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[ReBurn]

Mr. Shu is the one making deals with the new Asian big players like Mihoyo, Shift Up, or Kuro. Jimbo doesn't even know who those are.

Playstation Studios needs execs who actually play games (lots of them) and can tell the good from the bad (Godfall, All Stars, cough cough), people who stop chasing trends that end up in wrong acquisitions. IMO it's imperative that tne next CEO is chosen from outside the Californian hivemind that is ruining Sony Pictures and slowly eroding PS Studios.

They should keep Totoki, then. He's from outside the California hivemind and wants to know what the people in the studios are sitting around doing all day.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

Could someone explain why Jim Ryan was so disliked? He didn't seem to anything controversial as far as I know

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

They should keep Totoki, then. He's from outside the California hivemind and wants to know what the people in the studios are sitting around doing all day.

No, he's a finance man, the kind of guy you appoint to clean the house so that the real CEO takes over without burdens.

 

[Kacho]

Could someone explain why Jim Ryan was so disliked? He didn't seem to anything controversial as far as I know

Heavy GAAS focus, enjoying the success of games approved by Layden and Yoshida, first party content has since slowed to a crawl. Something like that.

 

[ReBurn]

No, he's a finance man, the kind of guy you appoint to clean the house so that the real CEO takes over without burdens.

He doesn't have to clean house because Jim Ryan already did it for him. He can focus on working the purple dye right out of the development team's hair.

 

[archangelmorph]

Haven's not proven itself to be a liability or a benefit at this time, and frankly, neither has Bungie. Destiny 2 is an old game that was eventually going to run into problems, and all of this corporate politicking and journalist crusading will be moot depending on what they do going forward.

Media Molecule is on their last chance to do something and do something significant. They are also British. I know the rule is to lump every country in the west as one entity, but PlayStation has largely pulled dev capital out of Britain for similar reasons to why they pulled out of Japan.

As for relying on Asian partners, i will point out that one of them is not Japanese as was made the subject by what I quoted. And so what? That's what these third party deals are for, irrespective of where the games come from.

Going into the specifics makes things look much less impressive for something to be "relied upon". FF7 Rebirth is a critical success, but sales for this FF7 project have been so mild as to cause meltdowns on the internet. Plus, people can't decide if they love or hate Square Enix depending on the day.

Rise of The Ronin doesn't even have the critical clout, and if you told me it would sell more than 4-5 million lifetime across all platforms, I'd be surprised.

We'll see how Stellar Blade does, but I would be surprised if it really boosts the sales profile. I'm supportive of the unapologetic attitude of the devs in its character design, but that seems to be the biggest thing it has going for it.

And don't forget Helldivers 2, which blows the success of any of their Asian partner titles thus far out of the water. Being on PC dilutes the benefit, I get it, but still.

Elden Ring though...

 

[Humdinger]

Could someone explain why Jim Ryan was so disliked? He didn't seem to anything controversial as far as I know

He wasn't a gamer, and he lacked the interpersonal skill/charisma of figures like Phil Spencer with his gaming t-shirts or even his predecessor, Shawn Layden -- who was not exactly Mr. Charisma but came across like he knew and loved games, because he did. Ryan came across like a businessman first and foremost. He was financially effective, but he wasn't as likeable or relatable as other CEOs. I think that's a big part of it.

What others have said about his GAAS focus is true. In addition, Ryan presided over an era when Sony has gone increasingly woke.

 

[BaneIsPain]

Make Exclusive/Japan Great Again

 

[hemo memo]

He can’t be worse than Jim can he?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

The PS5 Pro will sell very well.
If Sony fail to meet their next target then too bad for them

The PS5 Pro might sell very well. It depends on if Sony continue their PC strategy at current, or even get more aggressive with it, for non-GAAS titles.

Because IMO, the audience who'd mainly be buying a PS5 Pro are the hardcore/core enthusiasts who would become more apprehensive to a Pro if they can just count on any 1P exclusives getting a PC port a year or two later. However, I am willing to admit that will depend on what portion of those hardcore/core exhibit the following:

-Plays lots of 3P games alongside 1P ones​

-Has a decently capable PC already or could upgrade current PC to strong performance at the cost of a PS5 Pro or slightly more​

-Does not have FOMO for most of the 1P games​

-Already splits some of their gaming time with PC platforms like Steam​

The more of those a hardcore/core enthusiast on PS5 has in terms of that stuff, the more likely the would be to not buy a PS5 Pro if the current strategy for PC keeps hold (porting virtually all their non-GAAS titles in 6 months - 2 year intervals, all GAAS Day 1 on PC, longer dev times for 1P games etc.). The PS4 Pro accounted for 20% of all PS4 lifetime sales, or about 20 million. PS5 Pro could do at least that much if not even better, but SIE have got to revamp their multiplat strategy to make that happen.

