Sony president Hiroki Totoki officially begins his role as interim CEO of PlayStation. What are your expectations?

[Gamernyc78]

Sony president Hiroki Totoki officially begins his role as interim CEO of PlayStation | VGC

Totoki will be more hands-on with Sony’s gaming arm as a successor for Jim Ryan is found…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Sony president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki officially begins his role as interim CEO of PlayStation today.

It was announced in September 2023 that then-CEO Jim Ryan would be stepping down, with Hiroki Totoki taking over on April 1, 2024.

Ryan has now officially left the company, with Totoki stepping in to oversee the PlayStation division (while keeping his current role at Sony Group) while a more permament successor to Ryan is found.

“Mr Totoki will work closely with Sony Group Corporation Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and the management team of SIE to help define the next chapter of PlayStation’s future, including the succession of the SIE CEO role,” Sony said in a statement at the time.

Although his interim CEO role officially starts today, Totoki had already started visiting studios in recent months and has already made his views on Sony’s gaming strategy clear.

In February, during a Q&A session following Sony’s latest financial results briefing, Totoki said he wants Sony to be “aggressive” when it comes to improving its gaming division’s profit margins, which he says can partly be achieved with a greater focus on bringing first-party games to PC.

Addressing a question asking why the game division has been seeing an increase in gross income but not in profits, Totaki made it clear that he feels releasing games “multi-platform” (which he seemingly clarified as meaning PC) continues to be the way forward.

“In the past, we wanted to popularise consoles, and a first-party title’s main purpose was to make the console popular,” he explained.

“This is true, but there’s a synergy to it, so if you have strong first-party content – not only on our console but also other platforms, like computers – a first-party [game] can be grown with multi-platform, and that can help operating profit to improve, so that’s another one we want to proactively work on.

“I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margin, so I would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance.”

During the same call, Totoki said Bungie could be better at “assuming responsibility for its development timelines”.

 

[Gediminas]

Sony president Hiroki Totoki officially begins his role as interim CEO of PlayStation | VGC

Totoki will be more hands-on with Sony’s gaming arm as a successor for Jim Ryan is found…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Sony president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki officially begins his role as interim CEO of PlayStation today.

It was announced in September 2023 that then-CEO Jim Ryan would be stepping down, with Hiroki Totoki taking over on April 1, 2024.

Ryan has now officially left the company, with Totoki stepping in to oversee the PlayStation division (while keeping his current role at Sony Group) while a more permament successor to Ryan is found.

“Mr Totoki will work closely with Sony Group Corporation Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and the management team of SIE to help define the next chapter of PlayStation’s future, including the succession of the SIE CEO role,” Sony said in a statement at the time.

Although his interim CEO role officially starts today, Totoki had already started visiting studios in recent months and has already made his views on Sony’s gaming strategy clear.

In February, during a Q&A session following Sony’s latest financial results briefing, Totoki said he wants Sony to be “aggressive” when it comes to improving its gaming division’s profit margins, which he says can partly be achieved with a greater focus on bringing first-party games to PC.

Addressing a question asking why the game division has been seeing an increase in gross income but not in profits, Totaki made it clear that he feels releasing games “multi-platform” (which he seemingly clarified as meaning PC) continues to be the way forward.

“In the past, we wanted to popularise consoles, and a first-party title’s main purpose was to make the console popular,” he explained.

“This is true, but there’s a synergy to it, so if you have strong first-party content – not only on our console but also other platforms, like computers – a first-party [game] can be grown with multi-platform, and that can help operating profit to improve, so that’s another one we want to proactively work on.

“I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margin, so I would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance.”

During the same call, Totoki said Bungie could be better at “assuming responsibility for its development timelines”.

can he be more shit then Jimbo. doubt it.

 

[arvfab]

I hope he is replaced quickly by someone who sees the long-term damage Sony is currently inflicting to themselves.

 

[Old Gamer]

He'll be shit. Worse than Jimbo.

If HQ move out from California, it'll be a good thing though.

 

[Gediminas]

He'll be shit. Worse than Jimbo.

If HQ move out from California, it'll be a good thing though.

Can it be that we have Stellar Blade because it was done through indie branch which is Yoshida jurisdiction?

 

[mibu no ookami]

I hope he is replaced quickly by someone who sees the long-term damage Sony is currently inflicting to themselves.

