| Machiavellian said: While gamers may view Jim Ryan especially Xbox gamers one way, probably at Sony and in the industry they view him much different. What I mean by that is that during his time, Sony has pretty much peaked with how they have approached the gaming market and how they stand against their own competition. The number one thing for any CEO is not to mess things up, extend the growth of your product and services and compete with your competitors and build on your marketshare advantage. On all these points Jim Ryan has done the job. Even during COVID Sony did not miss a beat while we cannot say the same for MS and even Nintendo had some gap in production. While MS gamers may not like the 3rd party deals Jim and his team has done, you have to admit those 3rd party deals were very effective in making the PS system the most popular console and the must have console for a lot of gamers. Jim is definitely pure corporate C level exec but to dismiss his efforts on the business front is to always underestimate what he has done. |
Sure, from a business perspective I'm sure he was seen as a success by the Sony executives and board of directors. Playstation continued to perform well and even grow during a global pandemic afterall. I do think it's a pretty damning indictment to his image though just how many Sony gamers dislike him. While the suits may remember Ryan fondly, I see quite alot of actual gamers, even PS only gamers, that are rejoicing at his stepping down. They hated how strongly he focused on GaaS games, they hated how he closed down 3 studios after taking over, they hated how he shat on the idea of PS1, PS2, and PS3 being added to PS5 back compat and ridiculed the concept of BC. I think ultimately he may be remembered as either the the worst or 2nd worst Playstation head by most gamers, hard to say how is image will end up compared to Jack Tretton's in the end.
