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Angie Smets (Guerrilla co-studio head) promoted to Head of Development Strategy at PlayStation

Toumari

Toumari

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After almost an incredible 20 years at Guerrilla, our Studio Director and Executive Producer Angie Smets is starting a new role as Head of Development Strategy at PlayStation Studios!
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In terms of new structure, Guerrilla is happy to announce that our management team now consists of Joel Eschler (Studio Director and Production Director) and Hella Schmidt (Studio Director and General Manager), alongside Jan-Bart van Beek (Studio Director and Art Director).
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We have full confidence in our new leadership as they steer Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy's next adventure and our exciting online project. Michiel van der Leeuw (Technical Director) will be focusing on the future technology and strategy for the Decima engine.
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www.guerrilla-games.com

A message from Guerrilla studio management

Guerrilla is one of Europe's leading game companies and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. We started in 2003, and have pushed the boundaries of technical and artistic excellence in our games ever since.
www.guerrilla-games.com www.guerrilla-games.com


View: https://twitter.com/AngieSmets/status/1650439998208987136
 
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fourfourfun

fourfourfun

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Oct 27, 2017
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Amazing how they went from maligned studio after the Killzone 2 announcement to one of the biggest AAA talents.

Be interesting to see them go somewhere else after Horizon now though.
 
Angie

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I can garrantee you all, that if it was me, you all going to start hating the Sony output lol

Most games I play are very niche
 
Shopolic

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Congrats to her!
First Hermen Hulst and now Angie Smets. It's interesting to see Guerrilla Games as a great platform to jump into bigger roles of PlayStation in these years.
 
Strings

Strings

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Iunno how I even feel about Hulst in his current position, so double iunno about further Guerilla folks.
 
Bláthanna

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I'd have to imagine Sony is insanely happy with how Guerrilla is performing if both Hulst and Smets have been promoted to pretty high ranking positions.
 
Oliver James

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fourfourfun said:
Amazing how they went from maligned studio after the Killzone 2 announcement to one of the biggest AAA talents.

Be interesting to see them go somewhere else after Horizon now though.
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I know about the trailer thing but isn't Killzone 2 considered to be the best in the series and the ones people remember the fondest?

By the way congratulations!
 
Modest_Modsoul

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Congrats.

39dY.gif
 

Dekim

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Amazing to see Guerrilla go from being known for Killzone to being a primere PS studios and several of their alums literally running and directing PS Studios overall.
 
AzorAhai

AzorAhai

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Oct 29, 2017
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Meh, I could have been Head of Strategy at PlayStation. You would have a PlayStation showcase every month and no game to play.

Congrats :D
 
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OP
Toumari

Toumari

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Seems Michiel van der Leeuw is changing his role to solely focus on Decima due to ambitious plans for its future.

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UnluckyKate

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Its shows that guerilla was a huge studio and that it was well managed if it's the second (third?) huge promotion for one of its head
 
Witchcraft

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Not sure how I feel about Guerrilla folks taking over considering I think their output is kinda mid but I hope she kills it anyway.
 
Sems4arsenal

Sems4arsenal

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Is there a reason that Sony are mostly poaching from GG or have they promoted others from the other studios?

Don't get me wrong - GG are killing it but curious.
 
Witchcraft

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crimilde said:
The perceived quality of their output has no relevance on Angie's new job.
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You don't think Hermen and his mates getting the top jobs at PlayStation will have an impact on the kind of games they'll be pursuing? This new role is titled Head of Development Strategy, no?

Judging by GG's output I'm not massively excited but I hope she/they all do well like I said previously.
 
brokenswiftie

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What's does this "Head of Development Strategy at PlayStation Studios" entail?
what exactly will she be doing ?
 
PsyDec

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So this isn't a console war question because I genuinely want a temperature check here:

Is there a future where the majority of PS's single player catalogue becomes Horizon, TLOU, GoW? Maybe one other? And will that draw criticisms in the same way Xbox's 'Gears, Halo, Forza' did for so long?
 
crimilde

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Witchcraft said:
You don't think Hermen and his mates getting the top jobs at PlayStation will have an impact on the kind of games they'll be pursuing? This new role is titled Head of Development Strategy, no?

Judging by GG's output I'm not massively excited but I hope she/they all do well like I said previously.
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Not at all. If we take a look at what Development Strategy means, she'll be focusing on:
  • Market penetration
  • Market development
  • Product development
  • Diversification
And as a VP, she'll probably set guidelines on KPIs, follow-up on them and set some targets and focus areas, etc. Influencing the types of games a particular studio makes is out of scope.
 
amstradcpc

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Decima engine is getting something similar to UE 5 Lumen surely, so that development is way faster.
 
Angie

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PsyDec said:
So this isn't a console war question because I genuinely want a temperature check here:

Is there a future where the majority of PS's single player catalogue becomes Horizon, TLOU, GoW? Maybe one other? And will that draw criticisms in the same way Xbox's 'Gears, Halo, Forza' did for so long?
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What generation Playstation didn't create new sucessful single player IPs?
 
Callibretto

Callibretto

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PsyDec said:
So this isn't a console war question because I genuinely want a temperature check here:

Is there a future where the majority of PS's single player catalogue becomes Horizon, TLOU, GoW? Maybe one other? And will that draw criticisms in the same way Xbox's 'Gears, Halo, Forza' did for so long?
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They still have Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-man, Gran Turismo, Returnal, Ratchet, and whatever Bend and MM doing next.

No one expect Sony to stop making sequel of successful franchises.
 
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