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[Topher]

So a clear pattern of buying some of the biggest publishers, has nothing to do with what Booty said.

The post that started all this said the leaked emails indicated Microsoft was going to immediately make COD exclusive when the marketing deal expired. You said it was Booty's email. That is false.

Fact of the matter, do you know when those negotiations started for Actvision? If so, I would like to know. You act like you have some inside information.

Yes, it was in the second half of 2021 when Phil Spencer and Bobby Kotick initially had conversations about the acquisition. And no, that's not inside information. The history of the deal was laid out in the documents provided to stockholders and submitted to the SEC. You'll also note that in the email Booty sent, he was talking about spending $2 to $3 billion whereas ABK was acquired for $69 billion. There is no coorelation with that email to ABK at all.

 

[SHA]

I like wolves.

 

[farmerboy]

Content wise I'm not really happy.
Business wise, he's done a very serviceable job. So thats a wash for me.

C

 

[GHound]

Without Jim Ryan I probably wouldn't be considering PC only for the first time ever next gen.
Mission [f]ailed successfully?

 

[makaveli60]

Since he and his co took over playstation is in downhill from player sense. I miss the PS4 dreamteam.

 

[Three]

Can you show me the internal Microsoft email you're referring to? The FTC concluded the opposite of what you're stating here.

That's bullshit though with the way you're framing it. The FTC actually believed they would make CoD exclusive because MS internal emails ran numbers to see whether it would be financially viable or beneficial to do so and MS had concluded that it would be. The fact that MS didn't explicitly state "we're going to make it exclusive" doesn't mean the FTC concluded otherwise. MS weren't dumb enough to explicitly state that either. They didn't state Bethesda/Zenimax games would be exclusive either but they did the same there. Even went as far as saying to regulators that they had no incentive to do so while doing exactly that when it passed without concessions.

 

[ZehDon]

That's bullshit though with the way you're framing it. The FTC actually believed they would make CoD exclusive...

The "way I'm framing it" is to quote the FTC about what the FTC said it believed:

"...There are no internal documents, emails, or chats contradicting Microsoft’s stated intent not to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox consoles," reads a section of the ruling. "Despite the completion of extensive discovery in the FTC administrative proceeding, including production of nearly 1 million documents and 30 depositions, the FTC has not identified a single document which contradicts Microsoft’s publicly-stated commitment to make Call of Duty available on PlayStation (and Nintendo Switch)."...

You're more than welcome to provide alternative FTC statements if I've missed one where they contradict or correct this statement.

 

[Klayzer]

The post that started all this said the leaked emails indicated Microsoft was going to immediately make COD exclusive when the marketing deal expired. You said it was Booty's email. That is false.



Yes, it was in the second half of 2021 when Phil Spencer and Bobby Kotick initially had conversations about the acquisition. And no, that's not inside information. The history of the deal was laid out in the documents provided to stockholders and submitted to the SEC. You'll also note that in the email Booty sent, he was talking about spending $2 to $3 billion whereas ABK was acquired for $69 billion. There is no coorelation with that email to ABK at all.

No problem. I stand corrected.

 

[Three]

The "way I'm framing it" is to quote the FTC about what the FTC said it believed:

You're more than welcome to provide alternative FTC statements if I've missed one where they contradict or correct this statement.

You seem to be confused. You're not quoting the FTC. You're quoting a district judge (who ruled against the FTC).

 

[Lucifers Beard]

I don't think Playstation is as good as it was before he was CEO games wise, so I guess I thought he was shit.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

- killed Japan Studio
- bought the has-been Bungie
- lots of boring ass AAA cinematic blockbuster sequels

+++ bringing PS games to PC, so at least I don’t need to own a PlayStation to satisfy my FOMO about the “must play” PS exclusives

I gave him a D. Financially he’s done well, but as a gamer, PlayStation is the most boring it’s ever been.

PlayStation is about as exciting as the Marvel Cinematic Universe now. Seems like they found a moneymaking formula that works, now they’re going to keep repeating it til people can’t stand it anymore.

 

[killatopak]

I'm torn. On one hand, Playstation is doing great. On the other hand, he iniated the gaas wave of games.

