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[StealthGoblin]

I think everyone and their nan knows that not all of these games will be successful. The point is to produce a lot of them and steadily grow the communities and prune any that don't stick. At that point some studios will support the ones that are successful and some will move on to other projects.

Sony would be more than happy if even one of the games becomes a big success. Many others will chug along like Sea of Thieves and some will be discontinued.

Anyone else who believes otherwise or thinks Sony believes otherwise is deluded.

 

[StealthGoblin]

I hope these live service games fail. Not platform warring here, I hope the same for Microsoft as well.

Why? Because I'm selfish and want more single player bangers.

Then you'll want them to succeed.

They'll be finding the division.

 

[Slicker than your average]

But those cinematic games only succeeded because Playstation is popular, they are boring AF.

Enjoy hellblade2

 

[Little Chicken]

The issue with their other strategy being "big, cinematic adventure games that are played solo", is that they're too few and far between.

There will also come a point where they've saturated the sad dad TPS market and people move on. At least you can be a bit more dynamic with a GAAS structure.

 

[MasterCornholio]

It’s a message board discussion.. don’t take everything as fact .. but it’s a plausible reason anyway. Personally I don’t like GAAS. I rather like good story driven single player experiences.

Oh I thought you said you had confirmation that he was fired.



Maybe next time bring some evidence if your going to claim that.

The only facts we have are the announcements from Sony. All they say is that he's retiring.

Jim Ryan, President and CEO, announces retirement after 30 years with Sony Interactive Entertainment – Sony Interactive Entertainment

sonyinteractive.com

 

[The artful mincer]

sony's

yep. sony's definitely a bit adrift right now. them last 2 major sequels (gow ragnarok & horizon fw)? fundamentally inferior retreads. the 5 year development thing is starting to take its inevitable toll on a console company that's always relied heavily on triple-a single-player exclusives...

??? Horizon is selling as well as Zero Dawn which is a 20 million + seller.

God of war ragnarok is Sony's fastest selling exclusive ever until Spiderman 2 releases.

Whether there as good as the originals is just subjective wankery that has no basis in discussion about sales.

 

[DenchDeckard]

So....it ended up that Sony was also getting mismanaged for the last 6 years?

 

[Crayon]

It's funny you'd think they could have just bought Bungie and called it a day.

Anyway this is a typical massive overreaction to low information. The question is: is the year with Spider-Man 2 being the only marquee game a matter of Sony coasting and sitting on announcements? Or is it actually caused by the search for a gaas hit dragging down production schedules? We're currently in the dark on that.

I'd say wait till the next big game reveal and see how far out it is planned to be. If it's something announced way ahead of release, then you have more definite signs of a pipeline slowing down. If they show multiple things coming in reasonable time frames, then they were just laying low while Zelda, Hogwarts, and starfield passed through and the system sells like crazy as is. Psvr2 in the fall, spiderman for Xmas, and good night 2023.

As of now, we know of a few of these service games. Some are small and by studios aside from Sony's big ones. One is marathon which is probably going to be one of the few max effort ones. Bungie will obviously be handling that.

There is the case of the factions rumors, though. It really does seem like something is wrong in there. Now that being a max effort game, that could actually slow down naughty dog. But is there any indication of Santa Monica, bend, et al stuck in development hell with a multiplayer game?

I believe we heard they were expanding studios to handle multiple projects years ago. We of course thought that was to increase the output of the sp games. But surprise, it was to make horizon mmo alongside horizon 3. Hope you like it. The main teams are not wrapping up gow and horizon so they can put everything they've got into a service game. The a-team goes right to work on the real followup that takes like 5 years.

Planning to have the main guerilla staff run a horizon mmo would be a very strange decision. Horizon 3 would never come out. Extra staff in new departments maintaining the mmo with various support studios makes a lot more sense. It seems they have that option.

But huge successful business completely dick things up all the time lol. So it's still up in the air, but nobody knows what's going to happen. Or to a significant extent, what's happening now.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

I wonder if there's going to be some droubt of games if all these titles are possibly getting delayed or scrapped. Looks like Jimbo could have completely screwed the pooch?

They've been so quiet on 2024 plans.

Plus 2023 has had fuck all.

Anyway, on the topic, it’s easy and lazy to point to Anthem and say GaaS can go bad. There are plenty of examples of single player games that crashed and burned. All games are risks. As for Bungie, they just got acquired. What results could there possibly be so far from their “expertise”?

They’ll be fine so long as the games are good.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

I agree with John here

 

[DenchDeckard]

I agree with John here

Yup, John nails it here. We need those obscure amazing Japanese games and more.

