"The 11th edition of Pixel Heaven Festival has come to an end. Over 10,500 people visited the Creative Industries Development Center. Apart from gaming affirmation and sharing mutual passion with other enthusiasts, participants also learned about the Intel Pixel Awards Europe 2023 winners." - Pixel Heaven Festival.
Jim Ryan to retire next spring and Hiroki Totoki to assume Interim CEO role while keeping his current role at Sony Group.
Y'all got what y'all wanted lets see if anything change hopefully for the better. A Japanese head would be better then Jim I bet.
"Y'all got what y'all wanted"
Yup...and I'm pretty sure most of us are content
His plans for the future of Sony were awful so...no great loss
Good riddance
@Eonjay
I think a lot of people didn't like the direction that PlayStation was going under Jim with his heavy emphasis of GaaS games being developed by the first-party studios. That's just my impression.
@Eonjay
Just his comments and business like approach to the industry along with some stupid sounding remarks.
He wanted a GaaS future for PlayStation and set those plans in motion (god knows if they will stop now)
We don't get much communication aswell, apart from Wolverine what else is coming to PlayStation after Spiderman 2 that isn't third party and GaaS related? Nobody wants to have games announced 3-4 years before they are actually released but give us something.
Microsoft bought Zenimax and Activision, it's clear they probably won't stop so where's the reaction from Sony? They should be doubling down hard or building up a new studio to counter the games they are missing out on but they aren't instead it's "lets throw GaaS shit at the wall like a dozen times and see what sticks"
He just hasn't really got anything on Jack Tretton and Shawn Layden
Yeah you go Fox, show them how the 27 billion USD business is led. You know what is a loss for every single Playstation user and have all the insights to roadmaps and investments, I'm sure you sat in those meetings the respected and well-known leader you are, and would have made all the right calls. I'd like to thank you for speaking for all of us.
Meanwhile, in the world of reality, PS5 was launched amid global pandemic and is SIE's fastest selling console yet and the Sony Corp stock nearly doubled.
First and foremost, Jim Ryan is responsible for 12700 people, and their families, and of course shareholders, and finally the consumers who buy their products. In that order.
He and his management team has all the data in the world from the Playstation product family, including countless of consumer insight projects from multiple regions and age groups, and knows exactly where and how gamers want to play today. This is reflected on the revenue increase, unit sales in both hardware and software, and is a clear showing of his outstanding performance at a very difficult job in extraordinary circumstances.
Jack Trenton to this day might be the best CEO I ever seen, I remember to this day him coming out and saying sorry for the PlayStation outage. And, it felt real. Go back and watch it.
@Tapani
Oooo. Seemed to hit a nerve. Kind of strange, I think I've found a Ryan supporter...that's rare.
"You know what is a loss for every single Playstation user and have all the insights to roadmaps and investments"
But...I haven't even mentioned users and investments.
Countering points I haven't said is just going to make you look pretty stupid at the end of the day, it's like you wanted to argue but couldn't really find much in my comment to really counter so just saw what you wanted to see so you could argue back.
@Eonjay:
For me it was the "Drama Simulator" focus. Getting interactive movies called games.
Then there are all the Horizon and Last of Us remakes. Re-releases?
@ Eonjay
I think after that whole ABK fiasco and now Sony is going to be investigated of his involvement. I knew he wasn't going to be around much longer.
@Eonjay
I don’t think people hated him. He was just more business oriented than past Heads. That doesn’t relate well with gamers.
@Sharky231 That’s because most gamers want a “friend”. How’s that working out for Xbox? Lol
People who think Sony are just going to change plans because he’s retiring are in for a huge disappointment. He left the PlayStation doing better than they ever have. That’s what board members and shareholders care to see. They have a 6 month plan for him to help ease the transition before his retirement for that reason.
Do people really think Sony is going to stop the GAAS games they have been working on for a few years now? No. It was a necessary thing for Sony to be able to fund their 1st party development.
I'm hoping whoever takes over has a better marketing strategy. But i would be very surprised if sony did a 180 on their plans.
@eonjay no hate towards the guy. But it's his directions that ps is heading and well...im not sure i like it. Pretty sure others feel the same way.
The censorship of games, the woke BS being shoved down our throats in the xmb, a little bit of anti consumer policies as well. Hopefully all that goes away once he's gone.
