• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Jim Ryan is on fire

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
2-3 AAA games are adequate.

But games you are counting are not full games. Or not from proven studios.

Again, if you think these detours (TLOU R, TV show etc) are not taking away resources from SP games, I dunno what to tell you.

Neil Druckmann himself directed first season of TV show. Must have eaten a lot of his time.



Damn, wish xbox fans had resolve like this during Xbone reveal, we would have gotten so many cool things like digital game sharing.
Single player 2024 for PS5

Lost Soul Aside
Wolverine
Death Stranding 2
Rise of the Ronin
FF7 Rebirth

And this is just what's announced
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
My bad....it sounded as if he was saying MS would have created a digital system that would have allowed people to sell their digital games to others. Read that wrong.
That is what they believe, yes. I was just elaborating that it would not be that way. That is all PR fluff that came well after the backlash. If that was in the cards, that would have been in the main bullet points at the announcement, it wasn't.

The solution would be a SharePlay like feature, not letting friends borrow digital copies, GTFO, lol. They can do that right now, but they don't. You don't need draconian DRM to facilitate those "goodwill" gestures. It's the carrot dangle, nothing more.
 
Last edited:

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
2-3 AAA games are adequate.

But games you are counting are not full games. Or not from proven studios.

Again, if you think these detours (TLOU R, TV show etc) are not taking away resources from SP games, I dunno what to tell you.

Neil Druckmann himself directed first season of TV show. Must have eaten a lot of his time.
None of this matters, because more and more games continue to come. You said 2-3 AAA games are adequate, Sony has been releasing ~6 AAA games per year.

Your concern would be valid only when the games dry up and Sony publishes fewer than ~2 games in a year.
 

vivftp

Member
Nah come on, SIE knew what they were doing when they wrote that script for him (I doubt he wrote it himself).

Everyone on GAF was like "YAAAASSS!" when he said "we believe in generations" and then later everyone who isn't excessively forgiving remembered it when a bunch of titles ended up being cross-gen. As proof, just look at their very first "future of gaming" show:

Miles Morales: title credits "captured on PS5" - no mention of whether it would be PS5 exclusive or not.
Gran Turismo 7: ... nothing. No mention of any platforms.
Ratchet & Clank: "Built from the ground up for PS5" .. but no mention of whether or not it would be PS5 exclusive
Project Athia (Forspoken): nothing, no mention of platforms.
Stray: no mention of platforms.
Returnal: "this new franchise, coming exclusively to PS5"
Sackboy Adventure: no mention of platforms.
Destruction AllStars: no mention of platforms.
Kena Bridge of Spirits: no mention of platforms.
Goodbye Volcano High: lol
Oddworld Soulstorm: no mention of platforms (but we already knew it was coming to PC so meh)
Ghostwire Tokyo: no mention of platforms.
(I'll skip some of the filler garbage)
Demons Souls: no mention of platforms.
RE Village: no mention of platforms.
Pragmata: no mention of platforms.
Horizon FW: no mention of platforms.

closing statement from Jim Ryan:
.."and you've seen games that can only be enjoyed with the full range of Playstation 5's features and power"
.." we want you to enjoy the unique benefits of moving from one generation to the next"..

So first thing I would say is that (with the sole exception of Returnal for some reason) they were intentionally vague about what games would come to what platforms because they already knew the vast majority were cross-gen and it would make them look like hypocrites... so they choose not to say anything and then we saw all the gaming media outlets trying to catch out SIE's PR people to actually get that information.

[/URL]
Sony had their Future of gaming showcase in June 2020 but didn't reveal that Miles Morales, Sackboy, and Horizon FW would be cross-gen until three months later in September 2020. Assuming they didn't just pull those PS4 versions out of a hat, they knew full-well they'd be coming and chose not to say anything at first.

Additionally, we know that the PS4 community will transition to PS5 at different times, and we’re happy to announce PS4 versions of some of our exclusives. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy A Big Adventure, and Horizon Forbidden West will also launch on PS4. While these three games were designed to take advantage of PS5 and its unique next-gen features like the ultra-high-speed SSD and DualSense controller, PS4 owners will also be able to enjoy these experiences when they launch.

