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All jokes aside, how well do you think Jim Ryan is running PlayStation?

How well has Jim Ryan been running PlayStation?

  • He has been running it well

    Votes: 191 42.6%
  • He has been running it poorly

    Votes: 257 57.4%

  • Total voters
    448
Better question is "Do you think Jim Ryan is running Playstation?"

Is your favorite game Genji Days of the Blade?
PS3's year one was indeed abyssmal, BUT by two years in it did have the first Uncharted, MGS4, Little Big Planet, Motorstorm on top Ratchet and Clank and Gran Turismo Prologue. This is on top of overlooked gems like Heavenly Sword, Folklore, Siren etc. The heavy hitters still haven't arrived but it was much better. PS5 has... Ratchet and Clank, Gran Turismo Sport/7, Returnal, Demon's Souls, and... TLOU which is "exclusive" in the most laughable way. The crossgen games are no reason to buy a system if you already played them on last gen. Either way PS4's launch years were so much better.
 

jorgejjvr

Gold Member
Then it becomes 2 different questions, what do you want from playstation as a gamer or how does playstation make the most money, two different things.
You can have both, their 3rd person single player action adventure games, and their new ventures into mp. If one of those 10 become successful, it could actually become a cash cow to be able to fund other 1st party single player ventures
 
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vivftp

Member
You can have both, their 3rd person single player action adventure games, and their new ventures into mp. If one of those 10 become successful, it could actually become a cash cow to be able to fund other 1st party single player ventures

Something that a lot of folks seem to miss. All the potential money that these mobile, PC and live service games make, along with money made by PlayStation Productions and their other ventures gets dumped right back into SIE to let them reinvest and grow even more.

Sony knows what sort of cash cow mobile games can potentially be. Under Sony Music they've got Fate/Grand Order which has pulled in $5.4 billion dollars between July 2015 and July 2021. Of course SIE wants to get their own golden goose like that. All that money would allow them to do so much more across all fronts.
 

jorgejjvr

Gold Member
Something that a lot of folks seem to miss. All the potential money that these mobile, PC and live service games make, along with money made by PlayStation Productions and their other ventures gets dumped right back into SIE to let them reinvest and grow even more.

Sony knows what sort of cash cow mobile games can potentially be. Under Sony Music they've got Fate/Grand Order which has pulled in $5.4 billion dollars between July 2015 and July 2021. Of course SIE wants to get their own golden goose like that. All that money would allow them to do so much more across all fronts.
Exactly. Let them have their cake and eat it too.

Have your cash cow, and in turn give us more of your 1st party games we love, take more risks etc

They can certainly reinvest on their 1st party studios. People are too shortsighted
 

gow3isben

Member
Not a good job. Sony’s bread and butter that will never fail them is third person cinematic story driven games and he is veering away from that.

He also should be focused more on acquisitions to counter Microsoft and expand relationships with Japanese developers.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Returnal was Housemarque's first ever AAA game, so trying to compare that to Guerrilla who had been making big budget games for a long while seems unfair. Better to compare it against Guerrilla with Horizon FW where you can see an absolutely MASSIVE leap in pretty much everything.

You seem to be on about diminishing returns of this gen versus last and maybe there are pros and cons for each side of the argument, and it will boil down to personal taste and opinion.

My mind can't and won't be changed by how wow'd I am by this gen and the overall leap over the PS4. It's the complete package that makes the leap to the PS5 worthwhile, not any one factor.



The upgrades of the PS5 version were like PC ultra settings and higher resolution + fps.

They are nice improvements but its not a generational leap like we have seen in the past.




Im not talking which game you are wowed by, of course your are more wowed by PS5 stuff, im talking how drastic the improvements are between gen 7 and 8 vs the difference between gen 8 and 9.

Its not so much about what you and I think, its about what the mass market thinks, maybe the mass market is fine with a PS4 pro 2 type of experience, but I dont think this gen is overall more appealing the last one which is why I dont think sales of this gen will surpass last gen.

