Double your CEOs, double your fun

PlayStation has new leadership, the Golden Geeks have new winners and some industry leaders have plenty of announcements. All that plus the rest of the news, the latest games and more. Let’s go! 

Sony announces new PlayStation CEOs

Sony decided it would hire two people to replace outgoing PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan. 

Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino will be co-CEOs of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) starting June 1. Hulst will run the Studio Business Group, responsible for all PlayStation game content. Nishino will head up the SIE Platform Business Group, which focuses on technology, products, services, platform experience, third parties and commercial operations, including sales and marketing of hardware, services, and peripherals.

Hiroki Totoki, who has been serving as interim CEO of SIE said of the new executives:

Sony Interactive Entertainment is a dynamic and growing business that delivers incredible entertainment experiences through the connection of content and technology. These two leaders will have clear responsibilities and will manage strategic direction to ensure the focus remains on deepening engagement with existing PlayStation users and expanding experiences to new audiences.

Sony says they plan to reveal their long-term vision this month, and that PlayStation is an “essential” part of their plans.

The Golden Geeks winners are announced

BoardGameGeek announced their annual Golden Geek awards last week. The awards are voted on by the members of the BoardGameGeek community. Here are the 2023 winners:

2-Player Game: Sky Team
Artwork Presentation: The Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition
Cooperative Game: Sky Team
Expansion: Ark Nova: Marine Worlds
Innovative: Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
Light GOTY: Thunder Road: Vendetta
Medium GOTY: Earth
Heavy GOTY: Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
Party Game: That's Not a Hat
Print Play: Waypoints
Solo Game: Legacy of Yu
Thematic Game: Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
Wargame: Undaunted: Battle of Britain
Best Podcast: One Stop Co-Op Shop
Best Board Game App: Unmatched: Digital Edition

Check out the full list of finalists here. 

Big news from big publishers

There were multiple stories from a few big gaming publishers as they announced their financials this week. Let’s take a look at the latest news from each.

Square Enix

• Square’s biggest titles released over the past year - Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Final Fantasy 16 and Foamstars - all sold less than expected, causing share prices to drop nearly 16%.
• Square’s president says the company plans to “aggressively pursue” multiplatform game releases. The three games listed above were all PlayStation 5 exclusives. 
• With the poor fiscal result come layoffs, mostly in the U.S. and European offices. 
• Changes are necessary, as Square’s president Takashi Kiryu says “our winning formula is no longer effective.”

Ubisoft

• Ubisoft released its fiscal report for 2023, which included $2.5 billion in sales, an increase of 27% year-over-year.
• The company also canceled The Division Heartland. The PvEvP  survival action game had been delayed multiple times recently. Those who worked on the game were redeployed to work on other Ubisoft titles, including Rainbow Six Siege and XDefiant.
• Speaking of XDefiant, the soon-to-be released game will not include skill-based matchmaking. “We believe that no SBMM is paramount to a fun and varied game,” says Ubisoft. 
• Finally, Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The next game in the Assassin’s Creed series is set in feudal Japan, offering an open world experience for players.

Take-Two

• The Grand Theft Auto publisher posted a $2.9 billion quarterly loss. Check out more of their financials. 
• Grand Theft Auto VI has a launch window: fall of 2025. 
• After closing Intercept Games and Roll7 Studios and laying off all their employees, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in an interview with IGN “we didn't shutter those studios.” “We just tend to leave those announcements to the label, so we're not trying to be cute or difficult today,” said Zelnick while being cute and difficult. Zelnick refused to expand, but Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, who first posted the story, had some thoughts on Zelnick’s comments:

Side quests (more stories worth reading)

🔫 Valve is reportedly working on an actual game: an Overwatch-style 6v6 shooter called Deadlock. 

📈 Helldivers 2 is PlayStation's fastest-selling game ever, selling 12 million copies in 12 weeks. 

👋🏻 Hi-Fi Rush gets one last patch before its studio closes. Redfall will also get a final patch, which includes offline play. 

🎮 The Entertainment Software Association says 61% of Amercians play at least one hour of games per week, and over half play games regularly. 

🐉 Check out the new collectible Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook cover.

☢️ Fallout is coming to Fortnite.

↔️ Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wants more Xbox games on PlayStation 5 and Switch. 

🏆 Alan Wake 2 wins 2024 Game of the Year at Finnish Game Awards.

🚗 Tesla is dropping Steam support inside its new cars. This might not be a bad thing. 

🤠 The original Red Dead Redemption could finally be coming to PC.

📊 PlayStation 5 shipped nearly 5x’s as many units as Xbox X/S in the first quarter.

📺 After the success of the Fallout show, Amazon greenlights a Tomb Raider series from Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

🎶 Singer Doja Cat has some thoughts about Fortnite players who use “non-weapons” instead of having “actual aim skills and FPS experience.”

📱 RetroArch, a multiple console emulator, is now available for iPhones. 

🔫 According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the next Call of Duty game will come to Xbox Game Pass. 

🐈 Little Kitty, Big City sold over 100,000 copies in 48 hours. 

🖥️ Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports to add proper ray tracing, high FPS and more.

📈 Ghost of Tsushima is Sony’s fourth biggest launch on Steam, despite not being available in 180 countries. 

🎮 Microsoft announces the Proteus Controller, a gamepad for Xbox gamers with disabilities.

🇸🇪 Why Sweden's games industry is still growing.

🐊 A Florida man attempted to steal $40,000 worth of Pokémon cards, but was taken down by MMA fighters. 

🎧 The rise of the audio-only video game.

New Releases this week:

Check out our feature on 11 new games to play in May.

5/21: Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (Xbox and PC)
5/21: XDefiant (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
5/22: Isles of Sea and Sky (PC)
5/23: Duck Detective: The Secret Salami (Switch and PC)
5/23: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch)
5/23: Tennis Manager 2024 (PC)

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