Strange... they didn't seem overly eager to announce PS4 versions during the initial showcase.

Second thing is that when Jim said "games that can only be enjoyed with the full range of PS5 power" he essentially just meant Ratchet & Clank, Returnal, and Demons Souls remake, right? That's a tiny fraction of the games shown and yet he didnt say "a few games" or "some games" he just said "games". That was absolutely intentional.

On top of that, "we want you to enjoy the unique benefits of moving from one generation to the next".. in the end it wasn't really much different from the Xbox Series X launch, right?

Jimbo didn't lie but he sure as hell chose his words extremely carefully and SIE left out details (mainly which games would be cross-gen) that didn't suit them at the time. In hindsight, Xbox was actually far more honest and upfront.

So in other words, marketing. We agree there was no lie told by Jimbo.

As for Sony solely focusing on the PS5 availability of games at the PS5 launch showcase, so what? They were up front about cross gen availability of the games before anyone could ever order a PS5 or pre-order one of those games. Again, it was the PS5 launch showcase, they're allowed to focus on the PS5 availability of those titles at that event. Again, marketing.

Anyways, glad we agree there was no lie told, which is what I was addressing in my post.
 

vivftp

Member
playstation productions has nothing to do with jim ryan.

Other than him greenlighting its existence very soon after he became head of SIE and putting Asad in the role to head up that division?

Asad and all the other people at PS Productions deserve all the credit in the world for the amazing work they do, but they wouldn't be doing that if Jimbo didn't give the go-ahead.
 

supernova8

Banned
So in other words, marketing. We agree there was no lie told by Jimbo.

As for Sony solely focusing on the PS5 availability of games at the PS5 launch showcase, so what? They were up front about cross gen availability of the games before anyone could ever order a PS5 or pre-order one of those games. Again, it was the PS5 launch showcase, they're allowed to focus on the PS5 availability of those titles at that event. Again, marketing.

Anyways, glad we agree there was no lie told, which is what I was addressing in my post.
Must be tired from moving all those goalposts!
"We believe in generations..... so take a look at all these.... cross-generation.... games!"

You said jimbo didn't lie. I also said jimbo didn't lie... but I think what he said/that event entailed was what you might call "economical with the truth".
They capitalized on the whole notion that Xbox would be totally cross-gen forever by creating the illusion that Playstation 5 would have way more next-gen only titles. Reality is that there were only three. Sure three or is more than zero (ie what Xbox had at the time) but they absolutely held back the fact most of those titles were cross-gen to avoid flak. You can use the word "focus on" I'll use the word "intentionally not mention".

Your response to that seems to be basically "so what" so we have nothing more to discuss.
 
Last edited:
he is good at what he does obviously.
and while he won’t win any popularity contests, pretty much prefer his vanilla company suit vibe to phil’s phony your gamer uncle act.

Yeah, Jim Ryan knows his place. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were people at sony that tried to convince him to wear a jumping flash shirt and vans and he was like “no bloody thank you”
 
Last edited:

vivftp

Member
Must be tired from moving all those goalposts!
"We believe in generations..... so take a look at all these.... cross-generation.... games!"

You said jimbo didn't lie. I also said jimbo didn't lie... but I think what he said/that event entailed was what you might call "economical with the truth".
They capitalized on the whole notion that Xbox would be totally cross-gen forever by creating the illusion that Playstation 5 would have way more next-gen only titles. Reality is that there were only three. Sure three or is more than zero (ie what Xbox had at the time) but they absolutely held back the fact most of those titles were cross-gen to avoid flak. You can use the word "focus on" I'll use the word "intentionally not mention".

Your response to that seems to be basically "so what" so we have nothing more to discuss.

For some reason you're trying to treat his interview with GI.biz and their PS5 showcase as the same thing. The article where his quote comes from was very explicit in what he meant by the "believe in generations" quote and went into detail over the course of 2 paragraphs. Nowhere in there was cross-gen mentioned or indicated. He explicitly was talking about features and benefits that the previous gen can't provide and examples were given.