Im I and most folks were probably expected this from current gen




AN actual hold shit next gen leap!!

not a PC version @ ultra of PS4 game (horizon forbidden west)
 
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jorgejjvr

Gold Member
Not a good job. Sony’s bread and butter that will never fail them is third person cinematic story driven games and he is veering away from that.

He also should be focused more on acquisitions to counter Microsoft and expand relationships with Japanese developers.
They aren't veering away from that, that's still here, plus the rest. You can have both. And the mp venture can bring money towards more cinematic story games, the money needs to come from somewhere, and cost of developing those games are only getting higher and higher. It's not self sustainable to ONLY make those types of experience and only sell those, you can have both

Every year we still get their cinematic experiences, and with their September event, we'll know even more
 
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Sony’s bread and butter that will never fail them is third person cinematic story driven games and he is veering away from that

They can still make those while making multiplayer games also. If they were selling 20 million+ for every single player game at full price they wouldn’t really need to worry about much else but thats far and away not the case. People that claim they only want JRPGS and Single player action games dont even buy them at full price.

He also should be focused more on acquisitions to counter Microsof

I also don’t see why they need to “counter” Microsoft. Microsoft is coming from a place of not having a real strong 1st party pipeline for years. SIE first party are a well oiled machine, they have arguably the best dev and support studios in the industry already, they dont need to buy a big publisher they can buy smaller talented studios and build them up like they’ve always done.

Every studio they have started out by putting out smaller games and growing into the big AAA powerhouses they are now. Studios like Ember Lab, Arrowhead, Deviation, etc are where sony needs to set its sights. Buy them while they’re smaller and give them resources to grow.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Housemarque ends up becoming as renown as Fromsoft as time goes on.
 

vivftp

Member
Not a good job. Sony’s bread and butter that will never fail them is third person cinematic story driven games and he is veering away from that.

He also should be focused more on acquisitions to counter Microsoft and expand relationships with Japanese developers.

Expanding the breadth of their lineup doesn't mean he's ignoring their bread and butter. We know Sony have over 25 games in active development and nearly half of those are live service games, which means more than half of those are the traditional games we all love. A I defy anyone to provide proof that the number and quality of their single player cinematic games is going down.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, under Jim Ryan's watch SIE has performed more acquisitions than ever before and all of their studios have gone through a massive period of expansion with some becoming multi-project. They've formed new partnerships with companies like Deviation, Haven and Firewalk, and Haven turned into an acquisition. Sony are currently as close as can be with Square Enix and many folks are pondering if an acquisition could be in the works. We've gotten a leak that Death Stranding 2 is in the works, so that's another game with KojiPro. We had some previous rumors of another game from From Software, so that's another Japanese developer. They've got VR content from Capcom in the form of Resident Evil 8 coming and some sort of VR content for RE4 Remake. What exactly is the problem with Sony and Japanese developers?
 

vivftp

Member
The upgrades of the PS5 version were like PC ultra settings and higher resolution + fps.

They are nice improvements but its not a generational leap like we have seen in the past.




Im not talking which game you are wowed by, of course your are more wowed by PS5 stuff, im talking how drastic the improvements are between gen 7 and 8 vs the difference between gen 8 and 9.

Its not so much about what you and I think, its about what the mass market thinks, maybe the mass market is fine with a PS4 pro 2 type of experience, but I dont think this gen is overall more appealing the last one which is why I dont think sales of this gen will surpass last gen.

Im I and most folks were probably expected this from current gen




AN actual hold shit next leap!!

not a PC version @ ultra of PS4 game (horizon forbidden west)


Friend, you're taking your own personal view and acting as though it's a generally accepted fact. Why?

I'm talking about which games I'm wow'd by because I can only speak for myself. I'm not going to pretend to speak for the rest of the gaming community.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
You can have both, their 3rd person single player action adventure games, and their new ventures into mp. If one of those 10 become successful, it could actually become a cash cow to be able to fund other 1st party single player ventures
No, if sony wanted to make the most money they could introduce several things which would be bad for the gamer.

