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How would you grade Jim Ryan's tenure as head of PlayStation?
Thick Thighs Save Lives
Gold Member
This thread def should be fun.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Fuck him he's a cunt
Heimdall_Xtreme
Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
F of Fuck him
diffusionx
Gold Member
He oversaw the launch of PS5, which was extremely successful and he dealt with crazy supply chain issues pretty well. They've also been very successful at expanding their brands past just vidya.
But he also promoted Hermann Hulst who is a disaster, launched the PSVR2 and forgot to support it, tried and failed to kill the A-B deal (but that deal may end up not being as big a deal as thought/feared), and he did the pivot to gaashit which is understandable but not going well. Bungie acquisition looks like a disaster. Somehow bungled into a 2024 with no prominent Sony games even though this is the time when they should be peaking.
Edit: voted B because in the end he did the big thing well, and the games have been good.
But he also promoted Hermann Hulst who is a disaster, launched the PSVR2 and forgot to support it, tried and failed to kill the A-B deal (but that deal may end up not being as big a deal as thought/feared), and he did the pivot to gaashit which is understandable but not going well. Bungie acquisition looks like a disaster. Somehow bungled into a 2024 with no prominent Sony games even though this is the time when they should be peaking.
Edit: voted B because in the end he did the big thing well, and the games have been good.
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mansoor1980
Gold Member
S grade , a ferocious wolverine that even phil spencer was scared of
mrMUR_96
Member
A lot of playstation's success this gen was more down to xbox's mistakes rather than playstation being managed well. I love the PS5 hardware but that's down to Mark Cerny and I think ps plus is getting better, but first party output has been a total mess. 4 years in and we've only really had remasters and disappointing cross gen releases. Also totally forgot about psvr2, and it seems sony did too. Seems like a great device, but has been left to die without any games for it.
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BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
He put Returnal and Death Stranding on Steam. A+
Daneel Elijah
Gold Member
A. Mostly because he left before we could see the results of all of his initiatives. I hope that in the next few years some of his choices will make me rethink that and give him a S. But it is possible that it get worse sadly.
Punished Miku
Gold Member
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.
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.
sendit
Member
Chuck Berry
Gold Member
Can we get a Reggie one next
Cyberpunkd
Member
Microsoft/10.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
D. Absolutely horrendous first 3, now 4 years of this generation full of cross gen first party games, remakes and well, 0-1 next gen games from 2022-2024 from a first party that was on top of the world winning GOTYs 5 times between 2013 and 2020. They havent won GOTY in the last three years and wont have anything this year either. they will lose to GTA6 next year. If it wasnt for insomniac single handedly holding the fort, things would be much more dire.
He took arguably the greatest first party portfolio and held it back. Rumors say that GG isnt ready to show Horizon this summer. We are in year 4 and they cant even reveal their first true next gen game? Its likely a 2028 PS6 cross gen title. Imagine having your most talented studio skip an entire generation.
I dont think he's an F like Phil Spencer because despite the fact that the games are cross gen, remakes and rushed like spiderman 2, i still enjoy them more than the average game. But thats not what i want from GOTY caliber studios... slightly above average. I spent $500 on the console because i wanted sony to give me the best that other multiplatform publishing CEOs simply couldnt because they dont sell us a $500 piece of hardware. No one here is an EA fan or an Activision or Ubisoft fan. Jim has turned playstation into EA and Activision levels of quality. Glad he's gone.
He took arguably the greatest first party portfolio and held it back. Rumors say that GG isnt ready to show Horizon this summer. We are in year 4 and they cant even reveal their first true next gen game? Its likely a 2028 PS6 cross gen title. Imagine having your most talented studio skip an entire generation.
I dont think he's an F like Phil Spencer because despite the fact that the games are cross gen, remakes and rushed like spiderman 2, i still enjoy them more than the average game. But thats not what i want from GOTY caliber studios... slightly above average. I spent $500 on the console because i wanted sony to give me the best that other multiplatform publishing CEOs simply couldnt because they dont sell us a $500 piece of hardware. No one here is an EA fan or an Activision or Ubisoft fan. Jim has turned playstation into EA and Activision levels of quality. Glad he's gone.
Games of Today
Member
WTF lolSomeone needs to redo this but with Jim and Phil's face...
