Just last year, Sony had grand designs of a new PlayStation leadership structure executing on an exciting multi-pronged strategy, but only three fiscal quarters later, the plan has come undone. Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst were bestowed co-CEO roles -- the former looking after hardware and services, the latter after software -- but now, Nishino will hold the CEO role alone, with Hulst demoted and now reporting directly to him. While Sony Corporation itself made some other changes as well, including installing Hiroki Totoki as the larger entity's CEO, changes to PlayStation's executive structure so soon after alterations were first made says something rather clear: Bad choices were made, and rectifying them as quickly as possible is the best idea. We discuss. Other news this week includes Xbox quickly becoming PlayStation's biggest publisher, with yet another Xbox game -- Forza Horizon 5 -- en route to PS5, rumblings of new films for Resident Evil and Beyond: Two Souls, PlayStation 5 continuing to outsell the PS4 in the US when adjusted for time, layoffs at BioWare following Dragon Age's tumultuous end, MLB: The Show 25 skipping PS4 for the first time since the console launched, and more. Listener inquiries wrap things up. Is NCSoft's Horizon MMO cancelled? How does a game's budget actually get determined? Should future Dragon Quest games abandon Akira Toriyama's art style? Will Colin's Herman Miller chair ever arrive?

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:10:14 - Gooneral

0:25:29 - Punching Up rising up

0:27:14 - Herman-Miller woes

0:30:13 - Raymond

0:40:52 - PS5 is outselling PS4, time-adjusted

0:52:26 - PSN logins on PC are now optional for single player games

0:59:23 - 30th Anniversary themes are gone (but coming back)

1:21:16 - MLB The Show 25 coming on Match 18

1:35:38 - Spider-Man 2 is out now on PC

1:43:51 - BioWare downsizes

1:56:44 - Helldivers 2's director is taking a sabbatical

2:04:44 - Silent Hill 2 Remake surpasses two million copies sold

2:05:03 - Sega renews the trademark for Skies of Arcadia

2:09:00 - Berserk Boy

2:11:44 - What Are We Playing?

2:49:50 - Shakeup in Sony's leadership

3:10:58 - Xbox is the biggest publisher on PlayStation

3:33:13 - PlayStation Productions news

3:44:16 - New PS Plus games

3:50:12 - Horizon MMO canceled?

3:53:09 - Difficulty and trophies

3:59:43 - Best tip for aspiring journalists

4:19:05 - Why does game production cost so much?

4:23:22 - Should Dragon Quest's art style change with Toriyama's passing?

4:27:40 - What is the golden age of gaming?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#344 | Illusion Never Changed Into Something Real