Things like increased microtransaction, more expensive games + accessories, more expensive console, no free to play games etc.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Friend, you're taking your own personal view and acting as though it's a generally accepted fact. Why?

I'm talking about which games I'm wow'd by because I can only speak for myself. I'm not going to pretend to speak for the rest of the gaming community.
No we both have an opinion which we think is correct and its up to us to put up an argument using examples, reasoning and facts to show which opinion is the most plausible.

If you look at how our exchange started it was me saying that this gen is less impressive and less hype then previous gens and you said this wasn't the case, I think it is, its not just my opinion I think what I am saying is true and I have given several reasons why. Art is subjective, but Ive broken down several technical reasons which you just ignore.

Another thing which just came to mind, is cross gens, there has never been this many cross gen games. I think everyone can agree that this gen has not been ideal.
 
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Exactly. Let them have their cake and eat it too.

Have your cash cow, and in turn give us more of your 1st party games we love, take more risks etc

They can certainly reinvest on their 1st party studios. People are too shortsighted
This new Sony is more than ever focused on profit maximisation while minimizing risk. IF (and this is a big IF, but that's another topic) the new live service titles are indeed very successful and become cash cows (lower cost, lower risk and higher margin products), why do you think they will reinvest the extra cash into massively high cost and risky single player titles? Instead, Sony would reinvest in MORE live service titles to derisk their portfolio even further and make it filled with even more cash cows. And that would mean riskier and Hella expensive SP titles would slowly take a back seat. Higher margins at lower risk is the pathway to share price growth...and most top executive bonuses are linked to share price growth. So while I love what you said to be true as a consumer, I believe it's not what the business plan is, unfortunately.
 

ckaneo

Member
I dont think he's been great when it comes to my taste. Price increases, trying to pretend Playstation is some wierd luxury brand, multiplayer/GAAS focus, tv shows I dont care about. Most of things people giving him credit for are things that were being made and would have been if he wasnt in charge. That being said, as a CEO he's cut from the Bobby Kotick, Zaslav cloth were they make moves that are overly based on money, reputation be damned. This can have some benefits to us though, like putting games on PC to squeeze out a few more bucks. And so far financially, seems to be doing a good or good enough job considering covid has made most company financials hard to compare with different years. As a CEO the goal is to make money
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This new Sony is more than ever focused on profit maximisation while minimizing risk. IF (and this is a big IF, but that's another topic) the new live service titles are indeed very successful and become cash cows (lower cost, lower risk and higher margin products), why do you think they will reinvest the extra cash into massively high cost and risky single player titles? Instead, Sony would reinvest in MORE live service titles to derisk their portfolio even further and make it filled with even more cash cows. And that would mean riskier and Hella expensive SP titles would slowly take a back seat. Higher margins at lower risk is the pathway to share price growth...and most top executive bonuses are linked to share price growth. So while I love what you said to be true as a consumer, I believe it's not what the business plan is, unfortunately.
That assumes Sony’s gaas games are sellers.

Their SP game proven sellers. Days gone is probably the worst seller and it still sold I think 8M copies.

Going on history their MP games don’t sell, have bad MP following that fade fast or are outright bad games.

I think it’s a bigger risk of them going gaas. A better bet is them focusing on all big budget SP games and just sit back and eat up all the mtx fees from third party MP games. Best of both worlds with low risk.
 

leo-j

Member
I think it’s fine but I’m unsure of their mobile and cloud strategy. They are sticking to their ps4 era guns, and arguably evolving with the new ps plus, but I’m unsure about their response to switch and cloud gaming, they haven’t really evolved much since ps now.
 

Loxus

Member
Think he will ruin the PlayStation brand in the long run. Not right now perhaps but a couple more years down the road.
How though?
He basically did what everyone hates him for already.
Price increase on Games,
Price increase on the console,
Releasing PS exclusives on PC.
And PlayStation is still going strong.

I don't get the hate for the guy.
Constant high quality games,
A next-gen console with almost no load times,
A controller with some pretty good features,
A revamp PS Plus subscription with 700+ games,
Releasing PS exclusives on PC for the PC gamers.

