”, the Japanese giant has become far too secretive. But, of course, we absolutely admit we have a stake in all this: a clandestine console maker is not exactly great for a business dedicated to discussing the brand. We’ve grown to accept it, but it’d be nice to get a little more out of the company from time to time.
[source variety.com]
Comments 69
Wouldn't your questions be something they would more likely address in an investor call or in some financial documents? At least controlling dev costs etc. I get PSVR 2 silence is bad for the product itself as support is nonexistent.
Yeah, and what they are showing lately isn't encouraging or good. As a gamer, I'm pretty happy with my games, but as a PlayStation fan, it's pretty underwhelming. I barely see reasons to be excited for the next years. We know nothing, and with all the cancellations happening, we might get nothing.
@J-Dubs Potentially, yes. Just examples, though. We get one or two of these interviews per year, and they only ever include the questions Sony's comfortable being asked.
I don't blame Variety for taking the exclusive here, but this interview has barely any substance to it at all.
"Show don't tell" is fine as long you have something to show.
Which hasn't been the case in a while now
I think the best example of this is with their game announcements honestly. They’ve gone from announcing games like, 4 years out at some points and generally now the turnaround between reveal and release is a lot shorter. Concord came out a year after its teaser, Astro Bot a few months, Yotei seems to be a year after its teaser also. The only recent exception seems to be Marathon and Fairgame$ but those games seem to be in such fractured development with issues that recently popped up.
@get2sammyb Yeah totally fair.
They've barely been showing OR telling anything for a while now, though.
In other words, Hermen doesn't acknowledge or recognise that said mindset played heavily into the Concord disaster - that mistake of him and the studio thinking that they had the perfect product for their audience behind the scenes, when being more outward with it much earlier could have shown them what was wrong and given time to fix it.
Sony really, really needs to bench him, pronto.
Sony is like a guy who’s been married for 15+ years. They know it’s better to keep quiet than risk a media storm by saying/showing something that modern gamers may not like lol.
I think this is another example of their arrogance. They feel like they’re beating Microsoft, so they think they don’t NEED to show anything.
They've either released or revealed this year HellDivers 2, Astro Bot, Lego Horizon, Concord (although a disaster), Death Stranding 2, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, Ghost of Yotei and the Horizon Remake. Throw in the third party timed deals like Silent Hill 2 and FF7 ReBirth then I wouldn't exactly say they haven't shown anything this year or not kept their fans busy.
Next year should hopefully be better in terms of the big first party games and we should see some Wolverine and Marathon gameplay plus the release of Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yotei. But I can already tell all of that will be overshadowed by the negativity towards Fairgame$ (if it releases).
Hopefully they’ll show us more soon!
Fine, they can show us the PS5 Pro Specs then - a nice little table would be good.
It would be good to have Mark Cerny read them out to us, but in writing is fine I suppose...
@CielloArc Tbf, they recently announced Ghost of Yotei, which is really something. And the drama around Concord was a great show for sure.
Ok but for that to work you eventually have to y'know..........SHOW SOMETHING!!!!!
@Deoxyr1bose don’t forget Wolverine which was announced 3 years ago and the only things we know about it at all other than it exists are from the insomniac leak. Hell even Spider-Man 2 didn’t show off anything for 2 years after its announcement
I get it. I really only care about what games are being worked on and releasing.
@crossbit Pretty good point. You would think that getting more views to people of the product would help them with feedback. However, there have been articles saying that the team refused to take any friction so not sure it would have even helped here.
This gives me the impression that there's still a load of live service games releasing in the near future. Remember Playstation Showcase 2023 when the PS Studios presence was:
If the near future of PS Studios is still very live service heavy, doing a showcase would end up being a repeat of the 2023 showcase which would make people more negative about the future of Playstation than if Sony were silent.
on one hand, sure it'd be nice if Sony communicated more, like with the PS stars no more money redeeming or whatever but then you look at Microsoft who puts their foot in their mouth so much, you wonder how they even talk and it's like maybe it's good Sony shuts up a bit.