The poor takes I'm seeing here are super disappointing. Thought there would be better analysis here.

Sony is in their strongest position in gaming since the early 2000s. They've made several investments to ensure that position improves over the next 5-10 years.

Jim Ryan has left PlayStation considerably stronger than any other executive has and that's simply undeniable.

• Has entered into higher margin businesses that can bring in revenue AND operating income at times when new games are not be released
  • PlayStation Productions
  • Audeze
  • PC Game ports
  • GaaS
• Has rapidly expanded the size and scope of PlayStation Studios and SIE
  • Haven, Bluepoint, Housemarque, Insomniac, Bungie, Nixxes, Firewalk, Firesprite, Valkyrie, e.t.c.
• Successfully navigated the pandemic
• Gained additional market share
• Forced its primary competitor into releasing games for PlayStation

Jim Ryan's success since becoming CEO in 2019 despite the significant hurdles in front of him has been pretty staggering.

The amount of hate he gets from small children is pretty laughable.

 

[Old Gamer]

Can it be that we have Stellar Blade because it was done through indie branch which is Yoshida jurisdiction?

I would suspect that's exactly what happened.

 

[mibu no ookami]

If HQ move out from California, it'll be a good thing though.

There are a multitude of reasons why the HQ is in California that you're simply blind to I guess.

Sony has the largest concentration of studios in California. Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Santa Monica Studios, and San Diego Studios.

PlayStation Productions couldn't really be positioned anywhere else. Sony Pictures is HQ in California as well.

It also puts Sony's HQ in the same time zone of its other west coast studios such as Bungie, Sucker Punch, Bend Studio, Firewalk, and Valkyrie Entertainment, not to mention a fairly short flight.

There are people who want to pretend that Sony Japan was this successful entity that it never was. They never really had significant internal development and never really made many of their own games. There is no benefit to being HQ'd in Japan. Mark Cerny who is largely responsible for the design of the PS4 and PS5 lives in Los Angeles.

 

[mibu no ookami]

Can it be that we have Stellar Blade because it was done through indie branch which is Yoshida jurisdiction?

I would suspect that's exactly what happened.

Whenever your conclusions are built to support your agenda without facts, you should start taking pause...

 

[arvfab]

The poor takes I'm seeing here are super disappointing

After reading your answer, I agree!

 

[mibu no ookami]

To answer the actual question posed by the OP. My expectations is that he will look to fast track much of the planned roadmap, particularly when it comes to PC and Mobile.

I don't think we'll see a PC storefront launch under his watch, but that will be a major project for the next CEO.

I don't think we'll see any major acquisitions that weren't in the works before Ryan left. Maybe Arrowhead games or FromSoftware, but anything else would be a major surprise.

I think Sony has a hardware roadmap and that Totoki won't massively change that nor will he massively change the software roadmap.

When you think about Totoki taking over for Ryan mid cycle for the PS5, it's actually the best time for this to happen. Totoki doesn't need to launch the PS6, which would be a major project for him. He basically only has to keep the lights on and keep moving things in the right direction, while focusing on who is going to be the next CEO. He can evaluate internal performance in making that decision and if necessary bring someone from outside of SIE or even Sony to take over.

 

[mibu no ookami]

After reading your answer, I agree!

You see the difference in what I've said and what you've said right? The difference between a lazy argument and response to someone who has actually put forward facts and points...

 

[arvfab]

You see the difference in what I've said and what you've said right? The difference between a lazy argument and response to someone who has actually put forward facts and points...

I see less games and more buggy releases, it's enough for me. PlayStation is just lucky Phil Spencer is still in charge at Microsoft.

 

[Neversummer]

I hope he is replaced quickly by someone who sees the long-term damage Sony is currently inflicting to themselves.

The same damage Xbox has occurred self imploding its entire gaming platform/storefront leading them to bend the knee to other close garden in gaming pushing full 3rd party just to even have a spot in gaming.

Because for some reason Sony is following Xbox almost 1 to 1 just at a slower pace. Instead of following other successful close gardens who imo hold a better & stronger position in gaming then PS those being Steam, Nintendo & Apple. You could say Steam is more like Nintendo then PS is to Nintendo which is crazy because PS w the PS5 generation & now Xbox cracking in 2024 should look into tightening & increase permanent 1st party exclusive for its console (especially now that it looks like the PS6 will be a hybrid handheld console combing traditional console & mobile into 1 directly competing w Nintendo & Steamdeck) especially making 1st party games in different genres outside of the 3rd person action game to garner a wider consumer base & compete w Steam/PC, Nintendo & Apple at the highest competitiveness.

