Sony’s Hiroki Totoki: “Prioritising Intellectual Property”

[Yurinka]

Nah not them. Yoshida actually one of the leaders who successfully restructured the entire company. It’s Hermen Hulst and Jim Ryan who are damaging the PlayStation brand. Nobody asked them to waste resources for PC gaming. Nobody wanted this GaaS lineup.
We need back a Japanese at the top of SIE.

Shuhei Yoshida wasn't at the top of SIE, he was in charge of what today is PS Studios (Sony's first party studios). He had the position of Hermen Hulst before him from 2008 to 2019.

He was the one who started the strategy of bringing Sony games to PC, and shut down Evolution, Liverpool Studio, Big Big, Guerrilla Cambridge, Incognito or Big Big and acquired Media Molecule and Sucker Punch.

He also started Sony's bet on GaaS with stuff like Little Big Planet, PS Home, Singstar F2P or Driveclub to name a few of them.

He also fired Fumito Ueda but decided to make an effort to release The Last Guardian with the help of other teams instead of cancelling because the game had a lack of vision and too poor performance.

Is there some particular reason I have all this malice towards this man?

Nah, just people who maybe doesn't know this man is in charge of Sony financials and doesn't know they are doing the best job ever in financials, or who think Sony should need to shut down everything not related to PlayStation and even to shut down all gaming related initiatieves not related to PS or SP games, something that would break Sony's/SIE's growth and instead would shrink its revenue/profit/amount of future games, manpower, dev studios, amount of games developed at the same time, etc.

 

[Nhomnhom]

All that the gaming part of Konami has are IPs at this point. Buy those IPs and then rebuild Japan Studios to work on them.

This dude does not seem to have the right background to be running a company where more than half the revenue comes from the entertainment sector. Now would be the time to back up PlayStation with all they got.

 

[Danja1187]

Shuhei Yoshida wasn't at the top of SIE, he was in charge of what today is PS Studios (Sony's first party studios). He had the position of Hermen Hulst before him from 2008 to 2019.

He was the one who started the strategy of bringing Sony games to PC, and shut down Evolution, Liverpool Studio, Big Big, Guerrilla Cambridge, Incognito or Big Big and acquired Media Molecule and Sucker Punch.

He also started Sony's bet on GaaS with stuff like Little Big Planet, PS Home, Singstar F2P or Driveclub to name a few of them.

He also fired Fumito Ueda but decided to make an effort to release The Last Guardian with the help of other teams instead of cancelling because the game had a lack of vision and too poor performance.

We are talking about Kenichiro Yoshida, not Shu.

And PS Home and Little Big Planet were done under Phil Harrison.

 

[Yurinka]

We are talking about Kenichiro Yoshida, not Shu.

Ah, ok. The CEO of Sony since 2018. He seems to do a good job:

And PS Home and Little Big Planet were done under Phil Harrison.

Harrison was president of Sony Worlwide Studios (now PS Studios) from September 2005 until February 2008. Yoshida was President from May 2008 until November 2019.

Little Big Planet was released in October-November 2008 and kept getting post launch content during many years.

PlayStation Home got released in December 2008 and got content during 7 years until it got shot down in 2015.

Greenlight and development of these projects were done mostly under Harrison, while release and post launch support during many years was made under Yoshida.

 

[Thunderstorm__]

Nah not them. Yoshida actually one of the leaders who successfully restructured the entire company. It’s Hermen Hulst and Jim Ryan who are damaging the PlayStation brand. Nobody asked them to waste resources for PC gaming. Nobody wanted this GaaS lineup.
We need back a Japanese at the top of SIE.

Not happening anytime soon until SIE headquarters relocate back to Japan

 

[Danja1187]

Ah, ok. The CEO of Sony since 2018. He seems to do a good job:

Harrison was president of Sony Worlwide Studios (now PS Studios) from September 2005 until February 2008. Yoshida was President from May 2008 until November 2019.

Little Big Planet was released in October-November 2008 and kept getting post launch content during many years.

PlayStation Home got released in December 2008 and got content during 7 years until it got shot down in 2015.

Greenlight and development of these projects were done mostly under Harrison, while release and post launch support during many years was made under Yoshida.

Yes but I was pointing out those projects were green lighted under Harrison. He wanted to push social aspects within the Playstation -Verse. A bit too ahead of his time with that but Shu just continued those because they were both very profitable. And Kaz loved Little Big Planet / Media Molecule.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Shuhei Yoshida wasn't at the top of SIE, he was in charge of what today is PS Studios (Sony's first party studios). He had the position of Hermen Hulst before him from 2008 to 2019.

He was the one who started the strategy of bringing Sony games to PC, and shut down Evolution, Liverpool Studio, Big Big, Guerrilla Cambridge, Incognito or Big Big and acquired Media Molecule and Sucker Punch.

He also started Sony's bet on GaaS with stuff like Little Big Planet, PS Home, Singstar F2P or Driveclub to name a few of them.

He also fired Fumito Ueda but decided to make an effort to release The Last Guardian with the help of other teams instead of cancelling because the game had a lack of vision and too poor performance.


Nah, just people who maybe doesn't know this man is in charge of Sony financials and doesn't know they are doing the best job ever in financials, or who think Sony should need to shut down everything not related to PlayStation and even to shut down all gaming related initiatieves not related to PS or SP games, something that would break Sony's/SIE's growth and instead would shrink its revenue/profit/amount of future games, manpower, dev studios, amount of games developed at the same time, etc.

Dude Kenichiro Yoshida.

 

[Dr Bass]

They just seem so detached from what customers want from them...

InZone sounds like an off-brand running shoe or some shit!

Q-Lite? Who asked for a streaming handheld? Streaming keeps failing and these fucks keep shoving it down our throats.

