470°

What does PlayStation look like without Jim Ryan?

Jim Ryan has departed Sony Interactive Entertainment, after roughly 30 years at the company.

erinlime212d ago

Less live service nonsense, I hope. Maybe more than one or two first-party releases a year would be nice as well. It'd be nice if they fixed the PS+ price hike too, but that's less likely because the only reason they would have increased the price in the first place is if it wasn't making them enough money to satisfy shareholders.

We won't see the real effects of Jim leaving for another 2-3 years and it all depends on who is replacing him.

Pepin212d ago

With how much money they make, I really doubt we'll see the end of Live Service experiments at Sony. Even if it's last few have been... under-whelming.

crazyCoconuts212d ago

What live service stuff have we seen so far again? I can't recall any

Plague-Doctor27212d ago

@crazyCoconuts @Crows90

Sony's definition of live service is pretty broad. Stuff like Gran Turismo 7 and MLB The Show count for them. Helldivers 2 will count. I'm not sure if they're including Marathon or Destiny 2 as Bungie remains seperate from Playstation Studios

crazyCoconuts212d ago

@plague, sorry man, that's reaching. Has Sony actually followed through with any real life service games?

fr0sty212d ago

It'll be great without Jim Ryan running all the PS gamers out of the room by passing GaaS.

Plague-Doctor27212d ago (Edited 212d ago )

@crazyCoconuts

https://www.truetrophies.co...

This is their financial report from early 2022. They list MLB the Show as a live service game and mention they will add 2 live service franchises in 2022. GT7 is the only game they released in 2022 that would count. The other was probably supposed to be Factions. GT7 is getting free updates, requires always online, and has a daily gatcha roulette and microtransactions. This isn't my opinion this is what Sony themselves stated

Even Destruction All-Stars was a live service failure.

S2Killinit212d ago

Are you just living on another realm of existence?

outsider1624212d ago

@plaque
I've been playing Gt7 and have about 20million credits. Did all that without the need to buy any of the credits. And it didnt take too much of a grinding either. I didn't need to buy every single car. Just a few. Enjoyed online racing as well.
MLB..i would play only offline career so i dnt know

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 212d ago
PitbullMonster212d ago

Oh please, the last ps+ price hike was 6 years ago in 2017 while Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime etc. raise their price nearly every year.

erinlime212d ago (Edited 212d ago )

Unlike those services, the PS+ price hike wasn't by dollar amount, it was by percentage. Across the board the prices for each PS+ tier increased about 30%. The lowest tier went up by way less than the highest tier. It's a clear money-grab, especially when they haven't even offered more Classics to warrant the huge increase on the Premium tier.

Also, unrelated, but it's still bad when those other services increase the price of their subscriptions as well, so I don't understand the use of this argument.

crazyCoconuts212d ago

"a clear money grab"- how is that clear? They were already MUCH cheaper than their competition in terms of annual so they brought that a little more in line. I think they were losing money on that $99/year Extra plan in my guestimation

EvertonFC212d ago

Exactly, everything goes up practically on a yearly basis apart from gaming subs.

Inverno212d ago

There's no way they would buy Bungie for the life service stuff to drop those plans after this guy leaves.

Obscure_Observer212d ago (Edited 212d ago )

"We won't see the real effects of Jim leaving for another 2-3 years and it all depends on who is replacing him."

I believe we´ll have news regarding the future of Playstation rather sooner than later.

As Ryan steps down next month, demands for what´s next for Playstation will not only be made by gamers, but shareholders, investors and board directors.

PS games on PC will still to be a thing? Will those games come to PC sooner or even later?

Day One Playstation games on PS Plus will be a thing? Will those games be released sooner on the service? There´ll be AAA third party day one releases on the service?

GaaS will continue to be a focus?

Will Playstation continue and invest in third party exclusives?

Will Playstation establish new partnerships with Microsoft and or Nintendo?

Will Playstation continue and invest in acquisition of studios? Will they now invest in publishers as well?

There will be more PSVR2 games from first party studios?

There´s lots of questions that needs to be addressed by the new leadership.