Sony have stepped back from games like Ico, shadow of colossus etc. Returnal was their flair at signing off those games and it's the best game they've put out this gen imo. Hopefully there's more of that to come.

 

[Clear]

Yup, John nails it here. We need those obscure amazing Japanese games and more.

Sony have stepped back from games like Ico, shadow of colossus etc. Returnal was their flair at signing off those games and it's the best game they've put out this gen imo. Hopefully there's more of that to come.

Lets ask Embracer how their AA push is doing.

If you want an Ico, you need a Fumito Ueda, and since leaving Sony in 2016 he's done.... nothing. No announcements in coming up on 8 years!
Toyama (Siren/Gravity Rush) left Sony in 2020, and yes Slitterhead is announced but we've heard nothing about the project since 2021...

Its not just Sony that's slowed their output, its the entire industry.

 

[Fake]

I agree with John here

This is me. Thats why I got a Nintendo Switch Lite this year.

 

[adamsapple]

I agree with John here

It's a valid point for sure, but I think Jim / Sony's plan was to get more of the Genshin / Fortnite crowd onboard at the expense of the few single player diehards they might lose over it.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Lets ask Embracer how their AA push is doing.

If you want an Ico, you need a Fumito Ueda, and since leaving Sony in 2016 he's done.... nothing. No announcements in coming up on 8 years!
Toyama (Siren/Gravity Rush) left Sony in 2020, and yes Slitterhead is announced but we've heard nothing about the project since 2021...

Its not just Sony that's slowed their output, its the entire industry.

Yes, I agree but they are the industry leader and there's nothing wrong with demanding more from them.

Their big games are assassin creed clone open world games or marvel licenses. It sucks. They just need to communicate and announce some things. They've been so quiet and we have no idea what is coming from Sony in 2024.

But I guess it doesn't matter to them because they are selling record breaking console sales based on third party popularity.

 

[splattered]

"pivot" you say?

 

[yurinka]

What do you guys think?

Sony GaaS like Dreams, Destruction All Star, MLB 21-23, Gran Turismo 7, Firewall Ultra, Helldivers 2, Marathon, Concord were all greenlighted before Jim Ryan became CEO.

The decision of betting harder on GaaS/MP games was made before Jim became CEO. Same goes with the PC ports.

Jimbo only dediced to bet harder in all their fronts SIE had open making a lot of hirings, acquisitions: GaaS, non-GaaS, 1st party, 2nd party, 3rd party, hardware, accesories, game subs, PSN store, expanding to PC/mobile/movies/tv shows etc.

So yes, he doubled down their bet on GaaS, as he did in everything else. Hired and acquired GaaS experts, support teams, porting teams and increased their headcount etc. to make sure they can work on more and better games, like for the non-GaaS teams.

Looking at market numbers, in recent years revenue from game sales kept flat or declining while revenue from add-ons (dlc/mtx/passes, so GaaS) kept skyrocketing not only in PS, also in consoles or in overal gaming markets. Most of the best selling, top grossing and most played games are GaaS too. And many of them MP focused too.

So yes, the smart decision for AAA publishers who were focused on non-GaaS SP only games was to expand to MP GaaS too, specially considering every generation the budgets skyrocket way unproportionally faster than sales or game prices, so more revenue sources are needed, so to bet on GaaS and more platforms are basically the only option, specially considering that the console market.

Jim Ryan and Hermen know that, the previous SIE and PS Studios CEO who decided to bet on GaaS, PC or mobile also knew that, and the future CEOs will know it too. In the same way that the CEOs from the other publishers also know it.

No sane CEO of a AAA publisher would get rid of betting on GaaS. Jim Ryan's vision was clear: to bet harder on all the fronts they already had open growing their teams and amount of studios to improve their products and release more products, while at the same time also expanding to new markets to chase more revenue sources and new fans since the possible growth with PS only is pretty limited and rising AAA cost require way bigger revenue growth.

This Bloomberg article is just another one spreading lies and FUD to make Sony look bad. Jim Ryan had a great strategy and results shown in Sony's fiscal reports show that.

Their big games are assassin creed clone open world games or marvel licenses. It sucks. They just need to communicate and announce some things. They've been so quiet and we have no idea what is coming from Sony in 2024.

But I guess it doesn't matter to them because they are selling record breaking console sales based on third party popularity.

