Sony has lost its PlayStation Mobile boss, 2 years after launching | VGC

[Gamernyc78]

Sony has lost its PlayStation Mobile boss, 2 years after launching | VGC

Nicola Sebastiani was a high-profile appointment from Apple…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Nicola Sebastiani was a high-profile appointment when he joined in 2021, having previously led Apple’s business management team before becoming Apple Arcade’s head of content, in an eight-year stint at the iPhone maker.

Sebastiani was responsible for building PlayStation’s mobile team and was key in Sony’s acquisition of Savage Game Studios.


However, less than a year after that deal was announced, he’s now left the company, according to MobileGamer.biz. It’s not yet clear why the exec decided to leave or if he’s directly joined another company.

Over the past 2 years, SIE has quietly built a team of experienced mobile talent, hiring people from Apple, Kabam, Meta, Tencent, Super Evil Megacorp, Samsung, Niantic, Zynga, Riot and more.

Speaking during a business briefing last year, SIE president Jim Ryan said the company expected half of its annual releases to be on PC and mobile by 2025.

Commenting during the acquisition of Savage Game Studios, PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst was keen to emphasise mobile’s role within PlayStation as an “additive” to its core console business.

“As we assured you before with our plans to bring select titles to PC, our efforts beyond console in no way diminish our commitment to the PlayStation community, nor our passion to keep making amazing single-player, narrative-driven experiences,” Hulst said.

“Our mobile gaming efforts will be similarly additive, providing more ways for more people to engage with our content, and striving to reach new audiences unfamiliar with PlayStation and our games.”

 

[Johnic]

lol

GaaS crap next, please.

 

[Umar]

Lol gaas and mobile strategies falling apart before they even started. They should stick to focusing only on console if everything else keeps falling apart

 

[Gediminas]

Lol gaas and mobile strategies falling apart before they even started. They should stick to focusing only on console if everything else keeps falling apart

good.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Good. GaaS, Jimbo and Hermen next. The focus should be concentrated on their core business.

Lol gaas and mobile strategies falling apart before they even started. They should stick to focusing only on console if everything else keeps falling apart

We can only hope that's what happens. GaaS, mobile, PC ports... I'm fine if it all fails.

 

[Loy310]

Prolly got poached. Don’t mean the division is failing.

 

[flaccidsnake]

The mobile strategy I want would be a Project-Q type controller than most ios and android phone can slot into to play "REAL GAMES" (i.e. 2-stick + button games). I don't think the touch screen can handle satisfying action gameplay.

 

[Nhomnhom]

The mobile strategy I want would be a Project-Q type controller than most ios and android phone can slot into to play "REAL GAMES" (i.e. 2-stick + button games). I don't think the touch screen can handle satisfying action gameplay.

It already exists, you pretty much described the Backbone (and many other gamepads for smartphones).

 

[Bryank75]

This whole PC and mobile expansion has been a disaster and if you don't agree with that term.... it has at the very least been very disappointing in terms of income and sales.

It took PlayStation a very long time to build up the expertise and talent to make games on the level of Uncharted, GOW and TLOU etc.

The right approach was to buy Bungie and let them do their thing.

But making traditional PS Studios port their games, split their attention and make their multiplayer games multiplatform has been a huge mistake. The lack of focus is palpable to me..... only obscured to most by the lack of communication that is, in my opinion purposeful - to hide the new regimes mistakes.

Every PC release now is disappointing in terms of sales and there has not been one mobile release yet. So much money spent buying 'experts' and building teams and NOTHING to show for it.

ALL that money should have been spent on buying great studios / publishers with established IP's to keep the playing field more level as MSFT tries to gobble up as much as it can.

What really hit home lately was that CDPR were at Xbox's showcase, not the PlayStation one..... even with Xbox having Bethesda, Obsidian and other RPG studios. They basically have a monopoly on WRPG style games and there seems like there is no effort to fill the niche on PS. They're too busy worrying about GAAS, PC, Mobile and COD.

 

[SLB1904]

Prolly got poached. Don’t mean the division is failing.

I hope it is

 

[Yurinka]

Prolly got poached. Don’t mean the division is failing.

Yep.

Or maybe he was hired to create the team and the structure of the mobile gaming division, and once he did the job, he left. Another possibility is that he personally underperformed and got fired to be replaced by someone else.

In any case, a single guy leaving doesn't mean much in a big global corporation. They have long term roadmaps and goals (in this case for the mobile gaming area), which every few quarters get tweaked, and they will continue with the same roadmap and goals even if a guy left. They will replace him and will continue.

Lol gaas and mobile strategies falling apart before they even started. They should stick to focusing only on console if everything else keeps falling apart

They already started with GaaS and MLB, GT7 and Destiny 2 are big successes. A guy leaving doesn't mean falling apart.