 

[ZehDon]

You seem to be confused. You're not quoting the FTC. You're quoting a district judge (who ruled against the FTC).

I beg your pardon, you're absolutely correct. I must have gotten my wires crossed. The FTC was ruled against, where the Judge reviewed all of the evidence - some one million documents - and didn't believe that Microsoft had ever contradicted its statements at all. My initial statement that the FTC had arrived at this conclusion was incorrect - it was concluded for them. With that said, the actual point remains: no one seems to have documents from Microsoft where they outline their plans to make Call of Duty exclusive, or to misleading regulators to think the opposite, or that they intend to change their stance post-acquisition, or that they're running some kind of grift. I'm happy to be proven wrong. From what we have, Microsoft intended for Call of Duty to remain third party. Anything else appears to be pure speculation.

 

[Three]

I beg your pardon, you're absolutely correct. I must have gotten my wires crossed. The FTC was ruled against, where the Judge reviewed all of the evidence - some one million documents - and didn't believe that Microsoft had ever contradicted its statements at all. My initial statement that the FTC had arrived at this conclusion was incorrect - it was concluded for them. With that said, the actual point remains: no one seems to have documents from Microsoft where they outline their plans to make Call of Duty exclusive, or to misleading regulators to think the opposite, or that they intend to change their stance post-acquisition, or that they're running some kind of grift. I'm happy to be proven wrong. From what we have, Microsoft intended for Call of Duty to remain third party. Anything else appears to be pure speculation.

It was a case of "It's not what you know it's what you can prove".

The FTC had evidence from internal emails that showed them running numbers for making COD exclusive that MS seemed very positive towards. Of course talking about "putting sony out of business" and "running numbers for removing COD from playstation" for 'thought experiments' isn't explicit evidence of performing that action in the future, at least to the district judge. The fact that MS didn't explicitly state they intend to do this was what was used against the regulator and MS would have been stupid to explicitly state so anyway. MS did the very same thing with Zenimax where they mentioned there being no incentive to regulators only for them to do so anyway once it closed. The FTC continued to fight against the lower court judges ruling for this very reason giving Zenimax as an example. They stated that the judge held too high a standard of proof for potential anticompetitive behavior and that they need only show their incentive to do so, not to explicitly have them state it. Was their emails about putting Sony out of business or running models of removing CoD from playstation (and their enthusiasm towards those numbers) enough proof? The lower court judge didn't think so but the FTC certainly didn't conclude that they had no incentive to do so.

 

[SmokedMeat]

S-tier.

Finally someone with the brains to bring PlayStation games to PC.

 

[AJUMP23]

Milk toast B.

Steady market leader, nothing really great, but he didn't destroy anything. He greenlit Foam Stars.......

 

[Punished Miku]

He greenlit Foam Stars.......

 

[mckmas8808]

I'm torn. On one hand, Playstation is doing great. On the other hand, he iniated the gaas wave of games.

And he took away the fun of being a PS gamer. But the PS business is BOOMING! So I gave him an "A" to be fair. But my subjective grade is a "C".

 

[Topher]

And he took away the fun of being a PS gamer. But the PS business is BOOMING! So I gave him an "A" to be fair. But my subjective grade is a "C".

Yeah, my grade was strictly from a personal point of view as a gamer. If I were grading from a stockholder perspective then definitely an A.

 

[TheGodfather07]

How can you not give him an A, when Microsoft went 3rd party whilst he was the ceo? Who else can say that? He beat the trillion dollar corporation into submission and made them tap out.

 

[midnightAI]

I'll wait until we actually see what the internal first party studios are working on first before I give him a grade (hopefully a big blow out in May)

 

[StueyDuck]

i mean people are judging this with recency bias.

Jim was responsible for ensuring Playstations success and stranglehold in Europe. Without a doubt he was extremely good at what he did, he just wasn't head of Sony good.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I like wolves.

Eagles > Wolves

 

[mckmas8808]

How can you not give him an A, when Microsoft went 3rd party whilst he was the ceo? Who else can say that? He beat the trillion dollar corporation into submission and made them tap out.