Should have been doing this all along. My major concern here is that if they are that committed to this approach, then it would mean they have very very little to actually get excited about. Actions, my man. Make me want a 900 dollar piece of hardware, don’t make me laugh at it and never touch the brand again. You’re a businessman, and if you’re bad at business maybe go to another industry
@Grumblevolcano and of those six games one is dead, murdered, by Lord Sony. One is delayed to god knows when and the other is being kept in a dungeon somewhere. The released ones are fine but have less player engagement than many other platform exclusive games, and that’s not a good thing.
Wish they would actually start showing their games.
@MasterChiefWiggum I’ve always said a Sony without competition is like the Burger King. Terrifying, gaudy and increasingly useless.
It's ok saying Show Don't Tell but you've got to actually show something.
Also the silent treatment just comes across as though they aren't listening to what their audience would like. No wonder Concord flopped.
Sony seem to be in their own little bubble this generation and that's not great for them or is the players.
There seems to be an us and them mentality because of this mantra.
Nintendo hold regular Directs to communicate and that works fine. At least they aren't looking away from their audience.
Anyway that's my opinion and I feel better for getting it off my chest. 😆😂
Coincidence or not, Sony reduced by a lot the first party game presentations and setting launch dates after June-July 2022, after the overblown "critiques" surrounding the launch date announcement of God Of War Ragnarok. Sony SMS was targeted this time, they received quite bit of hate and even threats on their social media accounts because they didn't announce it at the end of June if I remember correctly...
Soon after this and also given the previous The Last Of Us Part 2 similar "happenings", Sony drastically reduced all communications and announcements regarding it's own studios and what they're working on. It simply became it's new policy, say nothing until very close to the launch date...
Although I agree that Sony took it to extreme, by not even giving a broad roadmap of what we can expect from Playstation over the next few years, I can't really blame them...
I know it's not the only contributing factor, but I bet it's a good part of it...
Sony sucks now. The only reason I didn't jump ship when Sony showed it's cards (or lack thereof) this gen is my backlog. I just now show my displeasure with my wallet, and support them less than I ever did during the PS3/PS4 generation.
@Shinnok789 I literally decided to create an account just now to say exactly this. 100% agree.
TL;DR "We looked over our shoulder as we always do and just decided to copy what Nintendo is doing because
it worked for them so it'll work for us too."
Removed - disrespecting others
Removed - flaming/arguing
@LowDefAl There does remain a difference between a product that's succeeding because of it's excellent strategy and offering, vs a product that's succeeding in spite of dreadful mismanagement because of its existing momentum due to past strategies from previous management in the face of competition even more mismanaged. The former continues building loyalty and momentum. The latter persists simply because it's a market default which can be disrupted at any time by outside forces or market apathy. The success of PS currently has very little to do with anything PS is actually doing, because PS isn't really doing much of anything. It's success lies mostly in being, currently, the only real option that exists to play a segment of games for those that want console convenience over PC and aren't interested in the very weak offerings of Xbox. It succeeds because there's not really anything challenging it, so it's purchased whether or not it's a good offering. If something else attempts to challenge it, that momentum can easily give to inertia.
@Rich33 Hell no that man would put anyone to sleep.
Not that this has anything do to with this article but Capcom for the first part of this financial year have sold more games on PC than all 3 consoles combined. Gah, if Sony don't do something I'll be one of them at some point because at the moment I'm just here due to my investment in the eco system rather than the product they produce. Like NES said, they are coasting on people like me. It's a shame MS aren't more competition anymore tbh.
@LowDefAl The only place I'd disagree is the health of the brand. I think that's largely just sitting in that momentum wave. I think their management has taken the wrong lessons from their sales success, and moved in multiple directions that over time will put the brakes on their momentum. It's kind of a hallmark Sony practice to take good sales to mean they have an Apple-like cult following (long before Apple was Apple), and that people buy their product simply because it has their name on it, and they align their business around that expectation. The only reason that strategy hasn't cratered on them yet is because of a lack of real competition. The moment that changes, and someone, if not MS, Nintendo, Apple, Asus....SOMEONE, moves in to challenge them, that strategy will grind to a halt. Which has happened to them in every single industry they've tried that strategy.
It's like filing down the legs of the ladder so that the latter looks stable, but once someone puts weight on it, it snaps and falls.