Of course, Totoki also might answer all of it with a single note: "All of Playstation future plans and direction, remains the same" and call it a day.

shinoff2183212d ago

Day One Playstation games on PS Plus will be a thing? Will those games be released sooner on the service? There´ll be AAA third party day one releases on the service?

I don't see this happening. The only reason ms did it is cause they were desperate imo. I'd rather Sony not do day one. I'm also of the mindset I prefer to physically own my games not rent or digitally have them. I've got no issue paying for a game I will truly enjoy.

Obscure_Observer212d ago (Edited 212d ago )

@shinoff2183

"I don't see this happening."

Just because you don´t see it happening doesn´t mean it won´t happen.

I don´t think you remember but there´s a lot of "I don't see this happening" type of comment in the comment history of many people here regarding both Playstation games on PC and some Playstation "Gamepass" type of service.

"The only reason ms did it is cause they were desperate imo."

By the time MS announced day one first party games on Gamepass the general opinion were that it would never happen! All that bs talk about "it´s not sustainable" blah blah bah.

Now we have not only all of the first party games day one on Gamepass but AAA third party games day one as well.

Imo, PS Plus will never outperform Gamepass if Sony is not willing to heavily invest on it specially now after that 40% price hike, and yet, they had the nerve to remove Spider-Man from its content list.

According to FTC documents MS had made more profit out revenue in 2022 than Sony, while numbers from both Bethesda and Activision weren´t even accounted.

You might think Sony have nothing to worry about, but that sudden retirement announcement does sound an alarm, and things about to change, again. Like it or not.

Elda212d ago (Edited 212d ago )

I saw you addressed Shinoff by saying Gamepass will be getting third party AAA games day one. I have Gamepass & what third party AAA games have currently released on Gamepass?

Obscure_Observer212d ago

@Elda

"I have Gamepass & what third party AAA games have currently released on Gamepass?"

Those are the latest off the top of my head:

A Plague Tale Requiem
MLB 23
Atomic Heart
Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty
Exoprimal

Upcoming AAA Third Party releases day one on Gamepass (also off the top of my head)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2
Flintlock
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
Persona 3 Reload
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 212d ago
ChasterMies212d ago

“Less live service nonsense, I hope.”

Don’t bet on it. All the top grossing games are live service games. It’s apparently where the masses want to spend their money.

Jin_Sakai212d ago

I just hope an actual gamer gets the position. I wouldn’t mind Herman Hulst. He knows how gaming development works inside out.

Shane Kim212d ago

At the end of the day, if you want to run a billion dollar company, you need to make money for the shareholders. If not they will throw you out like yesterdays garbage.

MrNinosan212d ago

Do you for real think he's the reason why we'll get 10 live-service games over the span of 8 years, a long with singleplayer masterpieces?

Regarding the "price hike" it's the first in 6 years, and still cheaper than GamePass, even thou it became a better service.

What is it you're actually crying about?

northpaws212d ago

They haven't even put out one and you guys are screaming too much.

Personally I can't wait for a live service games on some of the IPs, for example, Ghost's legend mode, it was awesome that it was free, I played at least 200 hours on it, but if it is a live service game then I would still be playing today because it would get the funding for additional content, which I don't mind paying because of how good that was.

A monster hunter type of games in the Horizon's universe would be fun too.

A lot of amazing world that I would love to explore more with friends.

Of course I still looking forward to all the single player games, but both can co-exist.

crazyCoconuts212d ago

Cashing MLB and GT7 live service games...dunno. They both have tons of single player content.
Destruction All Stars isn't even a first party game.

Obscure_Observer211d ago

"Destruction All Stars isn't even a first party game."

Yes, it is.

S2Killinit211d ago (Edited 211d ago )

@erinlime
What live-service nonsense?
Here is what Sony has said:

“We will continue to publish the games that have served us so well over the years. These single player, graphically beautiful, narrative rich games will continue to be the bedrock of our first party publishing business”

Why is making live-service on top, nonsense?
MS is currently only doing live service. Starfield is live service, redfall is live service.

Double standard much?

+ Show (7) more repliesLast reply 211d ago
Flawlessmic212d ago

A return to the old Sony hopefully, way less focus on gaas, don't overly secretive about what games you have coming, keep providing AAA single player games.

