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Jim Ryan will go unsung for his contributions in keeping Playstation as a platform competitive

PSYGN

Member
He's probably good for business in the long run and is building out an escape hatch should Sony not be in the position of making consoles anymore (or not selling them to such a high degree) a generation or two down the line as game streaming tech continues to improve in service and affordability (I know, I also hate the thought).

That said, I don't really care for him.
 
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Thats why to me doing pc day 1 doesn’t make a lot of sense. They will inevitably get those pc players that own ps5’s buying their copies on ps5 and then double dipping later on pc. They will always get two sales instead of one.

Its not like pc players have any other option other than waiting for it to come to pc if they dont want to play it on consoles. They aren’t losing sales by staggering the releases

Another part of Sony's strategy I think, is that they also want to convince PC gamers who don't have PS5s, to pick them up. And I think by staggering the releases to where (in most cases) the PC port for a game is within a year or so to the launch of a sequel or new main installment on PS5, is probably the best balance.

Especially if they can release expansion content for those games in the meantime that they can package together in an "Ultimate Edition" for PC along with the usual bells & whistles. I think that's the ideal strategy for the single-player games (although I doubt they actually port every single-player game to PC); the live-service GaaS titles? Those should probably be Day 1 especially if they are utilizing a F2P model, because in the case of those games it's not a great idea to fracture the playerbases across different platforms.

To be fair I was using the then common association with the term in society and the industry back then , not a general definition for it. Yeah a casual games player wasn't going to buy a space shooter but those were generally not put under the "hard core" umbrella when the term was used then. That would usually be reserved for games like Shenmue or the like. Looking back a game like VF3 is considered hardcore, but back then it was another 3D fighting game (the Dreamcast release not the 1996 arcade version) just like Tekken Tag on the PS2, those weren't the hardcore games of the time though those were in a saturated genre from brands people knew. Armored Core 2, MDK, Time Splitters were the hardcore games then, Hardcore was about what the gamer gamers were playing, not so much effort back then.

Yeah, I think it just basically comes down to what's an agreed-upon definition. I know another popular definition for hardcore gamers at that time, maybe from the actual gaming hobbyist community, was for people who played the toughest games and mastered them. The more mastery, the better, and the more hardcore you were.

That obviously isn't the case anymore. So you may be defining it from the industry POV of the time, I'm mainly speaking of it from what gamers themselves considered a hardcore gamer of that era. I think both definitions work depending on context.

Actually the Xbox One X outsold the PS4 Pro in the US https://wccftech.com/analyst-xbox-one-sales-35-million/ and I think UK too originally, though we never got much int he way of sales updates for ether consoles later on. UK https://www.destructoid.com/xbox-on...n-the-uk-top-ps4-pros-50000-first-week-total/

That's an interesting find, but the first article is from 4 years ago which doesn't seem like that far after the One X's launch. We never got final estimates on sales for either, just some general statements like "one PS4 Pro for every five PS4s" from Sony.

I wouldn't be surprised too much if One X outsold PS4 Pro at least in first few months or so launch-aligned; Xbox gamers were probably a lot more hungry for a beefier Xbox than PS gamers were for a stronger PS, plus Sony were already deep into PSVR by that point, so that audience might've been more spent for cash. And with America in particular, even tho XBO struggled globally it was still doing pretty decent in NA so I'd of expected the majority of One X's to sell there.

However I'd be surprised if One X outsold PS4 Pro overall, especially globally, considering the push of Sony 1P games from 2017 - 2020 that saw some big benefits via the PS4 Pro. I'm also unsure if the Pro was manufactured longer than the One X; it may not have been but I don't know.
https://www.destructoid.com/xbox-on...n-the-uk-top-ps4-pros-50000-first-week-total/
You are right that the Pro models for both XBO and PS4 were done to get closer to PC graphics and stop drift. With the PS5 PC ports, imo they won't be doing much to Sonys consoles sales if 3 gens of Xbox is anything to go by.

Well TBF, MS weren't doing Day 1 for 1P releases until XBO gen. Otherwise they always came to the console first and then got PC ports later. With both 360 and OG Xbox there were plenty of console exclusives that IIRC either never got PC ports or got them years later.

