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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
Seriously now, how well do you think Jim Ryan is running PlayStation? I know we have fun here but I am curious on peoples real detailed opinions on how Jim Ryan has handled PlayStation since 2019 until today.

For me personally? I think he's doing a splendid job. he addressed many concerns people had from Yoshida and co. in the last years of the PS4, organized internal studios to become more efficient without the infighting or dissatisfaction with management, has streamlined Sony's marketing to be more understandable to the average customer, has opened up the PlayStation ecosystem, and has given us some of the best transparency in company history.

He's removed the shackles off the old fortress ideology of previous PlayStations, and is now expanding the PlayStation ecosystem to mobile and PC. But unlikely in the early 2010's, not in a confusing way, he has all the teams synergized to work together so things are more seamless. That's why I think Sony's latest attempt at diving into the mobile market will be a success because they have a game plan that for the first time, has the entirety of PlayStation on the same page, same with their new PC department, I expect the Sony PSN software team to talk with other departments of PlayStation so PSN will be integrated with PC as well as console, not much different than how both PC and Xbox have their own gamepass, but I don't think Sony will separate them like MS, I think Sony is going for one unified PSN/PS Plus service, causing less confusion.

I also noticed for Japanese game imports, he has dialed back on the censorship. A common complaint by fans of those games from the PS4 era. He has also walked back on the previous administration trying to strong-arm developers, and the refusal to expand cross-play. He has done a complete 360 on the more selfish strategies Sony used to implement..

This will result in Sony software selling more than ever before within the expanded PlayStation ecosystem, which will comprise of PS5, Mobile, and PC, reaching millions more gamers than ever before. So a game that may not have met expectations now has two more platforms to sell on to make up for any falling short of projections.
 

mansoor1980

Member
soon


jim-lyan-jim-ryan.gif
 
The entire PlayStation brand is floating on air. As in they’re winning but not for any particularly reason outside of loyalty and expectation. I’m not sure you can even credit that to a particular leader within the company. Sure you can point out the exclusive lineup and the quality of games, not to mention sales, but Nintendo is also winning in these categories. PlayStation is beating Xbox but not by much. That’s just what it feels like right now to me. Like the Xbox brand is growing and PlayStation is slowly dwindling.
 

Ellery

Member
It is pretty apparent that is he looking at optimizing the business as a money making vehicle. That isn't as bad as it sounds since basically that is what businesses are supposed to do. Still I don't like him and I prefer Shawn over him.

What I am wondering is whether he will invest enough in both beloved and new IPs for gamers.
 
Not a fan. Shawn Layden was more likeable and had some personality to him. Jim Ryan is like a piece of dry toast, 0 likeability and doesn't know what fans want.

I am okay with live service stuff personally. But where is Bloodborne Remake, or remaster. Why shit on Japan studios? Where are the stuff that fans want ? Like a new Socom, or resistance Reboot? I don't want 10 million superhero games from Insomniac. I am excited for Wolvernine but both games they making are superheroes titles and that's super lame.
 

bitbydeath

Member
He’s done an amazing job building up the teams so they aren’t just one game studios any longer, I suspect Insomniacs experience in this space has also helped.
 

Aenima

Member
Overall doing well but with a few poor decisions mostly related to price of games and increase price of consoles.
 
From a fan perspective or a PlayStation perspective?

If I'm being serious it would feel too much like real work to analyse PlayStation's metrics to make a good judgement.
 
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RoadHazard

Gold Member
Business wise he probably is. But PlayStation was a lot more fun back in the days when they had people with actual personalities at the helm.

He gave us the best deal in gaming though, can't complain about that I guess (although personally I would prefer if neither GP nor PS++ existed, because I don't think they are good for the type of games I like in the long run - but since they do exist I will sure as hell take advantage of them).
 

Gone

Banned
He's doing good as far as the money goes. Plus, PS have a very loyal fan base that will be with them to death unless some very horrible decisions get taken by Jim or whoever is the president.
 

Fbh

Member
Meh.
Business wise I don't think he is doing a bad job, but since I don't own stock at Sony I can't say I care.

For me personally I can't say his management has me excited for the future of Playstation. Still got a Ps5 since it's more affordable for the moment, but the second I can get a decent PC for a reasonable price I'm ditching Sony.
 

0neAnd0nly

Gold Member
Poorly.

Tretton was the best they had, Layden was horrendous and Ryan is just so far over his head in diluting the brand.

