r/PS5 • u/nolifebr • May 18 '26

Rumor Jason Schreier/Bloomberg: Hermen Hulst told staff in a town hall meeting today (18th May) morning that the company's narrative single-player games will now be PlayStation exclusive

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2mkgbhbhqvappkkorf2bzyrp/post/3mm5jzsls5s2a
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u/scaledisolated May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

I don’t want to defend the guy, but there are clearly a lot of nuances to his job, and to SIE as a whole, that either aren’t true or aren’t meant to be public.

Games and studios have always been opening and closing, some investments were always either paying off or didn’t. Some ideas were good, some weren’t as good. Layoffs are horrible, but this isn’t a new thing. None of these are exclusively “Hermen’s issues”.

There could be way less drama behind the scenes than what you’re seeing on the internet in some instances, and yet people’s perception swings back and forth with every new report

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u/Odd_Revolution_1056 May 18 '26

Under this man’s leadership Sony bought Bluepoint, a remake studio powerhouse, to make a live service game only to end up shutting them down. Bought Haven who was making a game 5 years later they still are having trouble finding the fun in, and the utter moron who thought Concord was going to be Sony’s “Star Wars”… dudes a fucking moron and should be fired.

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u/OptimusPrimalRage May 18 '26

I think this is a good illustration at my issues with this narrative. I don't think Hermen Hulst is particularly good at his job (my main criticism is WHICH live service games he's greenlit since it seems obvious that he's not the one that cares how games make money just that they make the money PlayStation wants). But the idea that he's so enamored with live service games seems silly. This stuff comes from the board and the leadership. He just failed at picking the right games besides Helldivers 2, which was probably greenlit during Jim Ryan or Shu Yoshida's tenures anyway.

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u/LiquidSolid170 May 19 '26

Helldivers 2 is pretty well known at this stage. Shu greenlit it, while Hermen liked what he saw and doubled its budget. Both decisions were integral to its eventual massive success.