@LowDefAl everyone's entitled these days it's so sad to see.
It’s been an insane year for PS, tbh, and a PlayStation dominated year by any measure. That said, I wouldn’t mind having one year- even 18 months of hype before a game releases. I feel like we might be in for a few surprises in the second half of the PS5 life, though.
As someone who has soured on Sony lately, I'll concede one thing to them: they have a tough job ahead of them in their games division. The "fans" are not a monolith, it's all kinds of people in all different walks of life.
You got the kids using their parents' credit to buy v-bucks in Fortnight, the high-spend dedicated AAA consumer that wants more of that, the old farts that want the return of old IP and the introduction of new IP on a steady basis. And dozens of variations in between.
As Playstation has passed 30 years and counting, the market has become increasingly segmented and "spread out" to multiple demographics with different priorities, and I just don't think Sony has what it takes to meet all their expectations adequately.
Ideally they could meet the expectations of all their different customer bases, but it's just not realistic. Even a Fortune 500 company has only so much resources. And of course, they have to consider that almighty return as well.
What I think Sony has been doing - maybe smartly - is prioritizing the younger gamers at the expense of their original customers. PushSquare readership is not the younger segment of the market they are catering to, hence all the recent bad feelings in the online discourse. Do I blame them? No. Am I disappointed in this strategy? Oh definitely.
What can I say? Age happens and things move on. Gaming is like that too. It's a really fun hobby but as odd as it sounds it's a natural evolution for us to be left behind somewhat. I think modern gaming is gonna progress to a point that is entirely unrecognizable to us in the near to mid-term future.
Three points of consolation: 1.) Retro gaming will always be there and is more accessible than ever right now with emulation. 2.) I don't think the older market segment will ever be completely abandoned, as they are high-spend consumers with oodles of disposable income, and 3.) There are always alternative hobbies to consider, like golf or restoring a Buick 😆
This sucks for running a site that talks about PlayStation news etc. but on a personal level I get the strategy and I like it. The announcement and relatively quick release of Astro Bot was perfect. We didn't need to see it at four conferences, with a half dozen trailers spoiling everything. I'm into this.
@KundaliniRising333
You are ridiculous. I have to assume this is a character you are playing to entertain us all.
@NEStalgia can't agree more. The moment gaming as a medium switched to an online social platform with backlogs of games and digital sales the wave started. Sony won THE critical generations for the console gaming space.
Everyone must know on some level that a very large part of Sony's power is simply..... Sunken cost fallacy... We've all poured money, time and emotion into the brand and our accounts. Made friends and memories on the playstation.
Without a firing on all cylinders rival no amount of bad, but not industry ending, disasters was going to topple sonys place at no.1
Sony know this so they are striking while the iron is hot to make money off of us. Pure business. I hate it but get it.
Microsoft know it. They can't win in the raw console space by throwing money against the wave. Even good games wouldn't budge the needle enough. So they are laying groundwork for cloud gaming hoping the NEXT era of gaming will be theirs. A gamble I'm interested but not particularly looking forward to seeing.
@Grumblevolcano except they made it pretty clear they aren't stopping making single player games as studios are rumored to be working on mulitple single player games like san monica , naughty dog , along with bluepoint , firespirte , sony bend to name a few. they already showed off sucker punches game , and it sounds like they want to announce more games that are only a year away from release like the new ghosts game. i do also think they pushed some stuff back to make sure they take advantage of the ps5 pro's optimization.
Sure, show don't tell. But why this interview feels like Hermen hiding his big failure with Concord / Firewalk...
I think the entire industry is shuffling their communication strategy. If they announce a game too early, they face years of "is it ready yet?" that keeps the game in the news in an almost entirely negative way. If they're too tight-lipped, they get whining that they're not forthcoming (probably from the same people who would be pestering them with "is it ready yet?" every week if they'd been more open).
I don't see any communication strategy that is likely to make everyone happy - so I suspect studios and companies are trying to figure out what strategies seem to minimize cost and maximize profit. That may be different for different studios, games, and fan bases, but I suspect it will lead to more "we'll tell you when we're ready."