What's funny, is there are people above him that are most likely in charge of pricing.
ax8Quse.jpg


What's even funnier is wanting a company that makes some of the best games to go down in ruin.
I don't get it.
 
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How though?
He basically did what everyone hates him for already.
Price increase on Games,
Price increase on the console,
Releasing PS exclusives on PC.
And PlayStation is still going strong.

I don't get the hate for the guy.
Constant high quality games,
A next-gen console with almost no load times, A controller with some pretty good features,
A revamp PS Plus subscription with 700+ games,
Releasing PS exclusives on PC for the PC gamers.

What's funny, is there are people above him that are most likely in charge of pricing.
ax8Quse.jpg


What's even funnier is wanting a company that makes some of the best games to go down in ruin.
I don't get it.

It is way too early to say that his changes are good, and that Sony is still going strong. It takes a few years for these changes to truly take effect.

Also no one is wanting Sony to go down in ruin. They want to see the company be what once made it great.
 
That assumes Sony’s gaas games are sellers.

Their SP game proven sellers. Days gone is probably the worst seller and it still sold I think 8M copies.

Going on history their MP games don’t sell, have bad MP following that fade fast or are outright bad games.

I think it’s a bigger risk of them going gaas. A better bet is them focusing on all big budget SP games and just sit back and eat up all the mtx fees from third party MP games. Best of both worlds with low risk.
On your first point I agree. That's why I said IF live service games are successful. But the point is, Sony expects gaas to succeed, and if that happens they are only going to double down on it.

Your argument on SP games are proven sellers while true, excludes a very important business factor of profits and margins. Days Gone, sold 8m, but was discontinued. Why? Maybe 8m wasn't enough to justify the cost of making it. That's the risk factor. And that's exactly what Sony hopes to lessen by embracing gaas.
 

Loxus

Member
It is way too early to say that his changes are good, and that Sony is still going strong. It takes a few years for these changes to truly take effect.

Also no one is wanting Sony to go down in ruin. They want to see the company be what once made it great.
It's way too early to say his changes are bad and that he will ruin PlayStation also. Especially with all the exclusives constantly releasing, which is the reason you brought the console in the first place.

Predicting that Jim will ruin PlayStation is basically saying you want PlayStation to go down in ruin.
 
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Menzies

Banned
Dude was passed the baton with the field already lapped, so can't really comment much.

They already had the established teams and support network, so he's responsible for what exactly? Raising prices and buying Bungie? Golf clap.
 
He’s smart enough to realize the console business has changed. He realizes you need to branch out and bring in other sources of revenue from PC and Mobile. Moving into movies and television is also a smart move.

Fanboys still think it’s 2006. They’d run Sony as though the industry is still exactly the same as it was back then.
They'd lose pennies on the meh-decent steam sales but may or may not make them up on new consoles sold because owning a playstation would be necessitated to play said games so it would honestly probably be a marginal difference if they ran it like it's 2006.
 

Loxus

Member
For those who don't know how decisions are made in a company. They is something called a board meeting.

A Board Meeting is a formal meeting of the board of directors of an organization and any invited guests, held at definite intervals and as needed to review performance, consider policy issues, address major problems and perform the legal business of the board. Presided over by a chairperson of the organization, the quorum, rules, and responsibilities for board meetings will be documented in the organization's operating agreements and may need to meet government requirements. The finalized and approved record for a board meeting is called the minutes, a legal document published according to the rules governing that board's operations.
rUIM9z1.jpg


Jim Ryan doesn't be in the room sitting down alone making those kind of big decisions.
If fact, he has bosses the help make the final decisions.

These are the head people at Sony.
YmrOSn9.jpg


In any case, if PlayStation seems to be going down hill, a board meeting would be held and the problem would be solved. PS3 launch is a worst case than raising the long overdue price increase of video games by $10 and that didn't ruin PlayStation.

Some of you all needs to think sometimes.

Edit:
This is the same thing with Don Mattrick, he was also accompanied with Phil Spencer and many others in a broad meeting. I don't get why he gets all the heat.
 