This might sound ridiculous, since the ps5 is the leader in the next-gen race. I own one, by the way, and PlayStation is my preferred console.

BUT, PlayStation should have been selling better this gen so the first two years are not really a good metric, as they came in with the most momentum. Starting with Layden and continuing with Ryan PS has lost all trust in the Japanese market, they have stopped making super diverse genres and games and narrowed into cinematic action games as a whole.

One of my biggest concerns is that Jim not only let Activision go FP to a rival (if you have ever been in the industry, you know that there is absolutely NO way Ryan didn’t know it was happening), but his acquisitions in response to Microsoft’s have been concerning and anti-climatic.

MS grabs both Bethesda and Activision/ Blizzard. PlayStation grabs… Bungie… to not even make exclusives? A mobile studio next?

Meanwhile I lost a lot of faith the last few years with their disrespectful non-commitment to Bluepoint, who deserves more than PS has given.

My absolutely BIGGEST beef is that he has allowed first party games go multi platform, which PlayStation being a VG only company makes ZERO sense. You need people to WANT to buy a PlayStation, and the way to do that is through primarily a strong exclusive library (see: Nintendo and PS of the past).

This isn’t even touching on that he has shown interest in creating services like gamepass rather than just going against it, and then dumb PR stunts like raising the price of the console in virtually all major markets. Forget the studios closed or the inability to acknowledge there is a fan base for games like Killzone, Crash, etc.

Very disappointed in what has occurred since Tretton stepped down, as a whole. Ryan is just another spoke in that wheel.

I still have love for PS, and again - still my preferred console. But to say I am not disappointed would be a lie. You have to be able to criticize things you like, or you end up blindly allowing them to become things you don’t.
 
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SmokedMeat

Gamer™
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.
 
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jm89

Member
First year or two of your new console is really important and you'd think Jim Ryan would know this.

Se alot of the shit he does I get it but he just chooses such a bad time to do things. For example like a moron decides to lead the £70 price hike and make an idiotic defense of it, it was gonna happen anyway why lead the charge like a donkey?
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
I think he’s doing an alright job. Hard to tell from this angle without knowing the ins and outs of their internal strategy.

As a purchaser I wish the games were cheaper, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. The move to release on PC I feel was inevitable and made sense. Not sure about the whole subscription thing though. Kind of feel it’s chasing the rainbow so they are behind.

If he’s meeting all their internal goals then he’s doing a good job. He’s just a suit in the end though, so my fucks are limited.
 

mortal

Gold Member
The fervent hatred of Jim Ryan is puzzling.
Not saying every move he's made has been perfection or that he's above criticism, he's had his moments.
Despite all of that, PlayStation products and services seems to be performing financially well by all accounts and their 1st party output has been pretty solid so far this gen.

Their acquirement of Nixxes and the initiative of native 1st party PC ports is great for gamers in general, I see no downsides despite what some console fanboys feel about it.
The relaunch of PS+ is much better than their previous model, and if you've stacked subs for several years before the new pricing model kicked in then the value you're getting is great.
He's gone on record multiple times to reaffirm their commit to AAA single player titles. They're also attempting to build up their multiplayer catalog.
They're investing PSVR2, smaller studios and indie titles.

Not a fan of $70 premium, but I often wait for discounted titles anyway while I play through my backlog, so it's not a deal breaker but I can understand that being a point of contention for many.
The radio silence has been kind of lame, but if that means less overpromising, with trailers lacking gameplay and release dates, that's fine with me tbh.
Although I do hope to see fewer and fewer cross-gen 1st party titles going forward.
 

Markio128

Member
He’s giving PS fans what they want and he’s even throwing in some hearty snacks for the PC master race, of which I personally have no issue with, as long as I still get plenty of good stuff to play on PS5. I’d say I’m pretty satisfied right now.
 

Zathalus

Member
I think it's far to early to tell. At the moment he is doing some things I agree with and others not. We will see how it pans out over the next 5 years.
 

K2D

Banned
Mediocre just because Bloodborne is not yet on PC.
In it's 'current state' maybe Bloodborne is worth more for Playstation as a priced possession on the mantelpiece, than as a revenue stream..?

We'll get a remake and a Bloodborne 2 on PS5 (one can dream). Then - once the "remake" 's been out for a good while, Sony could squeeze the stone dry. Maybe even do some spin-offs and tie ins..
 
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