I'm a big car-lover and a Sony car coulda been something cool, it coulda been like a Porsche or something, it just needed a few tweaks and an aggressive name... but that was too hard for them, they had to cut the balls off the entire project. Might as well be a fucking Nissan Cube now...

What do we want?

A PS4 dualshock but completely usable on PS5, so people can have different controller options from the official source.

A real handheld that can do ps4 games and plays all your PS4 catalog that youve built up. Or PS4 versions of current games.

Acquisitions worth a damn and for them to give Microsoft a bloody nose.

PS5 themes

More single player story games.

Fully exclusive games, no PC ports (Being selfish here)

I'd love the movie store to come back to PSN

Hey … don’t make fun of my InZones.

 

[Swolf712]

I don't know what I expected when I clicked in here.

Oh wait, yes I did. These "quality" takes.

 

[ksdixon]

Hey … don’t make fun of my InZones.

C'mon bro, even you wish they had a better branding.

 

[SSfox]

He's right in a sens. Imagine you buy big publishers for lot of money then all the talents goes away. Sounds like waste of money.

 

[Yobo]

No need to take them, they already have cash that they could use in investment or acquisitions, and also actives they could sell to get even more cash if some day is needed.

But they mentioned that prefered to leave acquisitions for the mid to long term because of current bad market context (maybe stuff like dollar/yen exchange, inflation or stuff like that, or regulators being too agresive with big game acquisitions and now knowing Sony is a big market leader). And also want to take their time to properly calculate valuations and find the best timing.

In addition to this, maybe they detected good opportunities but won't be ready to sell until a handful years in the future. Example: Square Enix mentioned they want to turn some of their studios into separate companies to allow external investors invest directly on them. Maybe that mean that instead of buying the whole SE, maybe both Sony and SE think it's better for them to sell Sony only a portion of SE (or a portion of certain studios / IPs).

Bidders and sellers aren't going to wait around for Sony

 

[Eternal_Wings]

We know it all: Yurinka doesn’t want to see Sony buying pubs.

 

[Yurinka]

Bidders and sellers aren't going to wait around for Sony

It depends. Maybe Sony knows that the companies they are interested on won't sell at least during this period. Maybe they already have some sort of deal but Sony has to wait this time. Maybe this is their current plan but if they see some good opportunity they quickly change their mind, as happened in the MS/ABK case.

In any case, Sony is in a great position in gaming and they don't need any big acquisition and a couple publishers or game studios won't almost change the market.

We know it all: Yurinka doesn’t want to see Sony buying pubs.

I'd like to see Sony getting many people, but I'm just being realistic and explaining what Sony said xD

Yes but I was pointing out those projects were green lighted under Harrison. He wanted to push social aspects within the Playstation -Verse. A bit too ahead of his time with that but Shu just continued those because they were both very profitable. And Kaz loved Little Big Planet / Media Molecule.

Yes. In many times Harrison invested in things that were maybe too ahead of the market. They were very innovative things that were going to be important for the future but many people hated it because of being new and different.

Also happened with other stuff like movement based controls -which later were important for Wii or VR- or Stadia (Sony will end using the idea of playing your bought digital games in cloud gaming).

And yes, if Shu would have thought that these projects didn't have future would have cancelled them or wouldn't have supported them after launch as he did.

 

[daniel5043]

Also happened with other stuff like movement based controls -which later were important for Wii or VR- or Stadia (Sony will end using the idea of playing your bought digital games in cloud gaming).

I mean sing star and eye toy did well in europe and Australia

 

[Nhomnhom]

We know it all: Yurinka doesn’t want to see Sony buying pubs.

If Sony does it he'll says they were correct. That's his thing, he'll defend Sony actions no matter what, right now he feels they aren't going to buy a publisher so he already defends that move.

 

[historia]

If Sony does it he'll says they were correct. That's his thing, he'll defend Sony actions no matter what, right now he feels they aren't going to buy a publisher so he already defends that move.

I think they will buy publishers. They just cut their Financial arm and spin their pictures division by a tiny portion. Also Japan is their home turf, they are backed by a big government financial institution so it will be easy to acquire something.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

If Sony does it he'll says they were correct. That's his thing, he'll defend Sony actions no matter what, right now he feels they aren't going to buy a publisher so he already defends that move.

Well he believes that Sony will not buy a publisher. Believing something ≠ Knowing.
He also claims that Sony has no cash for it but that’s not really correct. There a multiple ways to pay for an acquisition, not just liquid cash. Nobody did imagine Sony would pay close to $4B for Bungie but they did. I am more than confident that Sony is preparing to buy Square Enix. Because this FTC trial will go nowhere, in the end Microsoft will get Activision. Also Sony’s CFO said they want to prioritise Intellectual Property. Means they look to acquire famous gaming IPs: FF, DQ, Nier etc.

 

[historia]

Well he believes that Sony will not buy a publisher. Believing something ≠ Knowing.
He also claims that Sony has no cash for it but that’s not really correct. There a multiple ways to pay for an acquisition, not just liquid cash. Nobody did imagine Sony would pay close to $4B for Bungie but they did. I am more than confident that Sony is preparing to buy Square Enix. Because this FTC trial will go nowhere, in the end Microsoft will get Activision. Also Sony’s CFO said they want to prioritise Intellectual Property. Means they look to acquire famous gaming IPs: FF, DQ, Nier etc.

From my knowledge Sony has at least 15B in cash, and another 5B in equity.

Calling them broke is just too far fetched, I don't think they can afford Take2 or EA. But I think they could own at least 1-2 Japanese publishers and invest heavily on the rest of them.

 

[Bryank75]

I don't know what I expected when I clicked in here.

Oh wait, yes I did. These "quality" takes.

Sorry, we all have a hot-take now and then!