Jim Ryan Leaving Sony in March 2024

[Seanspeed]

New Management Structure of Sony Interactive Entertainment

(September 28, 2023, Tokyo / September 27, San Mateo, CA) – Sony Group Corporation and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) today announced that SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan has made the decision to retire in March 2024 after almost thirty years with the PlayStation business. To support Mr...

sonyinteractive.com

I think a lot of people will be relieved, honestly. Though he's already set a lot in motion by now.

 

[iroboto]

hmm didn’t have this on my bingo card

 

[Cyan]

New Management Structure of Sony Interactive Entertainment

(September 28, 2023, Tokyo / September 27, San Mateo, CA) – Sony Group Corporation and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) today announced that SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan has made the decision to retire in March 2024 after almost thirty years with the PlayStation business. To support Mr...

sonyinteractive.com

I think a lot of people will be relieved, honestly. Though he's already set a lot in motion by now.

didn't expect this tbh. Still most PS diehard fans -at least those I interact with- didn't like him because of publishing Sony games on PC and some other decisions. I liked that move from Sony and in fact I purchased two or three games from Sony, like Spiderman and Horizon Zero Dawn.

 

[snc]

gow ragnarok, forbiden west and gt7 as crossgens, canceling days gone 2, focusing on gaas games - he wasnt fans favorite thats for sure ;d

 

[Remij]

PC ports essentially started with Shawn Layden, and they're not going to stop after Jim Ryan... Shareholders are demanding growth.. and PC and Mobile are prime growth markets.

 

[Tkumpathenurple]

He's contributed a lot to PlayStation over a good few decades, but I wasn't at all keen on him as the CEO. Especially compared to Kaz Hirai.

Hopefully he enjoys his retirement and PlayStation gets less of a cold bean counter. And a new PSP to wash out the bad taste of that daft bescreened DualSense.

 

[jlippo]

Hopefully this means Sony will renew interest to more varied games.

 

[orangpelupa]

I nominate shuhei yoshida.

But I'm not a shareholder

Yoshida-san seems to really enjoy games, support people, know programming too.

So could be a better future for PS and PSVR with more games from all kinds of variety

 

[SmooTh]

It's time for the real Hero Don Mattrick
I think Shuhei will stay with his Indies

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Bean counting has done wonders for PS's profitability. Shareholders may want more of the same. Doubt they care what the experience is like and whether PS fans and gamers in general are happy or not so long as Moare Money.

 

[cheapchips]

I always thought that the ire against Jim Ryan's corporateness was a bit weird when Nintendo execs exist.

 

[Cyan]

as long as they keep releasing games for the PC, it's okay for me

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I always thought that the ire against Jim Ryan's corporateness was a bit weird when Nintendo execs exist.

Sony's diversity has diminished from its PS2/PS3 heyday. I think that's what people dislike most - not the businessman, but the execution and choices. Why is SingStar no more? What happened to EyeToy? These were SCEE creations that got shelved. Where are the left-field games that don't sell gangbusters but broaden the library? Sony wasn't afraid to just make games, but it seems they are now more focussed on games with a particular ROI, less gamer-spirit and more pencil-pushing cash-grabbing.

Nintendo by comparison remains Nintendo with the same type of content and output as they had 20 years ago.

 

[Globalisateur]

Like Shifty said, Playstation since the arrival of Jimbo, has being mainly doing / planning to do industry checked third person shooters (with strong cinematic emphasis) and GAAS games. They also (almost?) completely stopped doing exclusive games for their consoles and are pivoting into doing PC development.

In summary they are becoming a mix of soulless publisher between Ubisoft and Activision. That's Jimbo's plan and legacy for Playstation.

 

[snc]

Sony's diversity has diminished from its PS2/PS3 heyday. I think that's what people dislike most - not the businessman, but the execution and choices. Why is SingStar no more? What happened to EyeToy? These were SCEE creations that got shelved. Where are the left-field games that don't sell gangbusters but broaden the library? Sony wasn't afraid to just make games, but it seems they are now more focussed on games with a particular ROI, less gamer-spirit and more pencil-pushing cash-grabbing.