Lol, for the worst the whole industry is headed to GaaS its what make them lot of money, so like it or not the CEO are theere working for the shareholders not you or me, they are there to get more money, the direction of Sony looking for a GaaS hit wont change at all, It was not like the CEO stopped and halted the making of story driven single players although he halted their indie games which i think should not have done but actually he talked about funding more single players with the money from GaaS games… I am a RPG especially JRPG guy mostly so I dont like them but then i do not like sports games either and i dont feel like they should go away, every niche has it people.
Thank you guys for the replies. I think all of you, even if you don't agree with each other, raise valid points.
@Eonjay,
I wouldn't say hate, but PS fans are certainly frustrated with the way things are going, the move of HQ to California, winding down Japan Studios, refusing to port/remaster/make sequels of games like Wild Arms/Shadow Hearts (the creators had to turn to kickstarter to make spiritual successors: Armed Fantasia/Penny Blood, don't know if Ratatan is in the same situations), the puritan policy changes that destroy franchises like Senran Kagura (we'll never get 7even and I'll never know how the story ends), the lack of "classic games" we were promised in PS Plus Extra/Deluxe, the lack of exclusives this gen (especially PS5 exclusives), ect...
I haven't found a whole lot to be excited about this generation of PS, hence why I haven't felt the need to buy a PS5, others may disagree with me, but these are enough reasons for me. Someone also mentioned the hard push for GAAS titles as well, which I'm not thrilled about either.
@Eonjay
He came off as more of a suit than someone who genuinely cares about video games. Compare him to Andy House, Shawn Layden, or Jack Tretton and it's a night-and-day difference.
We want these type of charismatic PlayStation leaders with clear messaging and understanding of what make’s PlayStation strong
Shawn Layden
Andrew house
Kaz
Jack Trenton
Nothing against Jim he is just a suit who looks at numbers only. So hopefully he enjoys his retirement
I think Sony didn’t like how MS were able to acquire so much talent while Jim was sitting in the sideline
Hopefully we start to get a much clearer picture of what PlayStation will look like moving forward and less focus on GAAS
But what are these numbers? If the majority wants a certain thing, even if it is GaaS, and a minority, which I am possibly part of, wants great single-player AAA game experiences, should he select us over what the "numbers" (=majority) says?
If you were in that position, and you had 12700 people in your organization, shareholders, and finally the fans who say (=numbers) they want a certain thing, would you go against it because a certain minority likes single player experiences? I certainly would go where the money and majority wants me to go. Why? Because it has the highest possibility to bring joy to the largest amount of people.
Numbers are not just digits. They are opinions, how people behave, what most people really want. I'm not in the GaaS camp personally, I don't play any multiplayer games at all, except FFXIV for the story, and only once, and mostly alone.
Besides, who knows if Jim Ryan was internally fighting the GaaS as much as he could, but had to simply present the GaaS concept in public due to internal pressure from multiple "numbers" teams?
We just really don't know, and we are not the right people to judge his performance or his character or personality. Quite frankly, the numbers are the best indication of his performance and success, not us on these forums.
Venom is calling his replacement now: Hermen Hulst.
And you can quote me on that!
Jim isn’t just making all the decisions regarding acquisitions. There Would have been discussions on who they would acquire. Also if you have been following the Activision acquisition case, you would know that Sony weren’t just sitting by letting MS acquire them.
Yup. Shu Yoshida and Scott Rohde are great but likely better off where they are. PlayStation needs another Jack Tretton. Innovative hardware and not off the shelf parts. PlayStation pushed on PC doesn't scream "THIS IS WHY YOU NEED PLAYSTATION". It instead says "If you wait long enough, you can play a sub-par port on PC." To this day, Mario still isn't on PC. When consoles are gone and Xbox and PlayStation and Nintendo are singing around a campfire together, sure we'll talk about PC., but Jim Ryan is doing Xbox's marketing for them when he should have a pre-show to PlayStation Showcase with third-party games and then the PlayStation Showcase is why you NEED PlayStation hardware. Right after the PlayStation Showcase, Aaron Greenberg, Jim Ryans equal at Xbox shot out on social media "We have all of those." COME ON! Jim Ryans message was here's what Xbox has or he patient long enough and you can play it on PC, NOT this is why you need PlayStation. Games as Service? PlayStation NEVER followed Xbox's lead, PlayStation was the lead
I'm way more curious as to who will take his place. Who will take center stage at next year's summer gamefest. Maybe Herman Hulst will take his place? More him or anyone familiar than some unknown outsider who's intentions and motives are completely unknown to us. No telling what direction they'll take PS.
That's very worrisome.
