Major shake-ups are continuing to happen at PlayStation ahead of the PS5’s launch. Recently, Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden stepped down. Today,0 we learned that not only is Shuhei Yoshida stepping down from his role as President of Worldwide Studios to lead a new indie game-focused initiative, but that Hermen Hulst from Guerrilla Games is taking over as the new Head of Worldwide Studios.
If you don’t know who Hermen Hulst is, he co-founded and served as the Managing Director for Guerilla Games, a Dutch developer who made a name for themselves in the early 2000s with the Killzone series. While that series hasn’t seen a new game since 2013’s Killzone: Shadow Fall, though Guerilla Games put out the critically acclaimed Horizon: Zero Dawn in 2017. Recent job listings even suggest that a sequel to that game is on the way. Even though many PlayStation users may not be immediately familiar with Hermen Hulst right now, he’s definitely someone we’ll be seeing a lot more of going forward as Sony’s plans for the PS5 are unveiled.
Jim Ryan, the CEO and President of PlayStation, had great things to say to GamesIndustry.biz about Hermen Hulst and his promotion. “Hermen is a European who will be taking one of the major offices at PlayStation. I think everybody in Europe should be thrilled and happy and proud that that is happening. Hermen is one of the most effective and well-respected leaders in the video game industry. He is a passionate advocate for the teams he leads and understands how to empower creative talent to build great experiences. I have no doubt Hermen can lead our teams to deliver compelling and diverse experiences at a steady cadence.”
Circling back to Shuhei Yoshida, his new role is part of an initiative to renew focus towards indie developers at PlayStation. Jim Ryan elaborated by saying “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.”
A lot of management shifts have been taking place at Sony’s PlayStation division recently, and it will certainly be interesting to see how this changes their strategy going forward.
The post Hermen Hulst from Guerrilla Games Takes Over at PlayStation as Head of Worldwide Studios by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.