Why it's so hard for some folks to not understand this, I dunno. Jimbo didn't lie (yes, we're agreed) and that segment from his interview had nothing to do with Sonys cross-gen plans. The fact that they chose to focus on the aspect that these were PS5 games at the PS5 LAUNCH EVENT does not mean they were in any way lying or being deceptive. They provided full details well in advance to ensure the public had all the info they needed before laying down a single cent for any of their products.

So yes, if that's the end of our discussion on this topic then good day to you.
 

supernova8

Banned
Why it's so hard for some folks to not understand this, I dunno. Jimbo didn't lie (yes, we're agreed) and that segment from his interview had nothing to do with Sonys cross-gen plans. The fact that they chose to focus on the aspect that these were PS5 games at the PS5 LAUNCH EVENT does not mean they were in any way lying or being deceptive. They provided full details well in advance to ensure the public had all the info they needed before laying down a single cent for any of their products.
Well in advance but conveniently not during the launch event. It's all good. You know my position and I know yours.
 
Jim.Ryan’s.on FIYAHHHHH

alicia keys GIF
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Yo' 2023 is off to a terrible start. And this topic is still being updated? Man has been on Fire since Wednesday and we're worried about Rowling. We, as human beings and ethical gamers, need do better, posthaste
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
TL; DR : I watched Last of Us (which is genuinely good) and now I have a massive Sony boner.

Sony is doing well bud. Your enthusiasm is a bit erect right now.
 

mdkirby

Member
I never understood the bizarre hate for Jim Ryan, nor the almost deification and overwhelming praise for Phil Spencer, who basically just opened his pocket book and bought countless third party studio...yet still struggle to get any games out the door, then cloned PSNOW.
 

makaveli60

Member
So all the initiatives and big moves that SIE made since he took over in 2019 just spontaneously happened without someone at the top to steer the ship? Obviously everything is a massive collaborative effort and hundreds/thousands of people were involved in pulling these things off, but at the end of the day it's still up to the captain to chart the course and steer the ship. If they've done a good job then there's no harm in giving them praise for that, and it takes nothing away from all the effort that those hundreds/thousands of people put into making everything happen.

Under Jimbo we've seen key people installed in specific segments of the business like Shu in the PS Indie initiative, Hermen as head of PS Studios, Asad as head of PS Productions and Nicola Sebastiani as head of their mobile efforts (former Apple Arcade content boss. Source). Captaining the ship also involves appointing the right people to head up each department and so far these picks have been doing a stellar job. Nicola's efforts haven't really materialized yet as the mobile initiative is still incubating.

Also, corporate ass guy? He's not some random shlub, he's been with SIE since 1994 and headed up SIE Europe from 2011 to 2019, helping to solidify Europe as Sonyland. The man knows how to do his job.
Fair enough. I’m sure financial wise he is good but I don’t like the direction Sony took since he took leadership. And all he does is possible only because the previous leadership did a tremendous job in every sense. The PS4 years before him were amazing.
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
Jimbo is the reason PS is so popular in europe. The guy is a legend. :messenger_pouting:
Yeah. He called to the house and said get this MGS game only on Playstation, it's like a movie. He then said remember Meryl's codec is on the back of the game's box. He winked and left to greet my neighbour and helped him drive the cows to the milking parlour. Great guy
 

dugdug

Banned
I love how everyone was so mad when he took over thinking he’d be terrible because he wasn’t friendly like Layden or Spencer.

And like, yeah, he doesn’t use Twitter but he knows how to run a business. It’s almost like he got the job on merit!
 
I love how everyone was so mad when he took over thinking he’d be terrible because he wasn’t friendly like Layden or Spencer.

And like, yeah, he doesn’t use Twitter but he knows how to run a business. It’s almost like he got the job on merit!

I can tell you the people who don't like Jim Ryan have zero passive income..., you just can.

That's essentially what Jim is doing here. Not exactly passive income, but income that can be present if there are any downturns in the console business or when you hit the decline stage in a product life cycle.