Basically do what they have always done before Jim.

gold_drake212d ago (Edited 212d ago )

just to let you know, he has worked for sony, for 30 years.

so .... your comment doesnt rly make a whole lot of sense.

Kaze88212d ago

He was the boss of sony's game department for 4 years. All those years Sony has been arrogant and secretive, so I would say that the comment is valid.

DogJosha212d ago

Working for someone and making their major decisions is two vastly different things...

crazyCoconuts212d ago

I'm sorry guys, like just because Ryan SAID some things about GaaS, doesn't mean they actually did anything there.
PS kept up the quality of the 1st party games which have all been single player (NOT Gaas)
PS released PSVR2 (Hoorah)
PS5 turned out to be awesome, with awesome games, and sold the pants off of ... er.. the other guys
Ryan was honest about the sub service and how it'll never make money giving away day 1 games. He stuck to his word there
So same PS as always...

Yea, less communication about upcoming games... probably because they're in a fierce competitive battle w/ MS at the moment and are keeping secrets.
Yea, they bought Bungee and I'm not thrilled with that. Bungee probably pulled the plug on ND's factions thing because it wasn't gonna make $. They probably weren't wrong. So I don't know...
But overall not that much has changed - overall PS has pretty much continued to dominate while still making games that are way better than anything the competition can churn out despite all their $$. So, like, I kinda think the Jim hate thing is irrational

mudakoshaka211d ago (Edited 211d ago )

Every single game that has come out for the past 3 years, including Spider-Man 2, was greenlit before Ryan. And to be honest, the games that have been coming out for the past 2 years for PS5 are not impressive at all, with the exception for God of War Ragnarök. Mostly 3rd party games have been the big hitters. So you are totally wrong about Ryan. He has kind of messed up the approach of Playstation and they have become more generic and try to invest in GaaS. Playstation were always innovators, now they are just doing the same as the competitors. I think Jim Ryan was forced to resign as the brand is not heading in the right direction. Spider-Man 2 looks like a bland game with great graphics. I might get Spider-Man 2 on a sale in the future. No other big upcoming games which have official release dates. Are we supposed to wait until 2025 for the next PS5 exclusive? This is getting ridiculous. I am playing games on my PS5 I could have played on my PS4. People expected some great games to go along with their PS5 and not just 3rd party stuff that you can play on a Switch. E3 in 2016, that is 3 years after the release of the PS4, blew everyone away with the great upcoming titles. Sony’s presentation 3 year after the release of the PS5, a freaking joke!

PSVR2 was greenlit by Shuhei Yoshida and not Jim Ryan. So another example of Jim Ryan’s only contribution during his tenure is a bad version of Splatoon and a handheld screen to stream games.

crazyCoconuts211d ago

@mud you lost me at Spiderman 2 looks like a bland game lol
So it kinda sounds like he gets credit for nothing because everything was greenlit before him, and blamed for things like GaaS, which outside of a few games I guess hasn't been a real thing. I don't know, I hear some of your points about wanting more, less playing safe. I'd be curious to compare where, say PS4 was 3 years after launch compared to PS5...was it really that different in terms of first party games being released?

mudakoshaka211d ago

@CrazyCoconuts

Look at Sony’s E3 presentation in 2016. That was an amazing show! And the thing is that in 2016 during E3, most of the games presented were still years away. God of War was shown for the first time ever during that E3 presentation and it took almost another 2 years until release. At least we got a taste for what was to come. The only taste Sony is giving now is a taste of doubt. PSVR2 is almost shelved by Sony under Jim Ryan. Mine has been collecting dust for 4 months since almost all of the games released are available on PCVR as well. I am ready to downgrade the graphics in VR for PSVR2 in order to enjoy Playstation exclusive games, but since none of those seem to be coming, I see no reason why I would play Green Hell on PSVR2 when on PCVR it is crystal clear. They need to invest in their current products and not trying to chase the next Fortnite.