Sure, games released under Jimbo's command like MLB, Gran Turismo 7, Ratchet, Returnal, Horizon CoM, God of War Ragnarok, Firewall Ultra, TLOU2, Dreams, Demon's Souls, Astro, Sackboy or Destiny 2 expansions are open world games and Marvel licenses, or they never existed.

And sure, Sony has been quiet during Jimbo's command because these games plus the other released ones like Miles Morales, Forbidden West, plus the 3rd party exclusives never have been announced and marketed. They never existed.

And yes, they have been quiet about future games outside Spider-Man 2: Stellar Blade wasn't announced for 2023. Concord, Helldivers 2, Rise of the Ronin, Lost Soul Aside, Convallaria plus more China/India Hero Project titles and others I may forget weren't announced for 2024. And there aren't games announced as TBA like Wolverine, Death Stranding or Marathon that may release in 2024. They never existed.

And sure, since all these games never existed and Sony remained quiet under Jimbo's command, they won't announce anything else in the rest of 2023 and 2024 that could be released on 2024.

Hermen, Jimbo and Sony lied when said multiple times when they said that had more than 25 games under development, being around half of them new IPs, from many different genres, comining single player (more than before) and GaaS, SP and MP, big and small, more traditional blockbusters as GoW or Horizon and more creative ones like Dreams or Death Stranding. Bungie also lied when said they planned to have released at least (so maybe more than) one new IP by 2025.

It's impossible to believe they could be working on all that because guess what, Sony never did that before: since 1994 they only have been making Ubisoft open world games and Marvel games. All the other Sony games never existed.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I agree with John here

HeisenbergFX4 , you were one of the sane ones!

The most successful PlayStation games of all time are not Spiderman, Uncharted, and God of War. They're Fortnite, CoD, GTAV, and FIFA.

PlayStation regularly publishes data showing that Live Service games generate more revenue than traditional SP games on their platform. They've also noticed that this Live Service revenue is growing (considerably) faster than the revenue created by traditionally priced games. All this is happening with PlayStations full focus on SP over the last 20+ years and next to zero investment into multiplayer.

The PlayStation audience is not a single player audience. If PlayStation wants to maintain its position as market leader, it needs to lead in the most popular + profitable space going forward...Live Service.

John Linneman understands his personal preferences but he does not understand where the industry is or where the industry is headed.

It's important to note: These conversations won't be happening relatively soon. Once Live Service is ~80+% of the market, the conversation that PlayStation should stay in their shrinking pond will look too ridiculous to utter.

I also think his "PlayStation should waste resources on quirky low selling games" is ridiculous considering how competitive the industry now is, but at least that's his personal preference.

This whole conflict is just the plot of The Last Samurai. The way of the sword is over. The Gatling Gun has arrived.

 

[Bernardougf]

Lets add up
- Jimbo pushing PC gaming hard to prepare the ground for GAAS games
- Jimbo officially upping the money cut for Gaas games
- Jimbo publicly saying that sony is going to push GAAS
- Purchase of Bungee just for shared Gaas expertise because the games wont be exclusive in any way per contract
- The last showcase and only showcase for the year was a GaaS show case with only SM2 to account for and the ONLY other officialy known game is Wolverine from the SAME studio and thats NOT a 2024 title.
- All the other big studios dont have ANYTHING SP announced for the next year
- Very Poor first party sp outing in 2023 compared to previous years

Anyone saying that there is not a heavly change in culture on sony and how they see and are doing business just cant add up, sorry, all the evidences are for anyone to see and its not like Jimbo is lying like Phil, he always talked and pushed gaas games since the beginning, openly.

And now he is scheduled to "retire" out of nowhere in the end of this fiscal year.

So.... anyone can take their own conclusions and interpretations, I surely have mine. Based on everything that was said and done and showed. And not bases on dreams and what ifs.

 

[KXVXII9X]

This is me. Thats why I got a Nintendo Switch Lite this year.

I did the same but got a Switch OLED. Completely worth it.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Lets add up
- Jimbo pushing PC gaming hard to prepare the ground for GAAS games
- Jimbo officially upping the money cut for Gaas games
- Jimbo publicly saying that sony is going to push GAAS
- Purchase of Bungee just for shared Gaas expertise because the games wont be exclusive in any way per contract
- The last showcase and only showcase for the year was a GaaS show case with only SM2 to account for and the ONLY other officialy known game is Wolverine from the SAME studio and thats NOT a 2024 title.
- All the other big studios dont have ANYTHING SP announced for the next year
- Very Poor first party sp outing in 2023 compared to previous years

Anyone saying that there is not a heavly change in culture on sony and how they see and are doing business just cant add up, sorry, all the evidences are for anyone to see and its not like Jimbo is lying like Phil, he always talked and pushed gaas games since the beginning, openly.