Nintendo by comparison remains Nintendo with the same type of content and output as they had 20 years ago.

Imo lack of variaty its overracted mostly by people that doesnt play on playstation. In last years we had Returnal, Demon Souls r, new Ratchet, Destruction All Stars, Gran Turismo, Firewall Ultra, Horizon Vr, incomming Helldivers 2, Sacbkoby a Big Adventure, MBL series,on ps4: Astro bot Vr,Blood and truth, Until Dawn, Bloodborne, Shadow of Colosus remake, Concrete Genie, Last Guardian, Driveclub, Dreams, Death Stranding.

 

[Globalisateur]

Imo lack of variaty its overracted mostly by people that doesnt play on playstation. In last years we had Returnal, Demon Souls r, new Ratchet, Destruction All Stars, Gran Turismo, Firewall Ultra, Horizon Vr, incomming Helldivers 2, Sacbkoby a Big Adventure, MBL series,on ps4: Astro bot Vr,Blood and truth, Until Dawn, Bloodborne, Shadow of Colosus remake, Concrete Genie, Last Guardian, Death Stranding

AFAIK all those games (except I think Destruction All Stars and Helldivers 2) have being approved by Jimbo's predecessors.

 

[snc]

AFAIK all those games (except I think Destruction All Stars and Helldivers 2) have being approved by Jimbo's predecessors.

Possible, Im not crying after him ;d

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Imo lack of variaty its overracted mostly by people that doesnt play on playstation. In last years we had Returnal, Demon Souls r, new Ratchet, Destruction All Stars, Gran Turismo, Firewall Ultra, Horizon Vr, incomming Helldivers 2, Sacbkoby a Big Adventure, MBL series,on ps4: Astro bot Vr,Blood and truth, Until Dawn, Bloodborne, Shadow of Colosus remake, Concrete Genie, Last Guardian, Death Stranding

Filter out the remakes and what diversity have you got? It's a lot of shooters and action games, with the perennial racer. The 'Sackboy' game took a completely new, imaginative game - LBP - that reached a huge audience of all ages, and just recycled the IP into a standard platformer. What are the risk games? What are the low-return, artsy titles? Or the family pleasers? PS2 was made pink and sold to girls on SingStar - what's the equivalent for PS5 for girls who aren't into online shooters? They remade ICO - that was boundary pushing in 2001 but barely sold, but Sony made it and released it anyway. Now the closest they can get to that pioneering spirit on PS5 is a remake of an old idea.

Sony have left diversity to the third parties. They aren't risk-takers any more. But that's kinda true of all creative industries I guess. Much more doubling down on proven ideas and IP recycling. It's left to the indies to take the risks themselves.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Sony has the same issue as every other company. The cost of making games is so high that they became risk averse. You could make a fantastic unique game for $200 million and then lose a lot of money if no one plays it. I doubt a new CEO will be massively more risky with title development.

Also anyone that's upset that they're porting games to pc is deranged. Can't imagine a fan of Sony games being upset that more people get to play them. It's just weird gatekeeping behaviour.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

A lot of Sony's diversity came from smaller titles though. The $200 million games are the cinematic GaaS or epic adventures. These aren't the titles missing from Sony's 1st party offerings. Concrete Genie was something different, not a commercial success but a big success among some of its players, like ICO. Sony shuttered them after two games. It was a studio of 11 people, not costing a fortune. Sony have also shuttered significant studios like Liverpool and shelved iconic IP like Wipeout, and denied a clearly warranted sequel to Drive Club. They brought out a VR headset but didn't back it with killer software, and have just repeated that. Like they did the PS3 and PS4 cameras that had bugger all support. Sony's ability to work software well has been refocussed to just money-churn, I think, or certainly feel. "PlayStation" doesn't have the sense of play-for-everyone that it had in PS1 and PS2. It's much more "CoreBox" for the core gamers who are constantly spending.

I guess it's another example of where the internet has made more of a mess than it has progress. Since 'micro'transactions and metrics happened, the spirit and art of game dev, of people just making stuff that's fun and crossing their fingers, has died. Sony used to be a champion of that spirit which is in signfiicant part why they rose to significant dominance.