 

[mibu no ookami]

I see less games and more buggy releases, it's enough for me. PlayStation is just lucky Phil Spencer is still in charge at Microsoft.

How many hit first party games did Sony release in the first 3 years of the PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4 console cycles? Or even more appropriately the first 50% of their life cycles?

They've arguably released more on PS5 which to your point, I think is why some of the games have been buggier. And even then I think a lot of that has been Insomniac: Both Rift Apart and Spider-Man 2 were really buggy. Most of their other games haven't been super buggy. I think Spider-Man 2 was as buggy as it was because they needed it to release for the holidays.

 

[arvfab]

How many hit first party games did Sony release in the first 3 years of the PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4 console cycles? Or even more appropriately the first 50% of their life cycles?

They've arguably released more on PS5 which to your point, I think is why some of the games have been buggier. And even then I think a lot of that has been Insomniac: Both Rift Apart and Spider-Man 2 were really buggy. Most of their other games haven't been super buggy. I think Spider-Man 2 was as buggy as it was because they needed it to release for the holidays.

Almost all of their releases were buggy, because they now have to consider PC as a platform.

This was the downfall for the Xbox Studios and will be the same for the PS Studios if they keep going on with it.

 

[mibu no ookami]

The same damage Xbox has occurred self imploding its entire gaming platform/storefront leading them to bend the knee to other close garden in gaming pushing full 3rd party just to even have a spot in gaming.

Because for some reason Sony is following Xbox almost 1 to 1 instead of following other successful close gardens who imo hold a better & stronger position in gaming then PS those being Steam, Nintendo & Apple. You could say Steam is more like Nintendo then PS is to Nintendo which is crazy because PS w the PS5 generation & now Xbox cracking in 2024 should look into tightening & increase permanent 1st party exclusive for its console (especially now that it looks like the PS6 will be a hybrid handheld console combing traditional console & mobile into 1 directly competing w Nintendo & Steamdeck) especially making 1st party games in different genres outside of the 3rd person action game to compete w Steam/PC, Nintendo & Apple.

Let me try and paint a picture for you.

Console gaming isn't growing very fast. The world of gaming is changing shape continuously and drastically. We might not like it, but Gen Z isn't beholden to console gaming like the generations that preceded it.

Sony knows that in order to maintain its leadership position in gaming it has to mature and evolve.

You look at Microsoft and had they not run into gaming, they probably wouldn't have missed the boat on mobile. Had Sony looked more into PC gaming from the get go, Steam probably wouldn't have this monopoly there.

You might think there is value in a walled garden, but there is an entire generation that just doesn't subscribe to that and Sony knows they need to do a job balancing between two realities.

Sony really hit a rough spot with the PS3 and were able to build themselves back up with the strength of first party gaming, predominantly single player action games. They've also largely hit a ceiling when it comes to these games that are extremely expensive to make. "What Got You Here Won't Get You There". Only by diversifying and reaching new markets, Sony will continue to grow.

You mentioned Apple, but they're actually in a bad spot themselves. Their investments into gaming aren't paying off like they had hoped.

When you look at Nintendo, they're in serious trouble as well. If Sony does release a handheld, it'll eat significantly into their market share if they aren't smart. P.S. I don't think anyone has suggested PS6 will by a hybrid. Not sure where you got that from.

 

[Fenton]

 

[mibu no ookami]

Almost all of their releases were buggy, because they now have to consider PC as a platform.

This was the downfall for the Xbox Studios and will be the same for the PS Studios if they keep going on with it.

The development teams responsible for making PS5 games have almost entirely given responsibility for creating PC ports to companies like Nixxes, Jetpack Interactive, Iron Galaxy, and Sumo Digital.

This idea that games are buggier because they're making games for PC is not born out of facts.

 

[arvfab]

The development teams responsible for making PS5 games have almost entirely given responsibility for creating PC ports to companies like Nixxes, Jetpack Interactive, Iron Galaxy, and Sumo Digital.

This idea that games are buggier because they're making games for PC is not born out of facts.

Sure sure. And next you will tell me that their interns are responsible for adapting the engines for ease of ports or even day 1 releases.