And now he is scheduled to "retire" out of nowhere in the end of this fiscal year.

So.... anyone can take their own conclusions and interpretations, I surely have mine. Based on everything that was said and done and showed. And not bases on dreams and what ifs.

I love the revisionist history.

Why don't you compare 2023 to 2017. Was that Jim Ryan's fault too?

I agree with John here

The same DF that said the XSX was going to be significantly stronger than the PS5.
The same DF that said there shouldn't be a PS5 Pro.

John and his team are jokes. They're massive fanboys and they're also delusional.

 

[Bernardougf]

HeisenbergFX4 , you were one of the sane ones!

The most successful PlayStation games of all time are not Spiderman, Uncharted, and God of War. They're Fortnite, CoD, GTAV, and FIFA.

PlayStation regularly publishes data showing that Live Service games generate more revenue than traditional SP games on their platform. They've also noticed that this Live Service revenue is growing (considerably) faster than the revenue created by traditionally priced games. All this is happening with PlayStations full focus on SP over the last 20+ years and next to zero investment into multiplayer.

The PlayStation audience is not a single player audience. If PlayStation wants to maintain its position as market leader, it needs to lead in the most popular + profitable space going forward...Live Service.

John Linneman understands his personal preferences but he does not understand where the industry is or where the industry is headed.

It's important to note: These conversations won't be happening relatively soon. Once Live Service is ~80+% of the market, the conversation that PlayStation should stay in their shrinking pond will look too ridiculous to utter.

I also think his "PlayStation should waste resources on quirky low selling games" is ridiculous considering how competitive the industry now is, but at least that's his personal preference.

This whole conflict is just the plot of The Last Samurai. The way of the sword is over. The Gatling Gun has arrived.

You can see what the push for FPS/GAAS and pc gaming has done for the xbox brand, I can guarantee you, I've been a console player (mostly on playstation) for more than 25 years now after I ditched PC gaming, and if sony abandon or heavily diminish their SP output Ill not get a ps6 ....and will go back to PC.. no need to have one console that dont have many sp exclusive experiences when I can play it All on pc. Even if I have to wait 6 to 12 months (and I already do since waiting give me a cheaper , more polished and completed game).

 

[Xyphie]

They don't really have any choice but to make a bunch of GaaS games and hope something sticks because any Sony execs can look at a Top 20 most played Playstation games and realize that basically nothing on that list is a first party game (and a bunch of them are either made or will soon be made by their primary competitor) and the huge business vulnerability that presents to the Playstation platform.

 

[Bernardougf]

I love the revisionist history.

Why don't you compare 2023 to 2017. Was that Jim Ryan's fault too?


The same DF that said the XSX was going to be significantly stronger than the PS5.
The same DF that said there shouldn't be a PS5 Pro.

John and his team are jokes. They're massive fanboys and they're also delusional.

And I Love the short no counter argument answer ...

 

[elcapitano]

??? Horizon is selling as well as Zero Dawn which is a 20 million + seller.

God of war ragnarok is Sony's fastest selling exclusive ever until Spiderman 2 releases.

Whether there as good as the originals is just subjective wankery that has no basis in discussion about sales.

I don't agree with the poster before you either but just to note sales doesn't always mean quality or better.

Just look at movies. The movies that make the most more often than not are the ones with the most mass appeal. Not the arguably better movies.

Same is true in gaming. Like Spiderman is great but I don't think it's top top tier but off the back of the name it will understandably do unbelievable.

I would agree that Ragnarok wasn't as good as the first game. Just because I highly value story and for me the story was better in the first. Still a good game all he same.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

And I Love the short no counter argument answer ...

I absolutely countered you, you just decided not to follow through.

I said compare 2023 and 2017. Sometimes games get delayed and they'll make a year pretty dry. They still have their biggest game of the generation to date coming out this year. That's bigger and better than the only big game that came out from them in 2017 which was Horizon Forbidden West.

You're also ignoring the impact the pandemic had on game development and the impact of hybrid workspaces, not to mention the ever-increasing time to develop games.

Find me a company in the AAA space that has been as productive as Sony since 2020.

 

[Bernardougf]

I absolutely countered you, you just decided not to follow through.

I said compare 2023 and 2017. Sometimes games get delayed and they'll make a year pretty dry. They still have their biggest game of the generation to date coming out this year. That's bigger and better than the only big game that came out from them in 2017 which was Horizon Forbidden West.

