The CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, has officially left the company, and an interim executive from Sony’s corporate board has taken over his role.
There has been a lot of criticism directed at Xbox boss Phil Spencerbecause of various controversies at Xbox and his 10-year anniversary in the job.
PlayStation has also been facing similar levels of complaints, but there hasn't been a specific person to blame. PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has been mostly out of the public eye in the last two years, and Sunday was his last day on the job, before retiring entirely.
It's currently unknown who will permanently replace him, but in a final podcast for PlayStation, Ryan has stated that ‘I’d say right now we’re at the top of our game.’
Similar to Spencer's recent statements, that seems untrue, but Ryan insisted: ‘We’ve been really clear and really consistent about what we stand for: great consoles, great console gaming experiences, and great games.’
‘PlayStation 5 is on track to be our most successful console ever across multiple areas, and I think the games and the gaming experiences on PlayStation 5, led by PlayStation Studios, are the best we've ever seen.’
Excluding ports, remasters, and remakes, PlayStation Studios (i.e. Sony’s first party developers) has only released one major title in the last 12 months, Spider-Man 2, and is not expected to launch another until after next April.
However, Ryan reiterated by saying: ‘The number of games we’ve released so far on PlayStation 5, at this point in the cycle, exceeds anything that we’ve ever done before.’
Unfortunately, because this was an official PlayStation Blog podcast, no one properly questioned his comments.
Ryan’s use of the word ‘vectors’ implies he’s measuring the success of the PlayStation 5 by means other than the number of consoles it’s sold, such as monthly active users and number of hours played, but currently hardware sales are trending below PlayStation 4.
The PlayStation 5 is selling very well, around double that of Xbox Series X/S, but failed to meet its sales targets over Christmas, which exacerbated the current panic around budget levels for games and Sony’s unrequited love for live service games.
Ryan further muddied the waters by suggesting that the PlayStation 2 – the best-selling console of all-time – has sold 160 million units, when previously its total has always been given as 155.0 million.
Whether Ryan was just rounding up, or this is a more accurate number, is unclear, but the fact that the 20+ year old console is still the best-seller is a key example of how concerned video game companies have become about the video game console market not growing.
The PlayStation 2’s success was due to a lack of effective competition, with the Dreamcast, GameCube, and original Xbox, but this is a situation that’s never been repeated.
Ryan has worked at PlayStation for 30 years, but he is leaving at a time when the future of console gaming is uncertain, and Sony's long-standing dominance is being questioned.
It's particularly concerning because Sony has not yet named a replacement for Ryan, and Hiroki Totoki, the president and COO of Sony Group Corporation, will serve as the temporary CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment starting today.
It's not clear when a permanent replacement will be announced or who it might be, which does little to reassure fans worried about the company's recent disorganization.
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