Regarding Spider-Man 2, it was fun swinging around New York and fighting was fun in the beginning. But after a while it is just like Assassin’s Creed where the same type of mission is repeated on a different location. I wrote in another post, it does not bode well that we are getting two Spider-Men and Venom in the same game. It’s just like in Hollywood when the story does not hold its own, you just add more characters to make it more appealing. Spider-Man 2 will look amazing, but be ready for a repetitive game.

outsider1624212d ago

And when at the end of a game showcase...always have a "there's one more thing" at the end of the show for a special game.

neutralgamer1992212d ago

Clear messaging about what is coming up content wise. Can’t say it’s only possible on PS5 than have the same game run on PS4 or run without SSD on PC’s

I hope they really go back and get Shawn Layden who was starting to have a really good synergy with gamers

Shawn layden
Andrew house
Jack Trenton

Please get one of these

And please put some more focus on Japanese market. MS have been growing their business in Japan and TGS showed how much they are investing yet Sony seems to care less and less

Do 2 shows/presentations a year. One totally focused on 3rd party content and the other all about 1st-2nd party exclusive content

Less focus on GAAS because there are enough 3rd party big games doing GAAS and companies like PlayStation and Xbox get 30%. They have bungie who will keep doing GAAS so let the other studios do more traditional games

Acquire some more studios or even smaller publishers to grow the PlayStation strength. Like Sony themselves said PlayStation is very important to the core of their business. I believe owning square and capcom would do well for PlayStation (Sony has close to 20 billion in acquisition funds and they can get both square and capcom for less than 20)

shinoff2183212d ago

I agree withwith everything neutralgamer, especially about the Japan gmfocus, and bringing back if possible one of those guys. Specifically layden

Rodney25212d ago

His run as CEO is why I stopped mainly gaming on Playstation. No fun first party games, no actual exclusives everything just goes to PC, the censorship that started, and the straw that broke was the PS+ price hike. It all screams arrogance of a company in the lead that just doesn't care what it does it's all about money. I just want old Sony that made wild exclusives like Crash and Spyro got Japanese publishers on their side and was the friendliest place for any dev to put whatever they wanted on console.

ChasterMies212d ago

“No fun first party games”

Yeah, right. Because Ghost and Tsushima and Horizon Forbidden West are a bad time.

Rodney25212d ago

Both those games are boring to me, IDK what to tell you.

212d ago
gold_drake212d ago

can you imagine being that bothered by one person that u quit something entirely?

DogJosha212d ago

Imagine hating what someone does with their free time so much that you support getting rid of games that have 0 impact on your life. Are you that guy Drake? Please don't be that guy Drake.

goldwyncq212d ago

If you actually read it properly, they didn't stop gaming entirely, they just stopped gaming mainly on Playstation because of the changes Jim Ryan made.

shinoff2183212d ago

Ps plus was the last straw. It was only a few dollars. I think I'm paying like 19 a month. I do agree with the last part of your comment about though. Where else do you game didn't all the console up prices on things recently.

TheTony316211d ago

The censorship started in 2016. Long before Jimbo was in charge.

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270°

Steam’s Refund Policy Change Won’t Affect You Unless You’re A Lowlife

Steam is changing its refund policy, but you probably won’t be affected

Read Full Story >>
thegamer.com
thorstein18h ago

Should have happened a long time ago. People wanting refunds after 50 hours in game.

fsfsxii14h ago

Pc gamers will take this as an excuse to pirate things

KyRo13h ago

I'm not sure why you're getting disgrees. Whilst not all PC gamers are petty, an awful lot of them are lol

Crows9013h ago

Entirely untrue. Not any more petty than console gamers. The only large difference is console gamers don't have much of a choice.

Michiel19894h ago

Not sure why you're getting agrees. an awful lot of console gamers are overemotional twinks ready to go to war over a plastic box, I'll take being a pc gamer then.

Speaking about overgeneralizing much.

qalpha13h ago

Daily reminder that 'TheGamer' is a corporate-generated, anti-gamer, anti-consumer, clickbait web site. They are mostly A.I. generated articles that villainize gamers. They provide nothing positive and actively try to provoke and divide the community through extreme view points and politics. Do not give them any clicks.

Inverno13h ago

Only scumbags? As if people don't play their games on console put in the most amount of hours and return it to GameStop and trade it in for another game. But also how many people are actually do this? And what games have been allowed to be refunded?