With PS 1P ports to PC, I think it's still up for debate as to what specific impacts those may have on PS revenue and profit margins. Because Sony's business model isn't necessarily like Microsoft's, and at the wider company level they are wildly different for some very obvious reasons. It also (IMO) doesn't help that we don't get more detailed numbers on the Xbox side when it comes to specific segment revenues and profits, because it's a bit difficult to ascertain in what ways their console division is actually performing.

That said tho I generally agree 1P ports from Sony to PC won't have too much an effect on console sales or overall console revenue especially if they remain clearly staggered out between versions. Actually I think lack of a lower-profile companion device (be it either a lower-powered console or a portable handheld more specifically) could have longer-lasting impacts especially if the general trend of people going outdoors more and travelling again continues (which, hopefully, it does because I don't think ANYONE wants more stuff like COVID or lockdowns cropping up ever again).
 
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GametimeUK

Member
Aside from attempting to close the PS3 and Vita stores (and his general attitude to classic games) I think he's doing amazing things to develop PlayStation as an eco system.

They are making some great moves to catch up to Microsoft in this space and in some ways have a better aspects to their eco system.

I look forward to see what's next.
 
I wouldn't be surprised too much if One X outsold PS4 Pro at least in first few months or so launch-aligned; Xbox gamers were probably a lot more hungry for a beefier Xbox than PS gamers were for a stronger PS, plus Sony were already deep into PSVR by that point, so that audience might've been more spent for cash. And with America in particular, even tho XBO struggled globally it was still doing pretty decent in NA so I'd of expected the majority of One X's to sell there.

However I'd be surprised if One X outsold PS4 Pro overall, especially globally,
I would because the PS4 was treated after the first few months as bad or worse than the PS5D now. While Microsoft treated the One X like it was the Series X 3 years early.

Remember Xbox positioned the Xbox One X almost on the level of a new console launch alongside the S, as if the Xbox One was relaunching. The One X was hyped to heaven and codenamed Scorpio and forums and media were freaking out about all the promises made for it, 4K 60fps, advanced VR, Highpowered sound, something about 500 billion transistors, High Fidelity latency (I still don't know what that is), they had the silhouette of the shell at the E3 it was shown at with all the typical fonts and pictures at the bottom of the screen followed by "coming in 2017" almost exactly like how new consoles were launched.

Even after launch it was pushed as the flagship Xbox console, at E3 when the name was revealed everyone was wearing shorts saying, and I'm paraphrasing" "Today, with lord as our witness we have seen the most powerful gaming hardware in all existence" :messenger_astonished: and outside the paraphrasing I'm not being hyperbolic about the shirts. They were in fact so bold with the system they revealed the price to be $500, the price that hurt their launch momentum with the original Xbox One, and all the marketing in the press was changed as if the original Xbox One never existed.

DCEGAECXUAI3K09.jpg

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It was pushed as a "new Xbox" every country it was shipped in including Japan even though it wasn't a new console. The investment and goals were completely different compared to Sony and the PS4Pro. Two mid-gen machines aiming for two different things. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the One X outsold the Pro overall.

Of course, such a powerful device couldn't receive a discount and if not mistaken any deal with the Xbox One X like a free game packed in lost money, unless it was just the console itself. That would explain why they never officially dropped the cost, if the PS4Pro as of last year was still $399 outside of those times there were temporary $50 price cuts, than those profit margins must have been razor thin for the Xbox One X if anything outside just buying the console at $500 lost money.

Well TBF, MS weren't doing Day 1 for 1P releases until XBO gen. Otherwise they always came to the console first and then got PC ports later. With both 360 and OG Xbox there were plenty of console exclusives that IIRC either never got PC ports or got them years later.

With PS 1P ports to PC, I think it's still up for debate as to what specific impacts those may have on PS revenue and profit margins. Because Sony's business model isn't necessarily like Microsoft's, and at the wider company level they are wildly different for some very obvious reasons. It also (IMO) doesn't help that we don't get more detailed numbers on the Xbox side when it comes to specific segment revenues and profits, because it's a bit difficult to ascertain in what ways their console division is actually performing.