He's kept hiring going across studios despite the economy. You see Microsoft laying people off, while Sony is aggressively recruiting. Bethesda has basically had a hiring freeze for the last 6 months. According to linkedin they have 1% headcount growth in the last 6 months... that's mainly keep up with backfills, and now they've laid people off.

343i has -5% head count growth in the last 6 months....

Playground games is up 5% in the last 6 months

Coalition is the same.

The Initiative is down 2%

------------
Naughty Dog is up 9 percent
Insomniac 7 percent
Guerrilla 4 percent
Sucker Punch 11 percent
Bend Studios 18 percent


Usually you see some dip when a game is done or nearly done, like Santa Monica is down 8 percent, but Sony is overall up. Lot's of people have God of War Ragnarok on their resumes and will go on to do something else. Sony isn't reducing workforce.
 

Nubulax

Member
Jim Ryan has been a fairly divisive character, but love him or hate him, he's doing big things for PlayStation.

He'll probably go down as the most consequential CEO of PlayStation (and that includes Ken Kutaragi).

You take a look at PlayStation Productions, and they're probably the hottest Production company on the planet right now. They produced the 13th highest-grossing film of 2022 and have what will probably be the biggest hit new show of 2023 (obviously it's early in 2023 and they've only shown one episode, but based on season reviews, I expect people will be pleased).

PlayStation Productions has the potential to transform the entire company's model. We're talking about billions of dollars in potential annual net income. PlayStation Productions is uniquely qualified to manage it's own IP via PlayStation Studios and Sony Interactive Entertainment, but also to acquire new IP within the spectrum of Sony Group's catalog of companies.

Take a book or graphic novel... There isn't a company on the planet that can DEVELOP a game based on that book (at a high quality), PRODUCE a TV Show or movie, AND DISTRIBUTE that TV Show or movie.

What this means is that Sony can use the revenue that they generate from PlayStation Productions and put it back into IP development AND IP acquisition, with the full knowledge that by hitting on their marks on the TV Show/Movie they can pretty easily recover from their investment.

Let's say that companies were bidding for the all-out rights to Metal Gear Solid. What company could develop a AAA game for Metal Gear Solid, make the movie, AND distribute the movie?

That makes out-bidding on IP significantly easier.

The more successful PlayStation Productions gets, the more talent they're going to hire, the more consistent they're going to be. No production company on the planet has a continuous stream of IP available to them aside from Marvel Studios (but even with Marvel Studios it's largely limited to existing characters). You look at Disney and why they're remaking all of their animated hits, and it's because they're fairly surefire hits. Even the bombs like Dumbo at least broke even (budget x2).

When you look at what Jim Ryan has done expanding the PlayStation brand beyond console games: Movies, TV, PC Games... even doubling down on VR... I just don't understand how he gets so much hate. He is almost certainly going to be the next CEO of Sony Group. He's navigated SIE through the pandemic and global supply chain shortage, and has positioned Sony and SIE to be more profitable than they've ever been before.
Meanwhile Phil is out here getting awards left and right lol for.... idk.. hopes and dreams for years now
 
Last edited:

Dlacy13g

Member
So, is it safe to assume 3rd person action games will remain the staple of Playstation as they are the driver of the games IP to movie/tv success.
 
Among other types of games with the studios that they bought. I'm expecting more variety in the future.

The variety is to hit new revenue types like Battle Royale games, FPS, and such...

But Sony is going to double down on AAA 3rd person games after TLOU.

Imagine TLOU, TLOUR, TLOU2, TLOUP1 collectively sell another 10 million copies across PS3, PS4, PS5, and PC... that is a minimum 250 million dollars. That doesn't include the hundreds of millions they'll be making from the show, collectibles, clothing etc.

This from a franchise people thought was dead 2 years ago. We haven't even seen what it'll make from Factions.
 
Last edited:

vivftp

Member
The variety is to hit new revenue types like Battle Royale games, FPS, and such...

But Sony is going to double down on AAA 3rd person games after TLOU.

Imagine TLOU, TLOUR, TLOU2, TLOUP1 collectively sell another 10 million copies across PS3, PS4, PS5, and PC... that is a minimum 250 million dollars. That doesn't include the hundreds of millions they'll be making from the show, collectibles, clothing etc.

