Didn’t expect him to retire until he saw the results of his new direction for Playstation. Seems rather sudden since he hasn’t even decided a successor to reccomend and Sony has to find one themselves.
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I agree to an extent as we also heard from a few sources how their internal teams were not destined for gaas and was causing quite a few issues.
but no way in hell are they 180 off gaas
I heard Bobby Kodick is free next year. He would be a great leader for the Pony nation, don’t you think?
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Seems really strange to me to care about any of these CEO’s
Gaming never used to be like this. Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer don’t care about you. They just want your money.
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In Ryan’s case, he steered the company towards classless money grabs (increased prices of everything), classless console wars & a ridiculous handling of the Activision merger (obstructionist to a comical degree). So I view this as very good news for the gaming industry.
And let’s face facts here, he’s been fired for a combination of all of the above.
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Eh,
Like i said i can’t see why anyone would care either way. I think share holders probably thought he was great.
Seems strange to care. I don’t know who was in charge of the N64, back then i don’t think anyone did. I don’t see why anyone would think these people are good or bad.
They’re businessmen.
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oh wow. Didnt see this coming.
GAAS is used as a dirty word, but I like returning to Halo Infinite, FH5 and AOE4 between single player releases… Sony will probably take wild swings at monetization, just like they did with GT7:
At the same time the pricing of cars is an important element that conveys their value and rarity, so I do think it’s important for it to be linked with the real-world prices.
lol
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Least we don’t have to see him in the Sony showcases struggling to read his lines for much longer.
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More like spiritual leader as far as the cult is concerned.
But seriously, some of his decisions were beyond whacky, even small details like his decision to raise the trophy level via an overhaul 3 years ago, whereby (for example) my own level 15 (which I’d spent 7 years reaching) suddenly turned into level 260, because reasons (in effect it made people new to the ecosystem level up super fast & blatantly encouraged addiction).
Stuff like that really said a lot about who & what that man was as CEO. I’m also curious to know whether this will affect any of their plans, especially the rumored PS5 Pro, i.e. something which for me anyway is a total waste of time this gen.
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I wouldn’t waste too much time debating retired/not retired I’ve seen a good few CEOs “retire” and then pop up again a short while later on a new grift.
Another possible red flag is the interim CEO stuff which signposts this as a sort notice kind of event not a standard well planned there’s too much traveling in the job for me we need an exit plan thing.
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Yeah, i will have to take your word on it. Those things seem strange. I don’t see these people as anything but a figurehead/ politician type.
Wouldn’t care either way.
For some reason he/ they are successful and have turned profit. I try to be honest about these things, as well as i can be.
Two things that would upset the fans even more, one would be good though.
Watch Sony triple down on GaaS now, which would not be good but it’s not impossible and I doubt they will shift the focus too much.
And bring exclusives day one to PC. For some reason fans absolutely despise the possibility of that, sigh.
It’s a strange one and I won’t speculate on why he’s left, there’s so many possible reasons but it is strange that there isn’t really a succession plan in place so there putting in Hiroki Totoki who already is the COO and president of Sony overall in charge till they find a replacement. Just guessing but I would think the decision came from Jim Ryan himself as Sony seem a little unprepared for it happening
Sure. But decisions made during his tenure (either directly by Ryan or under his ‘orders’) contributed to making me not enjoy the PlayStation brand as much as I used to. So despite the fact they’re businessmen, I feel we as consumers can absolutely judge their work, especially negatively, when we don’t like the results.
I don’t like the design of the console (where’s Sony’s sobriety gone? It’s like Xbox Series became the PS2/PS3 & PlayStation 5 became the original Xbox 360, i.e. it looks like a toy), I didn’t like the price increases, I didn’t like the push towards cinematic sad dad nihilistic walking simulators, I didn’t like the trophy overhaul, I didn’t like the tiers they introduced for their own subscription service, I don’t like their push towards GAAS (Fairgame$ or whatever it is looks like a hilariously awkward mishmash of modern social commentary… & monetization, without self-awareness). I didn’t like the online rhetoric & fuelling console wars (I’ve always been console agnostic, i.e. I’ve owned Xbox & PS consoles for 20 years now). And so on.
The list of stuff I didn’t like is quite extensive. That is why… I don’t own a PS5, at least not yet. We’ll see whether the new regime introduces some positive change.
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Stuff like trophies is handled by people way below Ryan, probably some data analysts and psychologists aiming to maximize engagement. It is what it is, everybody does it.
By ‘maximizing engagement’, I think you mean increasing addiction. It’s like a casino saying it wants to maximise engagement. They all do. But they don’t need to be so blatant about it. Which Jim Ryan was.
And I’m pretty sure if we wake up tomorrow morning & someone has screwed with the achievements on Xbox (the equivalent would be increasing the score from 1000 to 10000 per game), Phil Spencer would be immediately blamed.
The console & ecosystem is the result of an ensemble of decisions, influences & agendas but the buck stops with the CEO.
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I don’t have a Playstation, haven’t had in a long time so I don’t know how it works. ‘Maximizing engagement’ can indeed be egregious and predatory, but funny thing is sometimes people demand openly reward pop-ups and pointless bars to fill, see: Halo Infinite’s lack of any rewards for playing the game at launch.
Also funny thing: Xbox executives like Spencer, Greenberg and Roland have been asked multiple times about the achievement system on Xbox and they said they’re looking into revising it, but nothing ever materialized…
Aren’t Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer around the same age (55?) I know Jim looks much older but I think he’s actually slightly younger than Phil 
.
Makes me wonder how much longer Phil will stick around too, hopefully atleast until the end of this generation.