Xbox |OT|

[Machiavellian]

EpicRandy said:

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.

True, for me, Ryan has done a respectable job all around, some might have felt disconnected from him since he doesn't really carry the gamer persona but I think he did what he had to do when he had to do it.

The only actual caveat was all the faux concerns and blatant hypocritical position he displayed with the MS ABK acquisition, even though I understand why he did so it was still a petty show all around.

Other than that there's no denying he achieved the goals he sought for PS5.

IMO he even successfully positioned the PS5 to be able to entrench the classical approach to selling games one more gen rather than having to embrace an early switch to a less profitable (short-term) day-and-date release on subscription service strategy. And that's no easy feat when your main competitor is trying to change the very definition of success in this industry to just that. The only way he had to pull it off was to sell as many ps5 as possible early on and so he did even if it meant discounting the PS5 all the while it was still selling at a record pace by all industry standards.

However, despite the fact he succeeded in doing so, I think a flip to day-and-date release in the subscription is unavoidable and will happen sooner or later and there's no denying that by entrenching a classical approach Playstation has left MS with a huge lead on this front. This may have the unfortunate consequence that Ryan's works may also be viewed as a hit on short-term profitability with limited ROI potential over the longer game and, as a consequence, having to heavily invest to catch up with the competition in this metric when they do finally flip. Now add the effect of ABK for MS and this future is pretty much guaranteed and should be quite obvious even to Sony BoD. If that's the case I think It might be a reason for his departure, don't think he was forced out in any way, he probably felt like his direction up to now might not be seen in the same light as before so he'll leave while at the top of his game.

I do agree that with the ABK acquisition, he had to play a certain role.  The thing is, a strong MS is a pain in the ass for Sony as they really do not want MS to be able to start to dictate the market.  ABK makes MS much stronger and thus a pain to deal with if they gain any traction.  You can tell by the initial email from Jim that they realized pretty quick what this move by MS was but once he sniffed push back from regulators, well he either had to embrace it to stop the merger or sit by and deal with the fallout.  

As for day one release of First party games, yes the industry will go to that model but as long as Sony can keep a decent marketshare above MS, they will not have to move to that model for some time I believe.  MS has to make up a lot of head way.  I believe they need consistent AAA content from their studios that cannot miss like Redfall.  At least 2 solid years and a significant gain in subs.  Sony is not on the same level as MS when it comes to P&L on their server platforms and thus its just a more expensive investment for Sony.