Also, they said multiple times (and repeated in the OP article) that their main focus continues being console and that GaaS, PC & mobile are additive: their investment/growth there won't be made reducing the one on traditional console games.

 

[Shmunter]

Tick

 

[BlueLyria]

They really need something else if they want to expand to mobile, the only Sony associated hit is Fate Grand/Order.

 

[Danja]

This whole PC and mobile expansion has been a disaster and if you don't agree with that term.... it has at the very least been very disappointing in terms of income and sales.

It took PlayStation a very long time to build up the expertise and talent to make games on the level of Uncharted, GOW and TLOU etc.

The right approach was to buy Bungie and let them do their thing.

But making traditional PS Studios port their games, split their attention and make their multiplayer games multiplatform has been a huge mistake. The lack of focus is palpable to me..... only obscured to most by the lack of communication that is, in my opinion purposeful - to hide the new regimes mistakes.

Every PC release now is disappointing in terms of sales and there has not been one mobile release yet. So much money spent buying 'experts' and building teams and NOTHING to show for it.

ALL that money should have been spent on buying great studios / publishers with established IP's to keep the playing field more level as MSFT tries to gobble up as much as it can.

What really hit home lately was that CDPR were at Xbox's showcase, not the PlayStation one..... even with Xbox having Bethesda, Obsidian and other RPG studios. They basically have a monopoly on WRPG style games and there seems like there is no effort to fill the niche on PS. They're too busy worrying about GAAS, PC, Mobile and COD.

Xbox had the marketing deal with CDPR for years, so I can't fault Sony for that. But you are correct. Hermen Hulst needs to go and I cannot reiterate this enough, this man will be the reason Worldwide Studios crumble. He has absolutely no clue what he is doing. He's so focused on GaaS, he's lost sight of what is important.

Playstation has always been shortsighted in the past. The only generation they had it right 100% was PS3 era. If we had the PS3 era first party output during the PS4 era... They'd be golden now.

They had all area covered literally. PS4 era came around, they saw the money flowing and got complacent.

Again how did someone with sense didn't think it would have been wise to try and buy Rocket League devs... Considering Microsoft had just snatched up Minecraft.

Why not buy a huge stake in Genshin devs immediately? Instead they are throwing money at Epic and I still dunno for what? Investing in this garbage gaming Metaverse crap that will fail.

Letting Remedy slide away to Epic another dumb move.

Not buying shares in Capcom way back from the SFV deals when they needed funding.


Anyways it's gonna get worse for the brand because these GaaS games will bomb... Gonna be curious to see how many studios they shutter in the coming years.

And fvck every playstation fan who is champion for Pee Cee support. It's the way Xbox has baited the so called market leader and weakning their platform and to see some fans champion the death blows.

 

[Dabaus]

My tin foil hat theory:

Wouldn’t be surprised if the new ceo of Sony is looking at all of these “organic growth” ideas and plans as a waste of time a good way to get left behind fast. The one retiring saw plAyststion as “niche” where as the new guy wants to make it a priority. It’s probably easier and more efficient to just acquire an already established gaas than start one from scratch.

 

[reziel]

This whole PC and mobile expansion has been a disaster and if you don't agree with that term.... it has at the very least been very disappointing in terms of income and sales.

It took PlayStation a very long time to build up the expertise and talent to make games on the level of Uncharted, GOW and TLOU etc.

The right approach was to buy Bungie and let them do their thing.

But making traditional PS Studios port their games, split their attention and make their multiplayer games multiplatform has been a huge mistake. The lack of focus is palpable to me..... only obscured to most by the lack of communication that is, in my opinion purposeful - to hide the new regimes mistakes.

Every PC release now is disappointing in terms of sales and there has not been one mobile release yet. So much money spent buying 'experts' and building teams and NOTHING to show for it.

ALL that money should have been spent on buying great studios / publishers with established IP's to keep the playing field more level as MSFT tries to gobble up as much as it can.

What really hit home lately was that CDPR were at Xbox's showcase, not the PlayStation one..... even with Xbox having Bethesda, Obsidian and other RPG studios. They basically have a monopoly on WRPG style games and there seems like there is no effort to fill the niche on PS. They're too busy worrying about GAAS, PC, Mobile and COD.

Didn't Xbox originally have marketing deals with CDPR to begin with prior to this?

 

[Puff]

 

[SLB1904]

Ffs leT it die

 

[Danja]

My tin foil hat theory:

Wouldn’t be surprised if the new ceo of Sony is looking at all of these “organic growth” ideas and plans as a waste of time a good way to get left behind fast. The one retiring saw plAyststion as “niche” where as the new guy wants to make it a priority. It’s probably easier and more efficient to just acquire an already established gaas than start one from scratch.

I heard the new CEO is a penny pincher? Lol

 

[Nhomnhom]

Didn't Xbox originally have marketing deals with CDPR to begin with prior to this?

Sony also blocked a CDPR from being sold on PSN for being shit.