You're also ignoring the impact the pandemic had on game development and the impact of hybrid workspaces, not to mention the ever-increasing time to develop games.

Find me a company in the AAA space that has been as productive as Sony since 2020.

You are making excuses for them and choosing the "its all fine I trust them" route and thats fine, is your choice, just dont ask me to ignore what they chose to show me until now and trust in what they dont have shown.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

You have been saying this- to me for sure, perhaps others here- for over a year: It's not magic, it's a formula.

But you never share what the formula is. Which leads me to think either:

a- you think your statement is accurate but as you've never (from what I've seen, maybe I missed it) expanded on this non magic formula, you've not really thought it thru and don't know what the formula actually is. Or the rules, or whatever.

b- you know exactly what the rules are/formula is but- understandably- are not willing to give it up for free. I get it. But you'd think by now you woulda shared it with SOMEONE for a lot of cash. And maybe you have but you keep your finances private, which I understand.

Two things...

1. I've heard you make a suggestion that PlayStation should create this advanced close beta program to test the "stickiness" of early multiplayer titles. When I hear you say this I think "Jaffe is starting to get it. He just needs to go a little further..."

It's not necessary. PlayStation just needs to study Steamcharts + their own internal metrics, and to a lesser extent, the XBL Most Played charts. The market has already created a robust test bed for certain game designs. These are the successful groupings that dominate todays multiplayer...

A. Open world PvP sandbox (Fortnite)
B. Team based shooter (Overwatch)
C. Co-OP RPG/looter shooter (Destiny)
D. Liscensed sports game (FIFA)

You can put a few rational people in a room together and they'll probably disagree on the number, but you more or less get 3 - 5 buckets. That's why I think you're nuts when you say things like "Destruction All Stars, Roller Champions, and Knockout City were good. It's just luck of the draw as to what hits or not." There's nothing succeeding on the market that looks like those games.



2. Here's a low resolution, rough draft of the formula...

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/creating-the-rubric-how-to-identity-the-next-multiplayer-phenomenon.1632518/

You'd be shocked to learn I've thought about this formula more than once over the years and I still think it looks good. I always stand by the produce section with this on my phone and ask the ladies picking avocados what they think of the rubric. I have yet to hear a critique I thought was valid. Pepper spray, yes. Valid critique, no.

If you've read this, my lawyer will be contacting you with my fee. This proprietary information is hot stuff in corporate warfare.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

You can see what the push for FPS/GAAS and pc gaming has done for the xbox brand, I can guarantee you, I've been a console player (mostly on playstation) for more than 25 years now after I ditched PC gaming, and if sony abandon or heavily diminish their SP output Ill not get a ps6 ....and will go back to PC.. no need to have one console that dont have many sp exclusive experiences when I can play it All on pc. Even if I have to wait 6 to 12 months (and I already do since waiting give me a cheaper , more polished and completed game).

PlayStation doesn't care. They're doing nothing but math.

If one fan leaves but we get two new fans, it's a win.

Too many people take industry strategy personally.

 

[systemr123]

Wow what an insight of this “insider” it may or may not pay off.. wowowow a retard could think of that lol. I hope it pays of so budget for all games could be even better, or just more games for the same budget, which I prefer. Jim said iirc that out of all the GAAS games only 1 needs to be successful to be worth the extra investments. And as long as it doesn’t come from the budget for the normal games I’m totally ok with it. I’ll probably won’t play a single of those games though, hate GAAS with a passion.

 

[Bernardougf]

PlayStation doesn't care. They're doing nothing but math.

If one fan leaves but we get two new fans, it's a win.

Too many people take industry strategy personally.

Yeah.. Im probably the only playstation fan that thinks like that in the whole world... and giant successful companys never do stupid decisions that ruin their legacy and business, specially sony/playstation that Never took a wrong turn and almost destroyed a good previous success

 

[zedinen]

The orchestra keeps playing as Titanic sinks

2021: Sony’s Obsession With Blockbusters Is Stirring Unrest Within PlayStation Empire

2023: Sony’s Obsession With GaaS Is Stirring Unrest Within PlayStation Empire

Or
"Sony's studios could have avoided crunch years ago had they not chased live service games and continued with what they was good at"
The next few years is gonna be ruff, and I can see crunch happening to get them back on track and could effect PS5 in the long run.

Or Yoshida and Totoki could have invested PlayStation profits in PS Studios had they not chased share repurchases and nonsensical acquisitions

Where is Scheier's article about the failed Zenimax purchase?

After September Circana

Success is often built out of failure.

