The CEO of Sony’s video game division PlayStation, Jim Ryan, will no longer be the boss. But before he withdraws, he reveals some surprising facts. Sales of the PlayStation 5 are going extremely well. Ryan says: At the moment we are at the top.
Where does the information come from? Jim Ryan was on the official PlayStation Podcast on March 29th and made some interesting statements in an hour-long show.
This is how he currently sees the PlayStation: The outgoing manager is very satisfied with the results of the PS5: He praises the games that have been released for the PS5 so far.
He believes the PS5 could be Sony’s most successful console: “Right now we’re at the top of our game.”
Sony is very clear and consistent about what they stand for: “great consoles, great gaming experiences and great games.”
In several factors, the PlayStation 5 is on its way to becoming the most successful console. But he doesn’t say exactly what factors these are.
One can speculate that “most successful console” does not mean the number of units sold, but rather new factors that reflect the market, which has changed significantly towards digital and microtransactions. Factors where the PS5 shines in 2024 could now be more like “revenue when microtransactions are taken into account”.
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How does he see the PS5 in front? According to Ryn, more games have been released for the console in the current life cycle of the PS5 than in comparable cycles.
The games on the PlayStation are also the best you’ve ever had.
What else did he say? Ryan looked back at the PlayStation 2 and revised the numbers upwards. Instead of 155 million consoles sold, which was last assumed in March 2012, in retrospect there were even more: 160 million PS2s were sold.
PlayStation Boss is leaving after 5 years in office and 30 years at Sony
What will become of Ryan? Ryan took over PlayStation on April 1, 2019 and is now leaving the position on April 1. He’s retiring. In total he was at Sony for 30 years, starting there in 1994 when he was 26.
He had already announced his departure in autumn 2023.
Sony relies on service games – is that the right way?
This is what lies behind it: PlayStation and Sony are in a challenging situation after Microsoft recently strengthened itself with Bethesda and Activision Blizzard and has a strong horse in the race with Xbox Game Pass.
Sony’s strategy since 2023 seems to be to focus more on service games like Destiny, but it has brought a problem bear into the house with Bungie. Especially since service games have fallen out of favor with players in recent years: flops like Anthem, Marvel’s Avengers or Suicide Squad have cost a lot of trust.
Many of the planned service games for the PS5 have now had to be postponed (via gamepro).
But Ryan seems to want to say goodbye only to highlight the good: And as we saw from the constant shortage of the PS5 during the Covid period, the gaming brand “PlayStation” really seems to be enjoying the favor of players at the moment.
It is expected that Sony could soon introduce a PS5 Pro:
PS5 Pro: Big leak supposedly shows specs, but PC gamers could be the big winners from the upgrade