A month after Jim Ryan stepped down as the CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced a new leadership structure for the gaming unit – that’ll have two CEOs!
Starting this June, Hideaki Nishino will lead the SIE’s Platform Experience Group, whereas Hermen Hulst will lead the Studio Business Group. Both will report to the interim CEO Hiroki Totoki until then.
Sony’s Dual-CEO Structure
Sony’s PlayStation unit is an important part of the conglomerate, which caters billions of revenue each year, and stands at the top of the console gaming industry. With the unit being so crucial, Sony is dividing the Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) into two major segments, and appoints dedicated CEOs to lead each of them.
Starting with the Platform Experience Group, Sony appointed Hideaki Nishino to lead the unit, who earlier led experiences and tech for PlayStation services and products. Now, in addition to being a CEO, he’ll also oversee the company’s work with third-party publishers and developers.
Next up is Hermen Hulst, who will lead the SIE’s new Platform Business Group. Hulst is currently handling the content development across PlayStation consoles and PCs, including the video game adaptations for movies and TV shows like The Last of Us. In the future, he will be “responsible for the development, publishing, and business operations of SIE’s first-party content.”
Both Hideaki and Hulst will report to the interim CEO Hiroki Totoki until June 1st, and takeover their relevant units after then. This comes after Jim Ryan, the long-serving CEO of SIE stepped down in March citing an “increasingly difficult” job to juggle his home life in the UK against the job that’s located in the US.
Joining Sony Interactive Entertainment in 1994, Ryan has played several crucial roles over the years, which includes establishing the company’s presence in Europe and overseeing the launch of PlayStation 5 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