Yep

GaaS is gaming cancer, and Jim’s pushing of it is the main reason I’m glad he’s going.

You are in for a rude awakening

The good news with Jim Ryan leaving is that he was a money chaser that didn't really understand gaming. He just basically was a marketing guy. Maybe he was good at that in Europe. But he is not a good strategist when it comes to platforms.

Jim Ryan is bringing PS sales levels back in North America and East Asia in line with those of 2003.

He has acquired 10 studios, posted record profits and methodically dismantled Xbox strategy in America. And he dealt with COVID, the worst inflation in 40 years, a currency crisis, and Microsoft investing $80 billion in M&A.

SIE is is prepared for the future, thanks to Jim Ryan.

It's up to Yoshida and Totoki to take advantage of Jim Ryan's legacy.

I go back to what I have said here countless times when Ryan was given that promotion Phil and Ybarra shared a scotch in Phils office saying Ryan would run PS into the ground

THIS is his legacy

Jim Ryan will retire after breaking PS2 record and turning Xbox into a zombie business. This is his legacy.

Microsoft has no answer for FFXVI, BG3, SM2, Honkai, FFVII R ...

Was that confirmed?

You : Oh no it wasn't confirmed. I just want it to be true.

Cool thanks for clarifying that.

PS5 has outsold X/S 3:1 since September 2022

Sony shares have gained 28.72% since Oct 3, 2022

Jim Ryan has been with Sony for 30 years and is almost 60. The PS5 is unstoppable. Time to retire and enyoy life.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Gaas takes time to build along with Covid delaying everything plus expanding your portfolio isn't as exciting as this clickbait crap.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

You are making excuses for them and choosing the "its all fine I trust them" route and thats fine, is your choice, just dont ask me to ignore what they chose to show me until now and trust in what they dont have shown.

Again, why do you refuse to compare to 2017?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

The orchestra keeps playing as Titanic sinks

2021: Sony’s Obsession With Blockbusters Is Stirring Unrest Within PlayStation Empire

2023: Sony’s Obsession With GaaS Is Stirring Unrest Within PlayStation Empire



Or Yoshida and Totoki could have invested PlayStation profits in PS Studios had they not chased share repurchases and nonsensical acquisitions



After September Circana



Yep

You are in for a rude awakening


Jim Ryan is bringing PS sales levels back in North America and East Asia in line with those of 2003.

He has acquired 10 studios, posted record profits and methodically dismantled Xbox strategy in America. And he dealt with COVID, the worst inflation in 40 years, a currency crisis, and Microsoft investing $80 billion in M&A.

SIE is is prepared for the future, thanks to Jim Ryan.

It's up to Yoshida and Totoki to take advantage of Jim Ryan's legacy.



Jim Ryan will retire after breaking PS2 record and turning Xbox into a zombie business. This is his legacy.

Microsoft has no answer for FFXVI, BG3, SM2, Honkai, FFVII R ...



PS5 has outsold X/S 3:1 since September 2022

Sony shares have gained 28.72% since Oct 3, 2022

Jim Ryan has been with Sony for 30 years and is almost 60. The PS5 is unstoppable. Time to retire and enyoy life.

This was cold as ice

 

[HTK]

I’m perfectly fine with Sonys new strategy as they haven’t done anything meaningful with their IPs when it comes multiplayer/online since the PS3 era.

Sure I played the single player stuff but I also played Killzone, Resistance, SOCOM, Warhawk and all have been missing for a very long time.

I’d like to see this new approach of single player/GaaS games come to fruition but it seems like people are hell bent on the doom and gloom before a GaaS by Sony is even released. Even though they have single player experiences coming out and have more in the pipeline.

 

[Clear]

Yes, I agree but they are the industry leader and there's nothing wrong with demanding more from them.

The rebuttal to that is that asking for more when its not logistically possible is an exercise in futility.

The best result you are going to get is more titles announced when they are several years out, which personally I don't consider to be a win in the mid and long tern.

Again, I have to point out the effects of Covid and lockdowns. Even if Asian developers were less impacted (thanks to the idea of masking and social distancing offering less of a shock countermeasure to populations already exposed to SARS) a lot of the decision making happening elsewhere would have been. Not just execution would have been slowed but so would have planning, and that's a truly unprecedented thing for the industry.

I'm not sure that people have grasped that the impacts of Covid won't be behind us until 2025 at the earliest if you consider the time-scales of large projects between conception and publication.

Their big games are assassin creed clone open world games or marvel licenses. It sucks. They just need to communicate and announce some things. They've been so quiet and we have no idea what is coming from Sony in 2024.

