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[Dazraell]

I think Jim was lucky with PS5, but most of his decisions weren't that great. Last generation we had a lot of strong new IPs, while this generation is mostly remakes, remasters and sequels that doesn't offer anything fresh. Not sure if he greenlighted these games, but I do think they were picked to fit with his strategy. PS Plus tiers, "trials" hidden behind highest tier, paid next-gen upgrades, etc. I'm not a fan of these decisions

He made a very good decision with releasing PlayStation games on PC though

 

[Heisenberg007]

I think Jim was lucky with PS5, but most of his decisions weren't that great. Last generation we had a lot of strong new IPs, while this generation is mostly remakes, remasters and sequels that doesn't offer anything fresh. Not sure if he greenlighted these games, but I do think they were picked to fit with his strategy. PS Plus tiers, "trials" hidden behind highest tier, paid next-gen upgrades, etc. I'm not a fan of these decisions

He made a very good decision with releasing PlayStation games on PC though

To me, Jim's biggest contribution will always be how steadfast he remained amongst all criticism and an intense, funded media campaign against PlayStation, forcing Jim Ryan to put their games day one on PS Plus.

Because of his steadfastness, astute decision-making, and belief in his data and strategy, he made sure that PlayStation won't share the same fate as Xbox's.

That, to me, was incredible from Jim Ryan. I'd have buckled under that much pressure and criticism.

 

[Dazraell]

To me, Jim's biggest contribution will always be how steadfast he remained amongst all criticism and an intense, funded media campaign against PlayStation, forcing Jim Ryan to put their games day one on PS Plus.

Because of his steadfastness, astute decision-making, and belief in his data and strategy, he made sure that PlayStation won't share the same fate as Xbox's.

That, to me, was incredible from Jim Ryan. I'd have buckled under that much pressure and criticism.

I mean, that's fair. These decisions also work from the company points of view as it does bring them profit

That being said, as a consumer I'm not happy about things I've listed. But in the end it doesn't really matter though

As for being against the day one releases on Plus, I do think it was a really good choice on Sony's end

 

[jumpship]

Jim lucked out.

He inherited a company coming straight off the successful work put in by KAZ, Tretton, House and Layden. He's coasted on everything they did right ever since.

He also had a complete fucking idiot in charge of the competition. If XBox had been run by somebody who knew what they were doing, things would be very different right now.

His only actual contributions seemed to be ones designed to fleece the consumer for more money. He's a fucking hack, and I'm glad he's gone.

Respectfully disagree.

To get where they are today took way more than Jim just lucking out or coasting along on past glories.

Just look at the competition, he's managed to outmaneuver a 3 Trillion dollar company absolutely hell bent on spending them out of business this gen (MS wanted them dead lets be honest) and not only manage well through it (doing sales similar to PS2 days in 2023) he now has THEM looking to release THEIR games on his platform. That's fucking massive.

And Phil is no idiot, I'd even say he's smart but he's made far too many bad decisions in gaming or had a good plan but executed it really badly. That's the biggest difference Jim has made many very good decisions that are just taken for granted or go unnoticed.

Internally he made sure to have a good selection of games ready for launch and soon after. Far surpassing PS4. Did a good job converting PS4 gamers to PS5 with 20 free games. Set a goal for PS5 to have the largest games library of any PlayStation in history. Has restructured parts of the company and built teams for continued future growth on console, vr, handheld, pc, mobile, cloud even after he's gone. Dev teams get the time they need No crunch. Massive marketing budget for games for both 1st party and 3rd party.

Did not buckle to media pressure to copy Gamepass or cheap Series S instead built a premium (Apple like) brand associated with quality people are willing to pay extra more for (countering MS's moves to devalue the gaming market, even with the Series fire sales it didn't work).