DustMan13h ago

You can refund any game you've purchased as long as it hasn't been longer than two weeks, and you've played less than 2 hours. I wish they would change it to 3 hours because some RPG's have so much exposition that you may only get an hour total of complete gameplay. That's my only knock on it. I've refunded plenty of stuff I was just curious to try. I typically stay away from Early Access titles which are the only ones affected by this policy change.

Inverno12h ago

Apparently early access doesn't count, only complete games with a play early preorder bonus.

Gaming4Life198113h ago

I definitely know if I want a refund in 2 hours.

SegaSaturn6694h ago

I never liked refunding anything. Even if a film is bad, i dont want my money back. Sometimes things just aren't for me, and it's not the creator's fault necessarily.

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110°

Outriders Dev's Next Game Has Been Canceled After Publishing Agreement With Take-Two Fell Through

Outriders developer People Can Fly's next game has been canceled after its publishing agreement with Take-Two Interactive fell through.

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Tacoboto2d ago

"the capital group of PCF Group S.A."

If you're getting funding from a group that needs two different ways of Acronyming itself, things will not go the way you want them to.

banger882d ago

If it was more online-only crap then good riddance.

jjb19811d 17h ago

Outriders was crap. They slapped that game together and threw in a loot system to get players' attention. This game was absolutely jank and the always online nonsense made it stutter like crazy. People Can't Optimize.

thorstein1d 16h ago

I liked Outriders but I could see where the artistic vision was compromised. The way the industry is now, it wouldn't surprise me that upper management would scrap something that didn't pull in money via gaas, mts, or other means.

290°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.

Read Full Story >>
theverge.com
darthv722d ago

Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.

solideagle1d 21h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Sonic18811d 18h ago

I thought darthv72 and Obscure_Observer already work for Microsoft 🤔

dveio1d 18h ago

MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."

darthv72: "Seems about right."

MS: "Excuse m ..."

darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."

MS:

Lightning771d 13h ago

What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.

Cacabunga1d 20h ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

darthv721d 6h ago

to you it may seem like the minority... but your bubble is shrinking because more and more are following suit. convenience is a hell of a drug and its also why physical sales only amount to 30% of overall game sales. times are changing, you either get with them or you get left behind.

neutralgamer19921d 1h ago

Darth

30% physical sales: yet Phil and xbox division are in a rush go give up on that 30%. they don't have any right to give up any piece of the pie since the control such a little of the pie to begin with

also, the market is clearly speaking that the model Xbox is pushing isn't working right now the keyword being right now. you are right about freedom to play anywhere so i hope they put their games on steam

shinoff21831d 19h ago

But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.

Cacabunga1d 18h ago

Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.

If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.

Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you

itsmebryan1d 14h ago

@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers

S2Killinit1d 7h ago

MS is after diminishing consoles as a medium. They want to destroy this market because they couldnt win. MS’s vision is to dissolve console gaming.

romulus231d 13h ago

Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.

darthv721d 13h ago

They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.

TheEroica1d 7h ago (Edited 1d 7h ago )

Perfectly reasonable post down voted by insecure corporation friendly folk.... But not gamers. Real gamer want accessibility and ease of acquisition for all.... Company shills are the only ones still telling us that hardware locking people from games is good for us.

Chevalier1d 1h ago

@Darth

You should stop parroting metrics like an idiot without context.

"Xbox content and services revenue grew 62% in Q3 from a year earlier, “driven by 61 points of net impact” from the purchase of the third-party video game giant, Microsoft said."

61 of the 62% was from their merger so net increase is ONLY 1%

https://www.mesaonline.org/...

itsmebryan17h ago

@chevalier

It looks like made a great purchase. Much better then Sony buying Bungie. 😉
Cheers

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 17h ago
purple1011d 23h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos1d 22h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

DOMination-1d 12h ago

In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.

XBManiac1d 22h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad1d 21h ago (Edited 1d 21h ago )

"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."

That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.

purple1011d 21h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos1d 21h ago (Edited 1d 21h ago )

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

Kornholic1d 19h ago

So basically PS and PC gamers' money is keeping Xbox on life support.

MrDead1d 12h ago

The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1d 12h ago
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