But I guess it doesn't matter to them because they are selling record breaking console sales based on third party popularity.

It seems to me that a fundamental part of portfolio management is balancing out the release cadence of major titles on a platform irrespective of their source. There's no upside to crowding the market-place or treading on the toes of partners by clumping similar releases together.

Obviously external publishers will always seek to maximize their performance, and so will to some degree always march to the beat of their own drum, so it strikes me that the smart move for first-parties is not to announce them too soon so as to retain maximum control over when these important products start their marketing and release cycles.

I feel like Sony have done really well in recent years by carefully spacing out their releases (both first and third party) so as to reap the maximum benefit for their platform.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Jim Ryan will retire after breaking PS2 record and turning Xbox into a zombie business. This is his legacy.

Microsoft has no answer for FFXVI, BG3, SM2, Honkai, FFVII R ...

And console warriors like yourself can beat each other off to those numbers because I don't give 2 shits about how many consoles are sold.

What I do care about is what my games look like and for people like me chasing GAAS isn't worth it

Look at their first party output this last year and what we have to look forward to next year

Your precious PS brand can sell 200 million PS6s but if they chase GAAS and I keep getting 1 maybe 2 big budget 1st party games that Sony has become great at (for me) I wont be one buying the PS6 as I will have no use for it

 

[Thirty7ven]

Have to agree that Sony is doomed has been a constant theme for quite awhile now. The same publication will criticize anything, whether they do A or B doesn’t ever seem to matter.

Meanwhile the brand can continues to shit the bed at every turn gets carried gently like a frail baby.

 

[Thirty7ven]

And console warriors like yourself can beat each other off to those numbers because I don't give 2 shits about how many consoles are sold.

What I do care about is what my games look like and for people like me chasing GAAS isn't worth it

Look at their first party output this last year and what we have to look forward to next year

Your precious PS brand can sell 200 million PS6s but if they chase GAAS and I keep getting 1 maybe 2 big budget 1st party games that Sony has become great at (for me) I wont be one buying the PS6 as I will have no use for it

Where’s this energy with other brands?

Xbox has been shitting the bed this gen on software, their big games prior to Starfield were all some variation of Gaas, and yet I’ve seen you talk about Xbox being your primary console. And they aren’t exactly hitting it out of the park in terms of quality gaas either.

It’s hard to take your criticism seriously considering what you have shared from your gaming habits.

And the whole Xbox is just fine being a third party gaas machine doesn’t fly considering the userbase for those games is much larger on PlayStation.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Sunset Overdrive could have easily been Fortnite. There is no reason to think that Insomniac couldn't create a really popular GaaS game using mechanics from Sunset Overdrive, Spider-Man, Ratchet, and Resistance.

I think they could remaster or remake Resistance right now release it on PS5 and PC and it would do really well.

I'm surprised they haven't ported the Ratchet remake to mobile.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Where’s this energy with other brands?

Xbox has been shitting the bed this gen on software, their big games prior to Starfield were all some variation of Gaas, and yet I’ve seen you talk about Xbox being your primary console. And they aren’t exactly hitting it out of the park in terms of quality gaas either.

It’s hard to take your criticism seriously considering what you have shared from your gaming habits.

And the whole Xbox is just fine being a third party gaas machine doesn’t fly considering the userbase for those games is much larger on PlayStation.

Oh I hate what Xbox has been putting out as well and have stated a few times my main reasons for Xbox being my main machine is because thats where my adult son plays who lives in Indiana yet while I live mostly in Florida now and I get to play and speak with him in gaming (though granted with cross play thats not as big of an issue but his group likes to shut cross play off)

Plus I way prefer the Xbox controller and hardware overall

I will be the first to admit Starfield was a let down overall for me as I was super hyped for it

 

[Topher]

And console warriors like yourself can beat each other off to those numbers because I don't give 2 shits about how many consoles are sold.

What I do care about is what my games look like and for people like me chasing GAAS isn't worth it

Look at their first party output this last year and what we have to look forward to next year

Your precious PS brand can sell 200 million PS6s but if they chase GAAS and I keep getting 1 maybe 2 big budget 1st party games that Sony has become great at (for me) I wont be one buying the PS6 as I will have no use for it

Seriously. I'm not gaming on PlayStation for its own sake. It is all about the games. Sony has a lot to prove to me personally in 2024. Hopefully some new leadership will remind me why I'm a PS customer.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Seriously. I'm not gaming on PlayStation for its own sake. It is all about the games. Sony has a lot to prove to me personally in 2024. Hopefully some new leadership will remind me why I'm a PS customer.

