Good. Outside of him moving Playstation to support PC, I haven’t cared for a single thing he’s done.
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Being retired
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This.
They let go of Shawn Layden in favor for Jim because Jim was willing to embrace PC and GAAS. Shawn wasn’t.
I doubt Sony had a change of heart and are suddenly going back to how they conducted business in the ps2 era lol.
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my conspiracy is that he leaked the Sony stuff and got shafted for it
I expect Sony will not be allocating much for acquisitions in gaming in the short term. I cant see them buying Square Enix during the next year for example.
I expect other business areas that have been neglected as far as acquisition budget to seize a time where theyll be the biggest voices in the room advocating for acquisition budget.
I think Shawn would’ve been more flexible, some Gaas where it makes sense, but I think his thing would’ve been to tone down the madness of AAA production, he would’ve embraced making more smaller scoped games, I know many wouldn’t have wanted that but it’s better than GaaS to me.
Probably the best time to step aside.
He leaves PlayStation having overseen explosive growth, but at a time of transition and about to see their biggest 3rd party partner becoming part of your competitor.
There’s this idea that Xbox fanboys want him to stay because he’s seemingly incompetent but if you ask me he did a great job.
PS5 launched smoothly with fantastic adoption. Shifting to GaaS to replace their creatively risky titles is smart business. They came up with their own games rental service to compete with Game Pass. Expanded into PC games. The latter don’t compare to Xbox in terms of execution, but are a step in the right direction for their business and for consumers.
He made the whole Activision acquisition an absolute pain in the ass for MS. Got some crucial agreements with Square for massive exclusives.
I think meme of him holding a controller upside down (which is fake) It’s pretty hilarious but as a CEO he did everything right in terms of keeping PlayStation the biggest brand in home console gaming.
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He was inflexible and his comments since being laid off only reinforce that IMO.
Interesting times ahead for Playstation. GAAS risk is, well, risky, but also a necessity. Xbox is finally about to become the ABK powered Xbox. And I think the Switch 2 will be a bigger competitor than many think. I saw the leaks saying the next Far Cry will be day 1 on it and I think at this point that this system will not miss many third party games, a “competitive” Nintendo can be a just as scary thought as ABK powered Xbox.
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His comments about what? I seen be very vocal about AAA development being unsustainable
Plus, Sony has yet to see a result of GaaS marketing for themselves; only based on MLB and GT7 (I think that counts?).
Good fucking riddance. Here’s to hoping somebody who actually likes video games takes over.
My speculation? He’s getting older, so he probably wants to go out on top, riding off the momentum of decisions made from the House and Kodera eras, before PlayStation starts to slip once releases he’s actually responsible for(GaaS fever baby!) start to come out.
That way, he’ll be known as the guy who ran SIE Europe for years, and was in charge of the whole ship through the PS5’s successful opening era, some of which was during a pandemic, while the next guy or gal will be the one left holding the bag when the GaaS initiative predicably underperforms.
I haven’t liked his direction for the brand. Far too much abusing brand loyalty to squeeze every penny out of the consumer. They make a good product and good games but the way they treat their customers hasn’t sat well with me.
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You don’t think Jim and Phil aren’t aware of this ? It’s their job to find solutions or bandaids for it.
What Shawn wants just isn’t realistic in the world that Xbox and Sony are operating in.
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https://x.com/agentbizzle/status/1707157569280590085?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
IGN waste no time.
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