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jorgejjvr

Gold Member
This new Sony is more than ever focused on profit maximisation while minimizing risk. IF (and this is a big IF, but that's another topic) the new live service titles are indeed very successful and become cash cows (lower cost, lower risk and higher margin products), why do you think they will reinvest the extra cash into massively high cost and risky single player titles? Instead, Sony would reinvest in MORE live service titles to derisk their portfolio even further and make it filled with even more cash cows. And that would mean riskier and Hella expensive SP titles would slowly take a back seat. Higher margins at lower risk is the pathway to share price growth...and most top executive bonuses are linked to share price growth. So while I love what you said to be true as a consumer, I believe it's not what the business plan is, unfortunately.
They know what they are known for, and wont want to lose their hardcore audience, those games also sell consoles
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
No, if sony wanted to make the most money they could introduce several things which would be bad for the gamer.

Things like increased microtransaction, more expensive games + accessories, more expensive console, no free to play games etc.
This is an excellent post because it exposes the argument that Jimbo is doing these ridiculous moves because it's good for business. Well, you all threw a fit whenever EA tried to do other things that were good for business. Why give Sony a pass?

If Jimbo really wanted to make money he would do what EA did. Kill all single player games. Fire all single player directors like they did Amy Henning. That means Cory, Neil, Kojima all shown the door. Then make sports games, and gaas games like BF, Anthem, Apex Legends, and fill them microtransactions that bring in a billion dollars a year like Fifa Ultimate does. Because that prints money. Or do what Activision did, which was to cancel every single game other than cod at their 20-30 internal studios and have them all work on COD just to ensure they can release a new cod every year while supporting the F2P warzones and mobile games. Imagine, all of Sony studios making one shooter every year. That is whats best for business because Activision makes $2 billion in profits every year from one game. Same as Sony in their record years while selling tens of millions of PS+ subs, hundreds of millions of digital games, and millions upon millions of consoles.

Just quit the console business and make one game every year. Fill with microtransactions. Make profit. Good for business.

Absolutely ridiculous argument from gamers since it really goes against their interests.
 
It's way too early to say his changes are bad and that he will ruin PlayStation also.
You are absolutely correct here. And only here.

Especially with all the exclusives constantly releasing, which is the reason you brought the console in the first place.
The vast majority of the exclusive's are utter tripe, IMO. Worst line up that Sony has had in years. I primarily bought the PS5 for the rare good exclusive and backwards compatibility. Maybe someday Sony will get their head out of their own ass and stop screwing over Japanese studios and pushing hypocritical censorship.

Predicting that Jim will ruin PlayStation is basically saying you want PlayStation to go down in ruin.
No. That is what *you* want it to mean so you can have some idiotic "gotcha" and dismiss anyone critical of the platform.
 

Loxus

Member
You are absolutely correct here. And only here.


The vast majority of the exclusive's are utter tripe, IMO. Worst line up that Sony has had in years. I primarily bought the PS5 for the rare good exclusive and backwards compatibility. Maybe someday Sony will get their head out of their own ass and stop screwing over Japanese studios and pushing hypocritical censorship.


No. That is what *you* want it to mean so you can have some idiotic "gotcha" and dismiss anyone critical of the platform.
You should read my last post.
 

Ozzie666

Member
How much power does he really have or is he just a poor PR guy who is terrible at spin. I really don't know. I am sure he is responsible for a few bad decisions, but who knows what his bosses are telling him to do. I also doubt it's as bas as Nintendo America in terms of a puppet, but it could be?
 

Neolombax

Member
I don't really analyze how well Playstation is doing under his leadership, but he's still there, that must mean he's still doing a good job i.e. making money for Sony.
 
Doubling down on the style of games from the PS4 generation is whats making me a bit meh on them going forward. The formula worked for a generation but doing the same style of games for the PS5 is giving me a sony version of ubsoft formula fatigue. I'm more excited for thier GAAS like TLOU Factions then games like spider man 2 or wolverine due to the fact it shouyld be a bigger deviation from their norm...business wise he strewed. And brand loyalty is amazing but he's obviously blatantly exploiting it. Basically no real good moves have come from Sony outside of just the games. Raised price on games and console, a lesser service with too many tiers, doubling down on GAAS (good to me but not the long term fans). Just an odd generation from sony so far. Outside of demons souls remake no exclusives up my alley.
 
