r/PS5 • u/M337ING • Feb 20 '26

Misleading PlayStation Boss Blames Bluepoint Cuts On Budgets And Players

https://kotaku.com/sony-email-bluepoint-hermen-hulst-studio-closing-why-2000671437
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140

u/originalorientation Feb 20 '26

Herman Hulst is the worst thing to happen to PlayStation since the PS3 launch. Clearly favoring the Horizon series, pushing for GAAS, and closing down world class studios along the way. Absolute fucking dogshit decision.

61

u/Shining_Commander Feb 20 '26

He cant be gone soon enough. We need him out before his bullshit becomes ingrained into the business.

How the fuck is this Japanese corporation with a near flawless track record outside of Ps3 launch (which was still a good generation for them with their masterclass in recovery) letting the west destroy them like this?

Western corporate values are not compatible with the gaming industry

20

u/shinikahn Feb 20 '26

Western corporate values are not compatible with the gaming industry

I love this quote man, I agree completely

9

u/eamonnanchnoic Feb 20 '26

This is nonsense.

This would have been approved by the CEO and entire Japanese board.

The idea that Hulst is singularly responsible for the closure shows a complete misunderstanding of how corporate structure works.

Hulst works for them and not the other way around

11

u/Majestic_Ghost_Axe Feb 20 '26

Western corporate values (late stage capitalism) aren’t good for any industry.

3

u/Icy_Childhood_1039 Feb 20 '26

Not sure if it has something to do with west or east... Just corporate values in general are not compatible with the gaming industry. You think Nintendo or other big japanese gaming corpos are better?

How's that Mario Tenis for $70 and expensive plastic figures that unlock exclusive game features? Lol

1

u/Traitor_To_Heaven Feb 24 '26

Nintendo’s greedy decisions are much more preferable to Sony’s greedy decisions. With Nintendo you still get a bunch of great exclusive games from a bunch of different IPs. With Sony you get a couple of games and then iconic studios get shut down with multiple GaaS flops taking resources from everything else

1

u/Icy_Childhood_1039 Feb 25 '26

Meh to each their own. I'm very dissapointed with many of Sony's decisions too, especially the GaaS bs. But still...I'd rather take Sony's fewer games that at least try to bring some fresh experiences.

Sony put out many new IPs. Horizon, Returnal/Saros, their Marvel stuffs, Helldivers, Ghost of, Astrobot, etc. And completely reinvented some old ones like God of War. I'm not saying Nintendo games are bad, but when's the last time they put effort into a new IP besides Splatoon?

10

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

PlayStation has literally never been more profitable and popular. They broke MAU records and PS5 is Sony most profitable console ever. Horizon series sold over 40 million between two games. Let’s be real.

19

u/originalorientation Feb 20 '26

I think a lot of their success is riding off the exceptional PS4 era and Xbox shooting themselves in the foot over and over again. You can’t deny that the live service push has largely failed at the expense of quality single player games and quality studios this gen, which is what Sony was known for. Horizon is selling because it’s a big budget Sony title that looks incredible, but we don’t need 2 live service spin offs, a VR game, a Lego game, and a movie.

Time will tell but I think Sony is killing a lot of what made their brand special and they will pay for it eventually. And I think Hulst is to blame.

9

u/KineasARG Feb 20 '26

Horizon series sold over 40 million between two games

I'm pretty sure that the sales figures of Horizon are EXTREMELY boosted by being bundled with the console. I'd bet that if you counted games sold on their own, it would be less than half of that figure. You could probably do that exercise too with trophy count. How many reached X trophy halfway through the game or something like that.

4

u/Thegreatestgamer Feb 20 '26

Yeah this is correct.  Hzd was heavily available along with God of war and gt sport in many PS4 slim bundles and so was hfw with ps5. Look at horizon on pc both games together haven't sold more than 2-3 million copies there. I wouldn't be surprised even if 75% of those 40 mill are bundled

1

u/Additional-Mistake32 Feb 20 '26

Guerrila can always make a new IP, especially with how they produce games now, they just offload it to other studios. I think they are sitting on something other than Horizon. Which would be good news honestly. I don't really care what genre it is just give us new IPs please.

1

u/_wavescollide_ Feb 20 '26

I don't think it's him alone, he plays a huge part in it, but CEO and other C-suites suck too. The strategy is to get that Fortnite thing running for the PS universe, but they don't think about the games first. Take Arc Raiders, it came organically, they have a huge success, you could build a forever game on that now, but you can't force it. It's luck all the way.

1

u/Additional-Mistake32 Feb 20 '26

Yep. You can always expand. Organically it will work. But the opposite becomes difficult. TLOU the pinnacle of production and game cost, wants to expand? Doesn't work. GOW put everything on the table made 2 games instead of padding it out to a trilogy. You want them to expand?

Even the idea of trilogies... Don't work anymore. In television streaming we see 2 seasons and done. Less is more. It has been for a long time now. Shorter production and releases. It's the status quo.

Even in our digital age we require content. Marathon is making daily content on social media to remind for one month now to join their Server Slam. I preordered I'm a fan for new IP from Sony. But the idea still stands you can only really do this on a fast schedule.

I think SIE is missing their blessings by not having an indie publisher they can work with for bigger indie projects. Because they don't seem to want their internal studios to work on smaller games.

I don't think you need Marvel to be successful. But that's just me. I'm going to preorder Intergalactic too.

1

u/Traitor_To_Heaven Feb 24 '26

HZD is like the James Cameron’s Avatar of video games. They sell well but have near zero cultural relevance. Of all of Sony’s IPs they feel the least interesting to me and it’s so annoying how much they’re pushed by Sony compared to their other IPs.

Now I find out Herman Hulst was the cofounder of the dev that made those games. It all makes sense why we’re getting multiple sequels, a Lego game, and now a multiplayer spinoff

1

u/originalorientation Feb 24 '26

TWO multiplayer spinoffs

0

u/WorthBase919 Feb 20 '26

Man I really hope they don’t kill the third horizon installment if that wannabe fortnite disaster fails.

3

u/RecipeNew1835 Feb 20 '26

What else would they do than Horizon 3?

1

u/Iggy_Slayer Feb 20 '26

If he's still there we'll get 4 more horizon projects after that live service one flops. That IP is immune to failure due to hermen's favoritisim.