I hope there is another showcase coming and they show us a couple of games that are coming next year (with dates) because this year (for me) was dry first party output wise and throw in the price increase for PS+ and I am out totally

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Jim Ryan is bringing PS sales levels back in North America and East Asia in line with those of 2003.

He has acquired 10 studios, posted record profits and methodically dismantled Xbox strategy in America. And he dealt with COVID, the worst inflation in 40 years, a currency crisis, and Microsoft investing $80 billion in M&A.

SIE is is prepared for the future, thanks to Jim Ryan.

It's up to Yoshida and Totoki to take advantage of Jim Ryan's legacy.

Jim Ryan inherited most/all of those things. PS5 was being planned well in advance of his arrival. Under Jim Ryan, he also tried to go after Bethesda and MS ended up buying them. Should we blame Jim for that and MS's acquisition of Activision?

PS5's success was in-spite of Jim Ryan, not because of him.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Jim Ryan inherited most/all of those things. PS5 was being planned well in advance of his arrival. Under Jim Ryan, he also tried to go after Bethesda and MS ended up buying them. Should we blame Jim for that and MS's acquisition of Activision?

PS5's success was in-spite of Jim Ryan, not because of him.

People don't realize how far out these consoles are planned.

While Ybarra was with Xbox he said several times that leading up to the launch of a new console they were already planning the next console

I would assume Sony does the same

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Jim Ryan inherited most/all of those things. PS5 was being planned well in advance of his arrival. Under Jim Ryan, he also tried to go after Bethesda and MS ended up buying them. Should we blame Jim for that and MS's acquisition of Activision?

PS5's success was in-spite of Jim Ryan, not because of him.

That's pretty laughable because you have to ignore the parts Jim Ryan would have played in those plans. People like to pretend like he hasn't been a pivotal part of PlayStation for 30 years...

As for Microsoft buying Zenimax... that has so far been one of the worst if not worst investments in the history of gaming, only to be topped by paying 70 billion for Activision who could lose their entire valuation if there is a CoD competitor that comes out and reduces the userbase by as little as 15-20%

Jim Ryan has executed the last few years nearly perfectly and that's really all you can ask of a CEO.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

That's pretty laughable because you have to ignore the parts Jim Ryan would have played in those plans. People like to pretend like he hasn't been a pivotal part of PlayStation for 30 years...

As for Microsoft buying Zenimax... that has so far been one of the worst if not worst investments in the history of gaming, only to be topped by paying 70 billion for Activision who could lose their entire valuation if there is a CoD competitor that comes out and reduces the userbase by as little as 15-20%

Jim Ryan has executed the last few years nearly perfectly and that's really all you can ask of a CEO.

Jim Ryan is a marketing guy.

He doesn't design the PS5. He doesn't make the games. He honestly doesn't really understand any of that. He can re-direct strategy to GAAS, but his investments haven't been released yet so we can't judge him on that strategy.

What he does have direct immediate control over are mostly business items. He can set the price points, he can put together a marketing campaign, he can change the PS Plus plans, he can increase the price of PS Plus. Those are the levers Jim Ryan pulls and is in direct command of.

 

[Topher]

I hope there is another showcase coming and they show us a couple of games that are coming next year (with dates) because this year (for me) was dry first party output wise and throw in the price increase for PS+ and I am out totally

My fear is that there are not games coming next year and that's why we've had no showcases showing off first party single player games. I can't help but think that Sony has shifted to Gaas far too much, far too quickly and I think Jim Ryan very well may have overestimated the impact that acquiring Bungie would have in helping transitioning studios into making games that fit a business model. Previously they just had to worry about making kick ass games.

Hopefully I'm wrong and my fears are entirely unfounded.

 

[The artful mincer]

I don't agree with the poster before you either but just to note sales doesn't always mean quality or better.

Just look at movies. The movies that make the most more often than not are the ones with the most mass appeal. Not the arguably better movies.

Same is true in gaming. Like Spiderman is great but I don't think it's top top tier but off the back of the name it will understandably do unbelievable.

I would agree that Ragnarok wasn't as good as the first game. Just because I highly value story and for me the story was better in the first. Still a good game all he same.

Well sure we can talk about subjective test till the ends of the earth that's why we're on neogaf!

When we're talking about sales though we need to put our personal taste to the side and look at the data.

There's no evidence currently that single player games Sonys or others are slowing down. In fact it's been a record breaking year.

That doesn't mean that Sony can't pursue GAAS as well because budgets are rising etc.