The forced GAAS stuff is hurting him in many people's eyes.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

And he took away the fun of being a PS gamer. But the PS business is BOOMING! So I gave him an "A" to be fair. But my subjective grade is a "C".

Took away the fun of being a PS gamer?

Under his watch these are the exclusives he released or secured:

TLOU2
Ghost of Tsushuma
Playstation 5 Launch
AstroBot
Demon's Souls
SiFu
Returnal
Stray
Ratchet & Clank
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Horizon: Forbidden West
Gran Turismo 7
God of War: Ragnarok
Final Fantasy XVI
Playstation VR2 Launch
Spider-Man 2
Helldivers 2
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
Rise of the Ronin
Stellar Blade


Let's see, there's all of 1 highly successful GaaS there, tons of highly successful AAA games early on in the PS5 lifecycle, a great piece of VR hardware with a great lineup of titles (even if it's not doing well sales wise given the cost of entry), and a mixture of high production value tier indie games.

No president of Playstation has ever had that sort of content before when launching a console. It's staggering and why PS5 is so successful.

 

[Player Respawn]

0, Since he never gave me a good reason to buy a ps5

 

[mckmas8808]

Took away the fun of being a PS gamer?

Under his watch these are the exclusives he released or secured:

TLOU2
Ghost of Tsushuma
Playstation 5 Launch
AstroBot
Demon's Souls
SiFu
Returnal
Stray
Ratchet & Clank
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Horizon: Forbidden West
Gran Turismo 7
God of War: Ragnarok
Final Fantasy XVI
Playstation VR2 Launch
Spider-Man 2
Helldivers 2
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
Rise of the Ronin
Stellar Blade


Let's see, there's all of 1 highly successful GaaS there, tons of highly successful AAA games early on in the PS5 lifecycle, a great piece of VR hardware with a great lineup of titles (even if it's not doing well sales wise given the cost of entry), and a mixture of high production value tier indie games.

No president of Playstation has ever had that sort of content before when launching a console. It's staggering and why PS5 is so successful.

No you're missing the point. I'm not talking about the content. I'm talking about being a fan of Playstation gaming as a community. These images below are from a time when it was fun to be a PS gamer (outside of playing the games)......

These days were fun! Remember PSX that used to happen at the end of the year? It used to start a week or so after the Geoff Kiely Game Awards? That was a fun era.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The forced GAAS stuff is hurting him in many people's eyes.

"They're making games I like? What talented and brave artists they are."

"They're making games I don't like? They're being forced against their will."

 

[mckmas8808]

"They're making games I like? What talented and brave artists they are."

"They're making games I don't like? They're being forced against their will."

I truly find it hard to believe Naughty Dog wanted to waste 4 years of their lives making and not releasing a GAAS TLOU game.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

No you're missing the point. I'm not talking about the content. I'm talking about being a fan of Playstation gaming as a community. These images below are from a time when it was fun to be a PS gamer (outside of playing the games)......

I'm a a gamer, not someone invested in marketing events.

I do miss the big spectacle E3s, Covid runined that.... but at the end of the day the games are what matters. If they don't show them soon, so be it.

Kinda dumb to judge Jim Ryan on the way the titles are communicated and shown off rather than the content of the games themselves

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I truly find it hard to believe Naughty Dog wanted to waste 4 years of their lives making and not releasing a GAAS TLOU game.

Why would Naughty Dog waste 4 years of their lives on something they didn't want to make? It's illogical.

Here's what actually happened...

Sony went to Naughty Dog and said "We're really interested in funding Live Service projects. Is there any interest from anyone at ND?"

Naughty Dog responded "Yeah. Mike, Tom, and Lisa have this idea they want to pursue. We'll spin up a team around them."

4 years later...

Bungie & Sony review Mike, Tom, and Lisa's progress and deem it not worth pursuing.

Common sense doesn't get clicks though.

 

[mckmas8808]

I'm a a gamer, not someone invested in marketing events.

I do miss the big spectacle E3s, Covid runined that.... but at the end of the day the games are what matters. If they don't show them soon, so be it.