Driveclub actually sold very well according to the leaked slide. Poor critical reception but PS gamers liked this game. Jimbo got rid of the studio obviously.

Short term the game did bad, studio disbanded by exec, turned out the game did pretty well long term, oops we got rid of the studio! Welcome to the new Playstation world and decision making: short term profits is all what matters now with no respect for either their customers or long-term health of their brand / IPs.

Well hopefully that doesn't become the case under new leadership, but there's always a non-zero chance it does. And in that scenario, we should just brace in case it occurs.

Mr. Shu is the one making deals with the new Asian big players like Mihoyo, Shift Up, or Kuro. Jimbo doesn't even know who those are.

Playstation Studios needs execs who actually play games (lots of them) and can tell the good from the bad (Godfall, All Stars, cough cough), people who stop chasing trends that end up in wrong acquisitions. IMO it's imperative that tne next CEO is chosen from outside the Californian hivemind that is ruining Sony Pictures and slowly eroding PS Studios.

I don't think playing games is a requirement for a CEO; Phil Spencer apparently plays games all the time and is a 'gamer' but Xbox as a console brand has declined massively under his leadership. Don Mattrick was a literal game developer/programmer and founded his own publishing label; while he did better for Xbox consoles than Phil has (IMHO), his previous experience as a dev didn't prevent XBO from having a terrible reveal and poor early optics that bungled most of their momentum from the 360.

SIE just needs a CEO who's great at their job AND lets the creative people do what they do best with as little interference as possible. That means letting people like Shu find those great Asian games and get SIE involved with them, letting studios breathe and create new IP instead of only making sequels over and over, letting the hardware teams innovate etc. And most importantly, as a CEO, make sure no matter what the actions of SIE (not just mere words) always show they prioritize the console and console player always. They've been inn the industry for 3+ decades and market leader for many generations, so they should know what is required to show their truly value the console experience over all else, even if they want to (strategically) leverage non-PlayStation platforms for some additional* growth.

*And "additional" is intended because I don't take these analysts or others at their word that the console market has reached is growth cap. Console platform holders just need to be more competitive and innovate better with their hardware & software offerings, and they market will grow more. Maybe not an explosion of growth, but it could see some gains. Unfortunately, to some degree Xbox underperforming so massively is hindering some of that potential growth in the console market, but they want to make it like the industry itself has reached a peak instead of just acknowledging Xbox consoles are becoming dead weight.

 

[nial]

Mr. Shu is the one making deals with the new Asian big players like Mihoyo, Shift Up, or Kuro.

Nah, he does deals with small indie studios like Ember Lab.
With Mihoyo, Kuro and others, that's currently the job of Kiichiro Urata.

Former Capcom USA and Europe CEO Kiichiro Urata joins Sony Interactive Entertainment as head of Japan Asia Partner Development & Relations

Kiichiro Urata, the former CEO of Capcom USA and Europe, has joined Sony Interactive Entertainment as the senior vice president and head of the Japan Asia Partner Development & Relations Divis…

www.gematsu.com

With Shift Up, NCSoft and Kojima Productions? That's the job of Hermen Hulst, current president of PlayStation Studios Global (which oversees development of internal AND external production).

Jimbo got rid of the studio obviously.

Pretty sure that was on Andrew House.

Welcome to the new Playstation world and decision making: short term profits is all what matters now with no respect for either their customers or long-term health of their brand / IPs.

That was 8 years ago... Do we hate the PS4 era now?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Could someone explain why Jim Ryan was so disliked? He didn't seem to anything controversial as far as I know

GAAS focus, non gamer, white male, internet hates everyone, "we should respect all viewpoints" kind of guy.

Plenty of people can latch onto a few of the above to hate, hate, hate.

Jim Ryan the Chad.

 

[Represent.]

