Everyone who knows the PlayStation brand knows Shuhei Yoshida. He joined Sony back in 1986 and slowly climbed the ladder to become the President of PlayStation Worldwide Studios and launched the PS3 and PS4. Yesterday, Sony announced that Yoshida will be stepping down as president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios to become the head of a newly formed initiative that will focus on nurturing external independent creators alongside Jim Ryan.
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It is good to see Shuhei Yoshida still being part of the PlayStation family, regardless of him not being the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment anymore. Replacing him will be Herman Hulst, managing director and co-founder of Guerrilla Games, the developer behind the Killzone series and Horizon Zero Dawn.
In a press release, President of and CEO of SIE Jim Ryan called Hulst “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.”
Jim revealed that Yoshida’s new role will “concentrate on our diverse community of independent developers, ensuring they have the tools, technology, and services to reach PlayStation’s large community of gamers successfully,” according to Sony.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#FF6300″ class=”” size=”19″]”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,” Ryan said. “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.”[/perfectpullquote]
The shift in the company comes in the wake of several high-level executives moves at PlayStation since 2017. Andrew stepped down as president and SEO in 2017 and Shawn Layden left the company suddenly last month. This is all leading up to the PS5 reveal next year as Sony changes up its landscape to welcome the new hardware.
Here is one of Shuhei Yoshida’s most iconic appearances as he unboxed the PS4 for the very first time. Who knows, we could see him do the same thing for the PS5?
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQUpg795iBo” width=”900″]