This from a franchise people thought was dead 2 years ago. We haven't even seen what it'll make from Factions.
People who thought TLOU was dead 2 years ago don't deserve to have their opinions considered in any serious and meaningful discussion.
 
People who thought TLOU was dead 2 years ago don't deserve to have their opinions considered in any serious and meaningful discussion.

The game definitely sold less than they had hoped for compared to say Uncharted 4.

The fact was for a while it looked like Naughty Dog might very well move on, pretty much until they announced the show and the remake and then word of the MP picked up steam.
 

vivftp

Member
The game definitely sold less than they had hoped for compared to say Uncharted 4.

The fact was for a while it looked like Naughty Dog might very well move on, pretty much until they announced the show and the remake and then word of the MP picked up steam.

Not at all. We have no idea what Sonys projections were for the game so we have no way to say that it sold less than they had hoped for. The game sold over 10 million copies in under 2 years and was a single SKU since the PS5 had BC for the PS4 version. It's continued to chart all the time and is now getting a mega boost along with the various incarnations of the original game with the release of the HBO series. With the more recent figures Naughty Dog have put out, folks seem to think TLOU2 is sitting around 12-13 million now.

In comparison the original game took over 6 years to hit 20 million and that was across 2 SKUs since there was no BC for the PS3 version on PS4. Uncharted 4 took 3.5 years to hit 16 million. As of right now, TLOU2 is easily charting in line with those titles.

There exists no reality where Naughty Dog were moving on from the IP after the release of TLOU2. That only existed in the heads of delusional haters and people who couldn't see past their own agendas.
 
Not at all. We have no idea what Sonys projections were for the game so we have no way to say that it sold less than they had hoped for. The game sold over 10 million copies in under 2 years and was a single SKU since the PS5 had BC for the PS4 version. It's continued to chart all the time and is now getting a mega boost along with the various incarnations of the original game with the release of the HBO series. With the more recent figures Naughty Dog have put out, folks seem to think TLOU2 is sitting around 12-13 million now.

In comparison the original game took over 6 years to hit 20 million and that was across 2 SKUs since there was no BC for the PS3 version on PS4. Uncharted 4 took 3.5 years to hit 16 million. As of right now, TLOU2 is easily charting in line with those titles.

There exists no reality where Naughty Dog were moving on from the IP after the release of TLOU2. That only existed in the heads of delusional haters and people who couldn't see past their own agendas.

The Last of Us (7 million) outsold each of the Uncharted games before (6.6 million for uc3) it and the remaster outsold (10 million) the original game.

Uncharted 4 (16 million) with a larger userbaes than the ps3 sold more than the last of us remastered.

They had every reason to believe that tlou2 would sell probably around 20 million copies and it sold more like 10 million copies.

This idea that we have no idea what sony projected for a game twice as big as the first last of us and naughty dog's biggest franchise with a console with a larger userbase in the middle of a pandemic where people were spending money left and right... is ridiculous.
 

vivftp

Member
The Last of Us (7 million) outsold each of the Uncharted games before (6.6 million for uc3) it and the remaster outsold (10 million) the original game.

Uncharted 4 (16 million) with a larger userbaes than the ps3 sold more than the last of us remastered.

They had every reason to believe that tlou2 would sell probably around 20 million copies and it sold more like 10 million copies.

This idea that we have no idea what sony projected for a game twice as big as the first last of us and naughty dog's biggest franchise with a console with a larger userbase in the middle of a pandemic where people were spending money left and right... is ridiculous.

No, it's us not knowing what their internal projections were so concluding that they MUST have been disappointing is stupid. The game sold over 4 million copies in its first 3 days. If we take only 4 million and the baseline price of $60 USD (ignoring the deluxe edition and collectors editions), that's 240 million dollars they made in the games opening 3 days, easily enough to cover the dev costs (as SIE's larger games typically hit around $100 million budget) and almost certainly the marketing costs. Everything else after that is gravy. and current estimates have it at 12-13 million and continuing to grow. Do you honestly think that any publisher on the planet would walk away from an IP that does that?