Kinda dumb to judge Jim Ryan on the way the titles are communicated and shown off rather than the content of the games themselves

The CEO of Playstation should care about both things. Not just the content, but how the whole brand is shown. Gaming used to be very community based. But I fear that it's being pushed too isolated now. It's all virtual. And if you are part of a community, it's not a physical one in any way. It's online gaming with "friends".

 

[mckmas8808]

Why would Naughty Dog waste 4 years of their lives on something they didn't want to make? It's illogical.

Here's what actually happened...

Sony went to Naughty Dog and said "We're really interested in funding Live Service projects. Is there any interest from anyone at ND?"

Naughty Dog responded "Yeah. Mike, Tom, and Lisa have this idea they want to pursue. We'll spin up a team around them."

4 years later...

Bungie & Sony review Mike, Tom, and Lisa's progress and deem it not worth pursuing.

Common sense doesn't get clicks though.

The bolded is my problem with Jim! They should have never approached ND and asked that question in the first place. ND's last 4 wasted years is the fault of Sony, not ND.

 

[Klayzer]

And he took away the fun of being a PS gamer. But the PS business is BOOMING! So I gave him an "A" to be fair. But my subjective grade is a "C".

Business side awesome. Gamer side meh. Though the third party JPN games have been stellar.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

The CEO of Playstation should care about both things. Not just the content, but how the whole brand is shown. Gaming used to be very community based. But I fear that it's being pushed too isolated now. It's all virtual. And if you are part of a community, it's not a physical one in any way. It's online gaming with "friends".

CEO of playstation cares about sales. And it may be better to NOT show games off too early to put pressure on teams that are already stretched enough as it is.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Why would Naughty Dog waste 4 years of their lives on something they didn't want to make? It's illogical.

Here's what actually happened...

Sony went to Naughty Dog and said "We're really interested in funding Live Service projects. Is there any interest from anyone at ND?"

Naughty Dog responded "Yeah. Mike, Tom, and Lisa have this idea they want to pursue. We'll spin up a team around them."

4 years later...

Bungie & Sony review Mike, Tom, and Lisa's progress and deem it not worth pursuing.

Common sense doesn't get clicks though.

No

Naughty Dog always wanted to do Factions. It was telegraphed well in advance of TLOU2 launching

Problem is, it wasn't up to their own internal quality and Bungie agreed that it would require a significant investment of resources to keep it relevant, and Naughty Dog made the decision themselves to focus on what they do best instead.

It's an internal mishap similar to SSM in the early PS4 days. You act like Sony forced this and that's simply not true.

 

[Punished Miku]

The CEO of Playstation should care about both things. Not just the content, but how the whole brand is shown. Gaming used to be very community based. But I fear that it's being pushed too isolated now. It's all virtual. And if you are part of a community, it's not a physical one in any way. It's online gaming with "friends".

I agree with you 100%. I tried to articulate that in the last paragraph of my post in here. It's a clear and rapid change from how it used to be. And you really do see the effects trickle down to the fans who also have changed how they act and what they talk about. Oh well.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The bolded is my problem with Jim! They should have never approached ND and asked that question in the first place. ND's last 4 wasted years is the fault of Sony, not ND.

Supporting the creative ambitions of your studios was Jim's job. I get that you're not a fan of that type of game but the "They were forced" narrative is a bit cringe.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

No

Naughty Dog always wanted to do Factions. It was telegraphed well in advance of TLOU2 launching

Problem is, it wasn't up to their own internal quality and Bungie agreed that it would require a significant investment of resources to keep it relevant, and Naughty Dog made the decision themselves to focus on what they do best instead.

It's an internal mishap similar to SSM in the early PS4 days. You act like Sony forced this and that's simply not true.

I suspect Bungie, Sony, and Naughty Dog had a meaty internal review of the project before going into full production and Bungies Live Service expertise informed all parties traits potential trajectory.

No one was forced to do anything. They helped eachother reach the same conclusion.

 

[mckmas8808]

Supporting the creative ambitions of your studios was Jim's job. I get that you're not a fan of that type of game but the "They were forced" narrative is a bit cringe.

