Hiroki Totoki officially takes control of PlayStation as their interim CEO, starting today, April 1, 2024.
As we had reported last September, Hiroki’s official entry date was decided at the same time that PlayStation’s last head, Jim Ryan, announced plans to retire.
Going back to the official press release from Sony, this is what they said about Totoki’s new role in the division:
“Effective April 1, 2024, Mr. Totoki will be appointed Interim CEO of SIE while he continues his current role at Sony Group Corporation. Mr. Totoki will work closely with Sony Group Corporation Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and the management team of SIE to help define the next chapter of PlayStation’s future, including the succession of the SIE CEO role.”
When the press frequently refer to Totoki as interim CEO, it comes from this press release. Sony make it clear that they do not plan to have Totoki run PlayStation at the same time he takes on other senior positions in the company moving forward. But Sony’s messaging suggests that Totoki was put in this position so that he would review Sony’s PlayStation business, with the intention of making changes in its direction.
Sony has seen decades of success with their PlayStation division, but like any other video game company, they have also seen their peaks and valleys in the business. Gamers may hyperfixate on the PlayStation vs. Xbox competition, but for Sony higher-ups like Totoki, it’s a bigger concern that PlayStation spent a lot of money on licensing Spider-man from Disney to make big budget games, but products like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are not selling at a significant enough attach rate to make the money spent worldwide.
It would have been easier months ago to accuse Totoki of planning to cut the PlayStation division down. Rumors have long simmered that because of its extended success, PlayStation received preferential treatment within Sony, particularly to how much money they spent. As the CFO, Totoki looked like the exact person to clamp down on that.
But before Jim Ryan left, PlayStation instituted layoffs across the division. Those layoffs reflected immediate accountability for the console division failing to live up to expectations. Sony even had some layoffs in Japan, a move so notoriously expensive because of local labor laws, that Japanese companies avoid doing so as a general rule. And as we know, layoffs were already happening before within PlayStation, and that now includes the closure of London Studio.
So perhaps Totoki’s role now is to focus directly on making PlayStation profitable in this particularly difficult time in the industry. That may lead to some more layoffs, but more likely, Totoki will order to end certain projects, to cut down scale on others, and to continue with the more promising ideas.
What some fans may not realize was that Totoki’s higher-up role in Sony meant he was always in the loop about PlayStation’s moves this whole time. He reported to investors about Sony’s plans to invest in PlayStation 5 exclusives in 2021, and that they were working on ten live service games the next year.
So Totoki isn’t one to be fooled by anyone who wants to be tricky within PlayStation. Totoki will definitely have a hand in choosing who ultimately takes over the game console. But perhaps more importantly, that choice will be guided by what direction he decides that PlayStation is going to go.