That said tho I generally agree 1P ports from Sony to PC won't have too much an effect on console sales or overall console revenue especially if they remain clearly staggered out between versions. Actually I think lack of a lower-profile companion device (be it either a lower-powered console or a portable handheld more specifically) could have longer-lasting impacts especially if the general trend of people going outdoors more and travelling again continues (which, hopefully, it does because I don't think ANYONE wants more stuff like COVID or lockdowns cropping up ever again).

Covid has been cropping up but lockdowns are political suicide these days

You are right that while there were some same release xbox/PC games in the past, there were many timed exclusives or permanent exclusives on Xbox. Thing is the reason why Xbox started being more open to PC starting late 360 was that originally, Microsoft wanted a unified ecosystem that revolved around WIndows 8 and the Windows Store, and when that fell through they tried again with the Universal WIndows strategy which also failed. Kinect was also supposed to be integrated across all you devices from Xbox, to PC, and even Windows Phone, which at one point used to be a major pillar of the old abandoned strategy.

Things are different now, You have Xbox connected to PC through apps and now Gamepass with steam on the side, Xcloud allowing games to reach a broad range of devices no longer requiring investment in WIndows Phones, a universal currency, and interconnected Azure servers running it all. This was always the plan with Xbox since at least 2011 to have an open connection with PC. The difference is instead of trying this strategy with multiple walled gardens banded together with silly string, they are using an open football field.

This is also why along with historical precedent set by Xbox, that 1P PC ports from Sony won't impact PS5 negatively in anyway, but will positively increase sales for Sony's more popular titles. Sony is still a closed garden it's not embracing PC by giving away a few ports.
 

Lysandros

Member
Can you believe that we still dont know the system ram allocation for the PS5?

Surely thats the kind of spec that needs to be listed on the product spec list. We have seen what a low memory allocation can do to consoles before. PS3s split ram architecture was a disaster and Series S's 10 GB of RAM with just 7.5 GB of RAM has raised some red flags from some devs. If the PS5's OS is using a lot more than the 2.5 GB of VRAM the XSX and XSS use then surely their consumers need to know.

The whole Machine Learning, VRS and mesh shaders debacle couldve easily been cleared up by Cerny doing some press rounds. if they have the same functionality under a different name, tell us. If you dont support it, you dont support it. No need to hide it.
I wholeheartedly agree. That's 100% on Jim Ryan. Sony is being completely pathetic and insecure on that front. Hell, they didn't even officially listed rasterization and fill rate figures for PS5. Not a single word on dot instructions etc. The amount of secrecy and radio silence of developers is unprecedented. They are afraid of North Korea stealing their technology or something?
 
It's so weird to think a CEO had to be charismatic, it has very little to do with the job basically. This new misconception seems to mostly come from weirdos that think Phil Spencer is their personal friend.

And on that note I prefer the block of wood that keeps delivering quality content than the cool dude that doesn't.
A CEO is literally the physical mouthpiece of a company. If the CEO seems like a dick, then people associate the company and it's products negatively as well.

Also, blaming Phil Spencer for this says a lot more about you than it does him lol. Acting like people didn't literally worship Steve Jobs as a genius when he was alive or Elon Musk for the past decade. Maybe you should get out from under your rock?
 

Barakov

Member
This guy seems to get non-stop shit from playstation fans and the general gaming media. I think it’s most likely to do with the idea that he doesn’t come off as a ‘gamer’ and for some reason since execs like Shuhei and Phil Spencer started showing games they play and interacting with fans it’s become a pre-requisite to run a company. Now people think in order to run a gaming business you have to have a high gamer score or earn a new platinum trophy every week.

Joining Welcome Home GIF


I think If fans had it their way SIE would only be releasing AAAA blockbuster single player games, 30/30, and half of them would be Japanese games published by Japan Studio or JRPG’s specifically. Playstation would be going the way of Sega, relying on solely the ps5 to sell 5-15m copies of 4 games every year.