Okay.....maybe not forced. You're right. But highly incentivized maybe. ND had no rights to be making a Live Service game at all! If they wanted to continue with Factions, why not just do what Rockstar did with GTA5? Launch it in game. They could have did that with TLOU II: Remake

 

[LavitzSlambert]

D+ for me. I think he mostly coasted off the brilliance of the management from the PS4 era, which was a thing to behold. As far as I could tell, the Ryan era saw a total retreat from communication with fans on almost any level. It was a transition to a sort of "premium brand" type of posturing that feels too cool for E3 shows or casual interviews. A retreat from announcing roadmaps. Closing Japan Studio is literally unforgivable for me. Demoted Shuhei Yoshida.

Seems like they are focusing exclusively on only mainstream AAA blockbuster style games now with less portfolio diversity than I have been accustomed to, less risk, less creativity. Raised prices of games early. Raised price of PS+ extremely aggressively. Hard pivot to GAAS and remakes as far as I can tell for a large chunk of their efforts. PS+ saw improvement so he gets some credit there, but it doesn't really appeal to me much with a library mostly consisting of older games.

He seemed to lack vision and while dominating in sales mostly from PS4 goodwill, didn't seem to know where to take his company in the future. Didn't invest in BC or seem to understand the value of it. Didn't see a GAAS bubble while he put nearly every team on one business model. Didn't see the growing cost of development exploding even though Layden specifically warned about it. Seems his solution for all of that is to just raise prices on PS+ and PS games so consumers foot the bill entirely with no reforms. The head of development studios Connie Booth had to be fired under his watch, and multiple projects have been canceled. Multiple studios have been closed. I felt he was misleading regulators and practically lying during the Activision debacle.

I went from having no Xbox last gen and loving PS4 to feeling entirely alienated from the whole Sony brand by late 2021. It was a drastic shift. I think the whole culture of the PS fandom and the PS culture in general flowed partially from the top, and seemed to gravitate away from the PS3 and PS4 days that included some fun and casual elements. They could crack jokes like the used game sharing video. They had middle management people and indie teams that were public and spoke to fans and journalists. Now it is all silence and seriousness and you see that focus on only speaking about sales numbers and little else throughout the PS fandom, and it started with Ryan.

Well said. The only thing I'd expand upon is by taking less short term risks, he led Sony is taking on immense long term risks by hinging the studio on huge budget, low margin megahits. They are taking a similar approach to how Disney landed Marvel and Star Wars, but tired people out are and left wondering what to do.

 

[Punished Miku]

Well said. The only thing I'd expand upon is by taking less short term risks, he led Sony is taking on immense long term risks by hinging the studio on huge budget, low margin megahits. They are taking a similar approach to how Disney landed Marvel and Star Wars, but tired people out are and left wondering what to do.

Completely agree. And games take about 3x as long to pivot than films if what they make ever happens to fall out of popularity.

 

[hybrid_birth]

F

Not enough enemy crabs.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

ND had no rights to be making a Live Service game at all!

Naughty Dog has built up enough cache to pursue what they want. They already made 3 multiplayer games. The next logical step was a LS multiplayer.

 

[Blindy]

Gets a D for killing off Sony Japan and giving a ho hum response towards the preservation of their retro classic games.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Completely agree. And games take about 3x as long to pivot than films if what they make ever happens to fall out of popularity.

If that happens, I think they're hoping it also takes 3x longer for investors to realize and throw in the towel, lol. Thing is, it doesn't seem like the gaming visionaries have control over the company like in the past. While there is still top notch talent employed at Sony like Cerny, it is really starting to feel hollowed out at the top decision making level. Jim Ryan's departure and Totoki's interim position don't inspire a lot of confidence. Whoever they choose to put at the helm next is going to be a good indicator of what kind of Sony exists now, beyond Jimbo.

 

[rkofan87]

its a d for me guy said bc was bad

 

[Gojiira]

Honestly grade doesnt matter, he did a better job that Phil Spencer and thats all that matters

 

[Humdinger]

Anecdotal and all, but I've been in the Playstation ecosystem since the beginning and this is the least interested I've been in what Sony is delivering.

Same. I haven't been around as long as you -- only since PS3 era -- but I've never been less interested in Sony's first-party lineup than I am today.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

S grade , a ferocious wolverine that even phil spencer was scared of