Could someone explain why Jim Ryan was so disliked? He didn't seem to anything controversial as far as I know

• Lack of new AAA IP under his leadership
• We have Absolutely zero clue about whats next for 1st party releases.
• Insane amount of secrecy under his leadership
• Zero communication to consumers/fans under his leadership
• He's overly focused on GAAS shit. He mandated at least 12 GAAS games from Sony studios.
• Studios that were previously single player oriented were/are now making GAAS games (Bend, ND)
• WAY too many remasters and remakes greenlit under his leadership
• Raised prices under his leadership
• Stopped going to gameshows under his leadership
• Big role in the death of E3 by deciding to pull PlayStation out of E3.
• Massive layoffs under his leadership
• Wasted 3BILLION on Bungie, and they are making a shitty GAAS game under his leadership. Studio looks like a giant waste of money. They just needed another GAAS trash machine huh
• Game cancellations left and right

I could go on and on

 

[Borowski_1]

Can't be worse than Jim Ryan, so....

-Focus on GaaS garbage
-hardware and more hardware
-first-party roadmap doesn't exist at this point, with close to no announcements
-layoffs
-closed Pixel Opus and Japan Studio


Made the PS5 probably the most boring and disappointing Playstation generation

 

[Borowski_1]

• Lack of new AAA IP under his leadership
• We have Absolutely zero clue about whats next for 1st party releases.
• Insane amount of secrecy under his leadership
• Zero communication to consumers/fans under his leadership
• He's overly focused on GAAS shit. He mandated at least 12 GAAS games from Sony studios.
• Studios that were previously single player oriented were/are now making GAAS games (Bend, ND)
• WAY too many remasters and remakes greenlit under his leadership
• Raised prices under his leadership
• Stopped going to gameshows under his leadership
• Big role in the death of E3 by deciding to pull PlayStation out of E3.
• Massive layoffs under his leadership
• Wasted 3BILLION on Bungie, and they are making a shitty GAAS game under his leadership
• Game cancellations left and right

I could go on and on

give this guy a fucking medal

everything that man touched, turned to shit

 

[hinch7]

• Lack of new AAA IP under his leadership
• We have Absolutely zero clue about whats next for 1st party releases.
• Insane amount of secrecy under his leadership
• Zero communication to consumers/fans under his leadership
• He's overly focused on GAAS shit. He mandated at least 12 GAAS games from Sony studios.
• Studios that were previously single player oriented were/are now making GAAS games (Bend, ND)
• WAY too many remasters and remakes greenlit under his leadership
• Raised prices under his leadership
• Stopped going to gameshows under his leadership
• Big role in the death of E3 by deciding to pull PlayStation out of E3.
• Massive layoffs under his leadership
• Wasted 3BILLION on Bungie, and they are making a shitty GAAS game under his leadership
• Game cancellations left and right

I could go on and on

Allowing ND to do F all but just remasters and remakes and TLOU Online, for years. To only get cancelled is just a kick in the teeth. That and GOW Ragnarok being a major dissapointment.

Then you have crappy investments like Bungie and closing down and downsizing JP development.

Man SIE needs to sort its shit out.

 

[nial]

Big role in the death of E3 by deciding to pull PlayStation out of E3.

Blame Kodera for that one.

 

[Physiognomonics]

Uhm is that jims fault?

He wasn't even in charge of SIE at the time, so the decision would have probably come up from higher up.

Actually he was still the boss of Sony Europe. He was the one who had to make the final decision. Yes some of us didn't forget his past before he became head of Playstation world. He was also that Sony exec meme who laughed at people playing those "old games". What happened under his directions was predicable and predicted by many just based on his character (he never understood or liked videogames) and actions (getting rid of studios loved by actual old playstation gamers).

 

[Pelta88]

If he focuses on ip and not meaningless PR the industry/SIE will be better for it.

 

[jm89]

Actually he was still the boss of Sony Europe. He was the one who had to make the final decision.

Final decision would have sat with the top dog, which wasn't jim.

If a studio got closed right now in europe who would people blame?

Jim right?

You probably wouldn't blame who ever is head of playstation europe right now.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Allowing ND to do F all but just remasters and remakes and TLOU Online, for years. To only get cancelled is just a kick in the teeth. That and GOW Ragnarok being a major dissapointment.

A very small percentage of ND was tasked with making remasters and TLOU Online. The bulk of their studio has been making their next big single player game.

Games just take 6 years to make now and TLoU2 released in 2020 so...