Jim Ryan is a big brain that knows exactly where the industry is heading. its heading F2P, services, cloud, multiplayer, shared experience, etc. Sony expanding into PC will pay dividends when inevitably digital becomes even MORE prominent than it is now. It will pay of when people get even more comfortable streaming games, and forgoing hardware in the far future. It’s already paying off now with E-Sports, and evergreen first party titles. It would be absolutely boneheaded for sony to rest on their laurels of 1st party console dominance of last gen while Microsoft slowly monopolize the pc and mobile space.

Not only that but the GAAS initiative. It may as well be a curse word to Sony fans. Fans want single player, single player, single player, but they don’t make a fraction of the money that popular service games do. Even Nintendo’s biggest selling games don’t really bring in the same revenue as popular GAAS titles, it will just never compare. Now that we see the impact that taking COD off sony consoles can have, it makes sense that sony has more than just AAAAA big budget games that sell 10 million copies, to carry them. Sony needs an Apex, Fortnite, GTAO, Warzone, Minecraft, etc…or I really don’t see them having much of a competitive edge in the future. These are the important goals to have, not buying square enix for even more exclusivity to a franchise that sells 7 million copies.

A gaming enthusiast think they can ignore the casual gaming market which is why they hate Jim Ryan because he’s forced to acknowledge the casuals, and less so the enthusiast. The ‘real gamers’ are starting to feel like second class citizens on playstation and they are not coping well with it. they aren’t coping with how no one cares about them because they aren’t spending money on games.

Enthusiast like to pretend they’re the ones that shake things up and move the culture forward but they’re not. Most of you don’t even buy games brand new you wait until they are discounted and put on service, or whine about how its too expensive and then cry about Japan Studio closing down cause their entire generation of ps3 and ps4 game sold the equivalent to a week of fortnite MTX.

Jim Ryan is the hero you deserve.
IbAWwb7.gif
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
All this bitterness over Ryan does no go unspent. It gathers through the ether, forming an ever larger, ever denser, ever more sinister unseen and unfelt cloud that swirls about Jim Ryan like a hurricane. Slowly, it feeds his power. Hungrily, it yearns to be felt.

When he finally retires on stage at some conference he will activate that power, causing a concussive blast knocking everyone within hundreds of meters around him to their knees. Then he will jog off in slow motion, smiling, pointing up at the sky like a head coach who just won the Super Bowl.

Anyways, he's just some boring executive who like all others in his position relies mostly on the advice and analysis of those working for him. And like all of the others before him, only dorks like us even know who the man is.
 

John Wick

Member
He's a stiff with zero personality. Out of touch with gamers and just a reactionary figure. He has no vision or real leadership skills.
£70 games were on his watch. Paid upgrades, price rise, hasn't purchased not even one Zenimax size pub/dev. Should have purchased FromSoft after Sekiro
 
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Esppiral

Member
I don't care if he doesn't play games or even if he doesn't like them (like it seems) as long as he finds a balance between what the business and their customers need, but it doesn't seem to be the case, he only chase profits no matter what, and it will pay dividends sooner than he thinks....
 

marjo

Member
Jim Ryan reminds me of Disney's Bob Chapek. Someone who is capitalizing on his predecessor's successes but will eventually devalue the brand in the name of short term profits.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
This guy seems to get non-stop shit from playstation fans and the general gaming media. I think it’s most likely to do with the idea that he doesn’t come off as a ‘gamer’ and for some reason since execs like Shuhei and Phil Spencer started showing games they play and interacting with fans it’s become a pre-requisite to run a company. Now people think in order to run a gaming business you have to have a high gamer score or earn a new platinum trophy every week.

I don’t think that’s what it is personally.

If PS hadn’t have charged a £10 upgrade fee and had only increased the cost of First Party games by £5 or £10 instead of £20, I think people would like him a lot more.

The own goal with trying to shut down the PS3/Vita stores when 50m people are paying for Plus (which supposedly goes towards infrastructure costs).

If Jim Ryan had said ‘we’re in a pandemic, and coming off the back of 2 years of record breaking profits for PlayStation, we’re going to absorb the increased manufacturing costs and actually reduce the price of the PS5 to £399’ no one would give a fuck that he looks and sounds like a suit.

The fact is at every cross roads where he could have built good will he (or Sony) have taken the other route.