Anyways, putting that aside for the moment if you want to continue to maintain this silly narrative that they were ready to walk away from the IP after the release of TLOU2 in 2020, let me shoot that down for you.

- TLOU MP was spun off from being the MP component to TLOU2 in 2019 because its ambitions were growing far larger than just being a tacked on MP mode. This decision was made well before anyone could spend a single cent on buying TLOU2 so they were not planning to walk away from the IP

- TLOU HBO was announced March 2020, months before TLOU2 shipped. They were not walking away from the IP

- TLOU Part 1 began work under VASG in collaboration with Naughty Dog back in 2019 and the entire story after that is history. They were not walking away from the IP.


So no, they were NOT walking away from The Last of Us IP at any point before or after the launch of TLOU2. To argue that is monumentally stupid, ignores all the facts and shows how moronic the discourse over the game has become in a certain subsection of people.
 
Last edited:
No, it's us not knowing what their internal projections were so concluding that they MUST have been disappointing is stupid. The game sold over 4 million copies in its first 3 days. If we take only 4 million and the baseline price of $60 USD (ignoring the deluxe edition and collectors editions), that's 240 million dollars they made in the games opening 3 days, easily enough to cover the dev costs (as SIE's larger games typically hit around $100 million budget) and almost certainly the marketing costs. Everything else after that is gravy. and current estimates have it at 12-13 million and continuing to grow. Do you honestly think that any publisher on the planet would walk away from an IP that does that?

Anyways, putting that aside for the moment if you want to continue to maintain this silly narrative that they were ready to walk away from the IP after the release of TLOU2 in 2020, let me shoot that down for you.

- TLOU MP was spun off from being the MP component to TLOU2 in 2019 because its ambitions were growing far larger than just being a tacked on MP mode. This decision was made well before anyone could spend a single cent on buying TLOU2 so they were not planning to walk away from the IP

- TLOU HBO was announced March 2020, months before TLOU2 shipped. They were not walking away from the IP

- TLOU Part 1 began work under VASG in collaboration with Naughty Dog back in 2019 and the entire story after that is history. They were not walking away from the IP.


So no, they were NOT walking away from The Last of Us IP at any point before or after the launch of TLOU2. To argue that is monumentally stupid, ignores all the facts and shows how moronic the discourse over the game has become in a certain subsection of people.

None of that suggests there was definitely going to be a 3rd game.

 

vivftp

Member
None of that suggests there was definitely going to be a 3rd game.

[/URL]


🤦‍♂️
SMDH dude, Neil is not gonna announce plans for a third game in a random interview. He'd receive an insurmountable amount of shit from his bosses and SIE's marketing department for announcing a game in an unauthorized manner. He's still an employee of Sony and can't speak out of turn.

I've provided you with ample evidence that Naughty Dog had no plans to step away from the IP before TLOU 2 launched, so just take the loss and admit you were wrong. People are allowed to be wrong.
 
🤦‍♂️
SMDH dude, Neil is not gonna announce plans for a third game in a random interview. He'd receive an insurmountable amount of shit from his bosses and SIE's marketing department for announcing a game in an unauthorized manner. He's still an employee of Sony and can't speak out of turn.

I've provided you with ample evidence that Naughty Dog had no plans to step away from the IP before TLOU 2 launched, so just take the loss and admit you were wrong. People are allowed to be wrong.

So he'll announce that they have a story outline?

The reality that you don't want to realize is that there were questions as to whether this IP was the best use of their time.

The same goes for Uncharted as well with whether Naughty Dog would continue making the games, a question that still exists today.

You just got a link where Neil himself said they didn't have a plan to make the game, well after the 2nd game was released and you think your theory based on decisions around the IP that don't include a sequel suggest that you "won" this argument... That's laughable.
 

Elios83

Member
Jim has a huge experience and he's a very skilled businessman in the gaming market, he's transforming and expanding SIE in the right way. The fact that some fans don't like him because he doesn't pretend to be a fellow gamer and good guy on socials is irrelevant for his job.
 
Top Bottom