But I just don't see much upside to Sony being vocal about what's in the pipeline more than a few months before release, unless there's some specific tie-in to change that for a particular game.
honestly the fact there hasn't been any leaks on naughty dog , sony bend , bluepoint , san monica studios and the games they 've been working on is crazy in the age we live in where everything gets leaked.
It doesn't matter who's behind the game!? I get the product is the forward facing aspect of the business of gaming, but telling that games story is sometimes just as important.
Like Concord is a great example. I doubt if we had seen more of Firesprite it would have made a difference, but the game was announced, went dark, came back with a few months of uninspiring marketing and then died.
It's funny that I see this right after completing Doki Doki. Maybe Monika is real after all?
@RudeAnimat0r firesprite is a different studio working on the not so secret sequel to until dawn , you mean firewalk
This year they released 3 games we didn't know about:
-AstroBot
-Horizon Adventures (next month)
-Until Dawn
Two remaster, one we didn't know about:
-The last of us
-Horizon
The best expansion of Destiny 2:
-The Final Shape
Their ugliest game in years (sorry moralists but Firewalk deserved to be destroyed to the ground):
-Concord
And one of the best sellers of the year that is still selling 9 months and few reviewbooms after:
-Helldivers 2
I'm all in on secrecy. Now I know they can and want to reveal games the same year those games are going to be out. It doesn't matter if it's one or two, that's better than knowing about a game and wait years to play it.
@GymratAmarillo Hard agree on Concord. That roster was AWFUL
@twitchtvpat I did say near future, it might be that 2027/2028 are big years for single player games but 2025/2026 are more live service focused so a showcase would give the impression that Sony's focus is still live service.
@twitchtvpat lol nice catch
@Grumblevolcano we will see , but it sounds like a few games will be announced for 2025 / 26
Meaningless soundbite alert.
This isn't a creative writing class, Sony.
Whose doing it doesn't matter...I'm pro say whatever the F you're thinking but that was the most corporate/anti give a ***** about creators comment I've heard lol
@Keyblade-Dan @Gaia093 @CielloArc
They've shown and released Astrobot and Ghost of Yotei is sheduled for next year.
Thing is, the way journalism and social media works now, is that it’s a running battle. Anything they say is scrutinised and it’s distracting for the teams making the games. Games (and tv, movies etc) are often ruined by becoming compromised, changing plans in development to responding to social media being outraged at the slightest thing. If people want them to get with making good games, then the devs should be allowed to get on with it, rather than provide a running dialog to help games sites provide clickbait articles.
I have to laugh when people say Sony have showed “nothing”. What was Astro Bot? What was Ghost of Yotei? What was Helldivers 2? What about MLB The Show? What about Destiny: Final Shape? What about partnerships like Stellar Blade, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Silent Hill 2, Horizon: Adventures and more. What are you really expecting? And is it reasonable?
Can anyone HONESTLY say there is a shortage of good games for them to play on PlayStation? The rest is just unrealistic bleeting. Put your expectations in check.
UnlimitedSevens wrote:
Really insightful post on the whole but I’d push back against this one statement a little and build on the rest. Other than Naughty Dog who were working on multiple games including Factions 2, which by all reports THEY as a studio wanted to make, all Sony’s original single player studios are still making single player games as far as we know. I don’t think they have lost that priority it’s just taking longer to get these games out to the standard they want, and they are later to show them due to their “show don’t tell” policy. But they also, smartly as you say, NEED to engage the younger market who wants a different experience, mostly this has been via their newly bought studios.
Additionally I think one fact a lot of people forget is that the vocal fanbase at sites like this is by and large the older crowd and certainly the more engaged players, but this ignores the millions of younger and more casual players who don’t have as much of a voice but are, in reality, the majority of players. We are in a bit of an echo chamber here and Sony have to make things that the “internet”‘may be vocally against. It’s bigger than just us.
Regardless really good post.
I find the statement that it doesn't matter who's behind the scenes rather troublesome. Keeping the image of a "magic factory" where you don't know how the sausage is made smells like a exploitable and disposable workforce to me.
Long bloated development times are fine by me, so long as the output is Stella blade or Astrobot quality. And it has free dlc a bit later.