He did well post pandemic getting supply sorted. Demand far outstripped supply for a long time. Handled the ABK deal well getting 10 years COD instead of 3, extending the regulatory process costing MS extra time and money and effectively neutering the purpose of the deal mid to long term. Neutered the Bethesda aquisition by signing the first releases to come out timed first on PS5 then released the Spider-man PS5 hardware close to Starfield to counter any hardware sales spike for MS. Subtle but very effective.

No, there was no room for coasting by this gen. MS wanted a console war and wanted it settled this gen. Bad decisions or not meeting MS head on would have been punished.

No ego, no bullshit, just tough business tactics and letting the games do the talking. The leader who made the most aggresive form of MS bend the knee.

 

[yurinka]

I think Jim was lucky with PS5, but most of his decisions weren't that great. Last generation we had a lot of strong new IPs, while this generation is mostly remakes, remasters and sequels that doesn't offer anything fresh. Not sure if he greenlighted these games, but I do think they were picked to fit with his strategy. PS Plus tiers, "trials" hidden behind highest tier, paid next-gen upgrades, etc. I'm not a fan of these decisions

He made a very good decision with releasing PlayStation games on PC though

Jim Ryan started in charge of selling PS1s and PS2s in Europe. The were a stunning sucess in Europe outperforming by far any previous console and making Europe the biggest market for PS. In Europe even PS3 and Vita did well. Europe continues being the main PS market, and it's the only gaming platform where this happens.

As CEO grew SIE in many areas: from headcount in all studios, to studio acquisitions, to amount of 1st party games under development, to record 2nd and 3rd party exclusives signed, growth in game subs, cloud gaming, VR, PC, movies and tv shows plus did many key deals with top mobile gaming publishers for future mobile games.

Regarding 1st party games released, he only has been 5 years as CEO and most AAA games take more than that to be made: most of them were approved by previous SIE CEO John Kodera or even Andrew House, plus Hermen Hulst predecessor Shuhei Yoshida. Same goes with the strategy of remasters/remakes + PC ports.

Regarding sequels: as I said most of the game published (and some of the ones to be published) were greenlighted by previous CEO, not him. But regarding the games they have under development, around half of them are new IPs, which is more than they ever had ever before. Both in number and in percentage.

Jim lucked out.

He inherited a company coming straight off the successful work put in by KAZ, Tretton, House and Layden. He's coasted on everything they did right ever since.

No. As top SIE regional salesman for Europe, Jim greatly outperformed the top SIE regional salesmen for NA Tretton and Layden (they never have been SIE CEOs).

Ken Kuragi was the SIE CEO from PS1 until a year after PS3 launch. Then Kaz was CEO until a year before the PS4 release (2012), his work was basically to successfully mess created by the PS3 release (which performed very well in Europe, where Jim was) and to have a proper PS4 and Vita releases. Then during 5 years House was CEO, when some of the stuff we're starting to see now were started (cloud gaming long term vision that soon will be complete, PC ports, GaaS...). Between House and Jim there was John Kodera as transitional CEO during a couple years.

Jim highly grew the amount of workers in all SIE studios, made more acquisitions than ever (including Insomniac, Bungie, Housemarque, Bluepoint and the resurrection of Liverpool Studio & Evolution which is Firesprite), invested more in 3rd parties than ever, signed more 2nd and 3rd party deals than ever, the amount of new IPs under development is higher than ever, successfully expanded their markets via PC and movies/tvs shows and made many deals with top mobile gaming publishers to bring in the future their games.

In the past, some teams like marketing, 2nd party publishing or 3rd party relations had their regional divisions fighting each other and had different visions are strategies causing a lot of chaos and not performing optimally. With Jimbo they were integrated into a global team with a single global vision, opritmizing their performance, productivity and results.

With Jim SIE grew in most KPI metrics and areas faster than before, to achieve many record numbers in gaming history not only for Sony, but for any console maker. Jim inherited a company that already was huge, but partially due to success he had in Europe. He took very smart decisions and implemented very successfully ideas already started in the past with major success. He's the most successful CEO any console maker ever had.

 

[xiskza]

I wonder what he's doing at home now and his reaction