To anyone who thinks Sony will invest more into single player games if these live service, PC and mobile games succeed are being way too optimistic and unrealistic. Imo, Sony are just going to invest more into the very thing that made them that extra money in the first place especially if they are more profitable or cheaper to develop. There’s a reason why Sony is investing heavily into Superhero and third person open world games for example over JRPGS and fighting games.
 
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AGRacing

Gold Member
Well he's making money.... but he sure as hell ain't making me happy. Maybe when VR comes next year I'll be in a better mood.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
They needed somone like steve job who would be in an xbox leadership team and go nuts and tell em how crap everything is and if anyone challenged him he would do this.
I dont know what I hate about this more. Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs or the fact that Steve Jobs was actually like this.

There has to be a better middle ground here. I'm afraid the Microsoft leadership never had a man like Steve Jobs.

They have continued to promote businessmen and engineers instead of big picture guys like Steve Jobs. Engineers dont get things about the user experience, and the businessmen simply dont care about the user experience, but guys like Jobs with all his faults do. Im not saying make Mark Cerny the head of PS, but a business man like Jimbo isnt it. They have to have a man with a vision. A vision that isnt about how to make the most money, but how to create an ambitious product that people like.

I dont know how many of those kind of visionary men are left in the gaming industry but the guys who were running PS before Jimbo did kind of get that they have to invest in talent. I remember them fucking up big time after the PS3 debacle. Especially Jack Tretton who essentially lied about KZ and Motorstorm trailers being realtime. But he went out and bought everything he could lay his hands on, and fast. He realized that the product wasnt just expensive but his competitor's product was simply better. He realized that he didnt have Halo 3, Gears, Mass Effect and Bioshock, and immediately went to work. Bought GG, Sucker Punch, Evolution Studios and MM in just a couple of years while the PS division was burning through billions of dollars in losses.

Now what did Phil do after Don's fuck up? he spent $3.5 billion on Minecraft. Then wandered about for four years before finally buying Ninja Theory, Obsidian and Playground Games. Starting Initiative in 2018. Basically punting an entire generation.

If you are not a big vision guy like Jack Tretton and Phil arent, then you have to put your faith in the actual people with talent. Guys like Cory, Kojima and Neil. Even Andrew House went and got Kojima literally days after Konami fired him. And trust me, Andrew House isnt Steve jobs in that he's not visionary.

Say what you will about Don Matrick, but he was lot like the PS execs. He invested in Respawn when EA was cancelling their first game after Sony passed on it. He signed Insomniac, Platinum Games and Crytek to make exclusives. He formed coalition games to make a new IP. Forza 4, Forza Horizon 2, Dead Rising 3, Ryse, Killer Instict, Titanfall and Sunset Overdrive in the first year alone. We havent seen a lineup like that since.

Steve Jobs is a once in a generation guy. If not once in a century guy. And they dont typically waste their time with games when they could be building space ships to go to Mars. We have to make do with the Don Matricks and Jack Trettons, and hope they realize their mistakes and put their faith in the right people. Jimbo & Herman and Phil & Matt Booty are clearly not those people.
 

Valedix

Gold Member
I wish @yosp was the CEO. Playstation's communication in terms of new games and game updates is terrible compared to Nintendo and Xbox.
 

Robb

Gold Member
I’m not a fan of him myself but he looks to be doing a good job. PlayStation seem to be more successful than ever.
 
Seems like Sony is succeeding based on decisions made quite a few years ago, with different leadership. You can tell where he left his mark, mostly due to recent business decisions. We’ll find out in the next few years, but right now I don’t feel too confident in him.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
He has to do what he has to do to compete with MS who said “fuck it we are going to throw money at the problem”. Sony turning to a gaas house therefore is a consequence of that.
 
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