I'm happy to play a crap load of games that probably came from a mobile phone app that have good gameplay and passable graphics in between waiting for epic games that are exclusive, at least when they first get released
It’s insane to me with how they handled themselves in previous generations and became super successful but have drastically changed directions thinking it’s better when the PS5 is slightly lagging behind the PS4 generation in sales.
Speaking only for myself I believe the PS five generation is the most underwhelming PlayStation generation I’ve ever experienced.
I would way prefer more interaction from the folks working at a Playstation; I became a huge fan during the PS3 generation due to this. It also provides accountability for decisions and allows journalists to actually interview these folks.
@get2sammyb Unfortunately the "reclusive Sony" approach has been much in play since Jim Ryan took over & is still in play with the new management.
Much as you touched on years ago,since the departure of the likes of then Sony Third Party Relations Adam Boyes or the much missed Sean Layden as US SIE head,a public "face" of Playstation has been missing.
Whilst there's no doubting roles like CEO involve a lot more than simply interacting with Gamers on social media,away from the likes of Shuhei Yoshida being the face of Playstation Indies or Mark Cerny as the face of new console announcements you'd be hard pressed to remember anything Herman Hulst engaged with gamers on when SIE Head apart from changing avatars...& the social/P.R. people have had a mixed bag on delivering showcases or the PS Blog.
Likewise,instead of talking to gaming sites first & foremost they seemingly talk to Wired,Variety etc. Not exactly the sites Playstation gamers are likely to read their gaming news.
It'll be a sad day the likes of Yoshida or Cerny retire,because there doesn't feel like anyone else in coming through that'd take up the baton.
Well, what Sony isn't getting is that it looses all my interest in the platform. I've been a Sony guy since the first PlayStation. But this gen has been such a disgrace that I'm genuinely looking to buy an Xbox for the next gen.
First it was Jim Ryan, who I hated from the start. He getting fired was one of very few good decision made by Sony. Jim promoted Hulst. So I think they have some of the same mindset. So the next good thing for Sony now would be to demote Hulst. He cannot be CEO of Playstation if Playstation is going to go back to what it was during the PS4 era. Where everybody loved what they were doing. They actually communicated with players. Having great events. I still remember the one with the live music. It was awesome.
Hulst can be on board during the remainder of this gen, maybe, but when PS6 comes around. The leadership needs to be changed. No question in my mind about that. Sony, and definitely it's player base, can't have another generation like this one. And if there is no signs of a change I'm switching consoles.
@Santiano are you trolling? jim wasn't fired he retired after working 30 years for sony. but he wasn't fired. i'm not sure what world people are living in , but the ps5 released during a pandemic , and it takes longer to develop games , yet people keep comparing this gen to past gen's , where games took much shorter to develop , and were also cheaper to develop. im curious if you'll keep this same energy though when they announce the single player games they've been working on.
@SeanOhOgain i'll give you 2 examples they announced wolverine but it won't release years and years after the announcement , maybe late 2025? 2026? the other example is they showed off the new sucker punch ghosts game , which releases next year. would you rather wait for years and know whats coming or be surprised and the game comes out the next year?
@twitchtvpat I think you need to re-read my comment again; it was specifically about interaction from people working at Playstation. Shuhei used to pop onto podcasts quite often and other executives would conduct interviews.
I think you're being defensive of a multi-billion dollar company without reading my actual comment
@twitchtvpat I you really can't read between the lines and figure out he was fired then that's on you. When a person is invited to retire early, it's because it's either that or be fired. No one in that level of boss is normally fired. Not publicly anyway.
The pandemic isn't the reason why we haven't had a big single player game since Spiderman 2. It's the focus on live service games that has taken developers away. Like Naughty Dog with its canceled live service game and Guerilla with its live service Horizon game. When they should be all in on the last game in the trilogy.
Ill have the same "energy" yes. This Gen has been terrible with Sony not talking to fans. This is Jim Ryan's doing. They better come with some big announcements soon. Because as of right now, I have not been giving much reason as of why I should be exited about next year from Playstation.
You shouldn't believe everything your read. Especially when it comes from the big companies themselfs. You honesty think Sony would say that the boss, who, as you said, had been there for over 30 years, was fired? Not even close to be true. Foolishly to believe them on this one.
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