3 minor things there and I guarantee the overall mood regarding Sony’s leadership would be Sky high.
 
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Keeping PlayStation "competitive"? Competitive won't cut it when you're PlayStation.

That's like Alabama football hoping to be competitive. They're way past that. They are expected to dominate every time. They set the bar themselves.

If we get to the point where Sony is trying to keep PS5 competitive with Series X, the current CEO needs to go.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Keeping PlayStation "competitive"? Competitive won't cut it when you're PlayStation.

That's like Alabama football hoping to be competitive. They're way past that. They are expected to dominate every time. They set the bar themselves.

If we get to the point where Sony is trying to keep PS5 competitive with Series X, the current CEO needs to go.

Alabama football has the most resources of any college football team...which is why they win.

Kinda like XBox with 30+ studios, GamePass, and an operating budget that dwarfs their competitors.
 
Alabama football has the most resources of any college football team...which is why they win.

Kinda like XBox with 30+ studios, GamePass, and an operating budget that dwarfs their competitors.
Technically, Texas does. And Texas keeps falling WAY below expectations.

Alabama only has become the place players choose first because of their success.

Hate to call PlayStation Alabama and Xbox Texas, because I hate both of those programs. But, that fits this analogy.

Boomer Sooner.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Technically, Texas does. And Texas keeps falling WAY below expectations.

Alabama only has become the place players choose first because of their success.

Hate to call PlayStation Alabama and Xbox Texas, because I hate both of those programs. But, that fits this analogy.

Boomer Sooner.

Resources are players in college football. Alabama routinely has the best recruiting class each year. That's why they seem to do the best year in and year out.

XBox has the studio advantage now. They're Alabama.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
lol Hilarious how this thread was made weeks before he increased the PS5 price tag.

Sad that no one bumped it then. Wouldve been hilarious.
 
I like Phil’s personality better, but Jim hired Cerny, right? Cerny has turned out to be an absolute gem for Sony.

Sony’s PR tho is pretty bad. But I can excuse it because their first party IP delivers and the Dualsense is amazing.
I dont give a fuck about personality of some bobo from a company, and Phil Spencer is like a secondhand carsalesman, lying trough his teeth, and flipfloping his steatments as they suits him.
The worshipping of that guy is making me vomit. And i dont care who the bobo from Sony is, as long as the games are coming i'am good, and thats what is is doing...
 

Belthazar

Member
A CEO is literally the physical mouthpiece of a company. If the CEO seems like a dick, then people associate the company and it's products negatively as well.

Also, blaming Phil Spencer for this says a lot more about you than it does him lol. Acting like people didn't literally worship Steve Jobs as a genius when he was alive or Elon Musk for the past decade. Maybe you should get out from under your rock?

Steve Jobs was cherished for what he delivered on his field, not because he was charismatic. Same could be said for Elon Musk (even though I personally don't think he offers that much of value to the world).

Phil Spencer is specifically praised for seeming like a cool dude and that's weird. All I see when people praise him is "he's so genuine", "he sounds like he really cares about gamers" and other bullcrap.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Resources are players in college football. Alabama routinely has the best recruiting class each year. That's why they seem to do the best year in and year out.

XBox has the studio advantage now. They're Alabama.
A. Eggball is so funny.
B. Nintendo are always on top.
 

FunkMiller

Member
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.
 
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Jim was an effective leader who maintained and further cemented Playstation's dominance in the market after an already successful period of the PS4, he wasn't perfect but he understood his assignment and did it well.
 
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Hudo

Member
I'll remember Jim for releasing Playstation games on PC. That was a good move (for me).

I'll also remember Jim for ignoring Wipeout, Motorstorm and Gravity Rush. And doubling down on badly written "cinematic" games and Marvel stuff.

He's a solid 5/10.
 

Yoboman

Member
I'll remember Jim for releasing Playstation games on PC. That was a good move (for me).

I'll also remember Jim for ignoring Wipeout, Motorstorm and Gravity Rush. And doubling down on badly written "cinematic" games and Marvel stuff.

He's a solid 5/10.
He was CEO of SIE not PlayStation Studios. His role was never to greenlight games
 
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