Kenneth Haight
Gold Member
Krappadizzle
Member
graywolf323
Member
I think I’d say a B+ overall, he doesn’t have the cult of personality that Spencer does and instead almost seems to have the opposite where he gets a lot of weird hate instead
there are several things I wish they could have done better but the results speak for themselves that he’s been massively successful with the PS5
also while I wish there were more games and some different ones, you can’t deny they’ve been knocking it out of the park with games that are GOTY contenders
there are several things I wish they could have done better but the results speak for themselves that he’s been massively successful with the PS5
also while I wish there were more games and some different ones, you can’t deny they’ve been knocking it out of the park with games that are GOTY contenders
ShadyAcshuns
Member
Another "D" for another dumb ass. He closed down Japanese studios and turned PlayStation into a Western company. He started a bunch of dirty GaaS projects as well. Boo.
poodaddy
Member
F for fuck awful. Managed to cause me more distaste for Sony with every decision he made, to the extent that I hate almost all their exclusives now and have zero interest in anything they have coming up outside of Venom and Wolverine, which as of right now I'm extremely worried will be woked up to fuck. Here's hoping the leadership can go back to Japanese hands at some point and course correct.
Stellar Blade looks great though, so I can say Sony's done something right in the past several years now, so maybe he deserves a D.
Stellar Blade looks great though, so I can say Sony's done something right in the past several years now, so maybe he deserves a D.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
He made XBox go third party. He's King David tier.
Killjoy-NL
Member
S-tier.
His 10-year COD-deal was the final nail in Xbox' coffin.
His 10-year COD-deal was the final nail in Xbox' coffin.
Putonahappyface
Member
ShaiKhulud1989
Gold Member
He literally 3rd-partied his main competitor in cold blood, so in the end our emorional scores doesn't matter.
LectureMaster
Member
I don't like the direction of PS during his leadership. But it's hard to say all happened just because of Jimbo.
Bartski
Gold Member
It's ok bro, I'd be mad too if he banged my girl
kiphalfton
Member
Truly awful Microsoft paint skills.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Jim Ryan believed in generations, and his generation is gone. He doesnt understand why anyone would want to pay attention to old games...So we don't need to give any thought to old CEOs.
Good on him for bringing games to PC and keeping the success of PlayStation 4 going, I guess?
Good on him for bringing games to PC and keeping the success of PlayStation 4 going, I guess?
FunkMiller
Member
C.
He got fucking lucky the other guy was so terrible.
He got fucking lucky the other guy was so terrible.
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
A in my book. Managed PS5 launch through Covid and kept the audience faithful despite MS buying up half the industry.
Also he was right about most of the audience not giving 2 shits about old games, the competition went big on B/C and look where that got them?
Also he was right about most of the audience not giving 2 shits about old games, the competition went big on B/C and look where that got them?
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TropicanaTwista
Member
Was leaning A but settled on B. I think ultimately he's done a really good job, but I think there is some pretty big failures to just give him an A. The launch and then lack of support of PSVR2 is pretty baffling. I loved psvr1 and Sony didn't need to do much to sell me on psvr2. Just, ya know, launch of couple of games for the damn thing and Id have no problem buying it. Not only have they launched jack shit for it, but most (maybe it's all?) Games aren't even BC with VR1. Then there is also the GaAS spree and Bungie acquisition. I think it's possible the GaAS initiative can still turn out ok, but the bungie deal is an absolute disaster. Almost comes across as a panic move in the mist of MS buying publishers.
But again, overall it's a good job. PS still has excellent 3rd party support, continues to do a good of working deals with "2nd party" games and their first party input is still great even if the releases are slower than I would like (tbf, I feel this is more of an industry issue than a Sony issue though). PS hardware is great. It's arguably the most powerful console on the market, also has a pretty underrated handheld which seems to be doing well. All in all, I'm pretty content as a PS gamer.
But again, overall it's a good job. PS still has excellent 3rd party support, continues to do a good of working deals with "2nd party" games and their first party input is still great even if the releases are slower than I would like (tbf, I feel this is more of an industry issue than a Sony issue though). PS hardware is great. It's arguably the most powerful console on the market, also has a pretty underrated handheld which seems to be doing well. All in all, I'm pretty content as a PS gamer.
Fabieter
Member
They lost alot of value while he was ceo so even as a investor it was probably not that good for investors either.
Vlodril
Member
He made sure the 70b ms spend on acti was worthless as far as xbox did. He could have taken earlier deals but he made enough noise that the regulators neutered that buyout and instead of ms having most of their games exclusive to xbox now they are putting their own games on Playstation. I mean just for that he should get an S. I put a b anyway on the poll because he fumbled the poor psvr2 which i had high hopes for. And i realise that it's completely insignificant on the grand scheme of things but i don't care.
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