Jim Ryan Leaves PlayStation as PS5 Set to Become Its 'Most Successful Console Ever'

Doubt it will beat the PS2 at that.

We want PS Studios reveals, not press releases that are written to keep employees from leaving

Goodnight, sweet Prince.

What a joker, doubt the PS5 will go anywhere near 155 million units sold. In fact, the Switch has more of a chance of surpassing that number unfortunately...

The ps stars bobblehead has spoken

He made some terrible decisions toward the end of his career, forcing some really talented studios to throw away their single player projects in favor of live-service crap. The reason we have not seen many PS5 single player exclusives is this joke of a man. Good riddance

Deuces! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

@Frmknst Hi Grimwood.

Don’t think it’ll beat the PS2, probably the ps4 though. I wonder if anyone will ever beat the ps2. maybe switch will be the one.

@OctolingKing13 @Foxhound @Steel76 Probably not, but the PS5 makes Sony way more money than the PS2 ever did because of the PlayStation Store.

Let's not forget that the PlayStation Store itself generates more profit for Sony than Nintendo makes in its entirety (which is still a crazy statistic to think about).

When Jim's on about it being "successful across multiple vectors", that's what he means.

Maybe now Jim will finally have time to get his teeth fixed. Jokes aside, this generation feels like its just getting started. I hope the ps6 is far away.

Top of their game... with only, like, 5 Sony games to play that aren't remakes.

Go make some new disaster
That's what I'm counting on
You're someone else's problem
Now I only want you gone

Smugness abounds. Unfortunately if true it'll lead to more future price rises.

Glad to see him leave, honestly.

I will remember Playstation's days of play during COVID where everyone could download some good games. That was pretty cool of them.

Recently, though, the many, many decisions that I don't agree with is what defines his legacy for me. That and him holding the controller most awkwardly.

Most successful but honestly the future of PS Studios currently feels very bleak to me at least. Only about 6 true first party PS5 exclusive games in about 3.5 years on the market, with two being remakes of PS3 games. Budgets are ballooning, general diversity among published games have gone down, and developers are in this weird state of a will they won’t they with live service. I’m really hoping the later half of the PS5 picks up. If the PS6 is anything like this generation, I don’t see myself buying it anytime soon especially with how diminishing the power returns have been getting.

Wouldn't argue that this is the top of their game with the lack of exclusive games for the console. First party I mean.
They need to step up honestly

Best of luck Hiroki Totoki Literature Club!

Everything I've heard him do were stuff I didn't like. But I can't even remember what they were. Whatever it was, it pushed me away from getting a PS5. And now that I have a PC, I don't think I'll ever return to consoles. Maybe get a handheld. But I don't know.

Best of luck Jim, he left Sony in a strong untouchable position with the Ps5. Now let's hope the next guy can get the first party studio's back on track and get the games coming.

@Steel76 are you forgetting gta 6 sales will skyrocket after that

Good riddance, the console sales is the only metric he can be proud of, behind the scenes it’s no secret he’s a leaving a mess with a failed live-service strategy, failed investments (Bungie), axing studios, and for the first time in almost two decades with no first-party game in the horizon for over 18 months, partnerships for FF7 Rebirth, Stellar Blade, Helldivers and more are saving PS5’s ass right now, otherwise it’d be barren of games, also Microsoft giving up on competition is certainly helping them.

I'm glad, I hope that we get someone who likes to communicate more and takes some more creative risks.

@ShogunRok "Probably not, but the PS5 makes Sony way more money than the PS2 ever did because of the PlayStation Store."

That's fantastic news if you're a shareholder! for everyone else this is one of the weakest PlayStation consoles when it comes to games and more specifically exclusives. Compare the PS1/2/3/4 exclusive games library to the PS5 and it's like comparing Neptune to a rock in your backyard.

I love my PS5 and have a plethora of diverse and incredible games to play. It’s definitely time for new blood but Jim Ryan is hardly leaving things in a shambles. All the best to him and here’s to the future 🥂

@Steel76 It just goes to show how amazing the PS2 was. There were half as many people playing games back then and yet syill made a ridiculous profit. The moral of this story: quality will always sell.

@ShogunRok Have you adjusted that for inflation?

@ShogunRok And yet Nintendo is Japan's richest company based on cash, assets and lack of debt compared to Sony.

The PS5 is massively undeserving in its success in my opinion. I like it, don't get me wrong. But I enjoyed the previous 4 consoles far more at this point in their life cycles.

@__jamiie “ Nintendo is Japan's richest company based on cash, assets and lack of debt compared to Sony”

I saw that article on Nintendo Life as well, but the problem with it is, nobody ever measures companies like that, it’s a hand picked metric trying to justify a desired result. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I’m the richest person in America* with my name, birthday and an account on Pushsquare.

Here’s the top Japanese companies measured the normal way that people who measure these things do, and Nintendo never shows up in the top 10.

https://companiesmarketcap.com/japan/largest-companies-in-japan-by-market-cap/

The next 5 years will be a judge of his success or not. We're still getting the last CEOs green lit games. What will come from his tenure time will tell.

When Shawn Layden left he said games are taking too long to make and are getting too expensive. Maybe getting Jim on an interview in a few months away from Sony PR he'll tell us what he really thinks.

@rjejr It's not the Nintendo Life article I was going by. Many business and financial articles were posted stating this at the end of February.

Their cash reserves, value of owned assets and lack of debt make them the richest company in Japan.

Not share price or anything that fluctuates as easily.

These are hard facts.

Man absolutely killed it, a legit PS OG & Legend. Enjoy the retirement Jim!

Also I find the comments hilarious, ''he killed 1st party and will never reach PS2 sales''. Guys PS2 was the ultimate 3rd party /DVD machine. And 1st party has never been stronger on any PS platform. ''Bungie & Liveservice is a failure'' Bungie didn't even drop a game and the first live-service from the initiative is a hit. These folks man... smh. Probably worship Phil Spencer for killing of his console.

Numbers and results never lie.

I don't consider the past few years as a success for PlayStation and gaming in general. It would be good to remember him why he has been politely asked to retire, aka, fired.

I miss hack tretton and shawn layden.the video games are certainly taking a long time to make.jim ryan is ok.but jack tretton and shawn layden are the g.o.a.t. 🐐 👑.word up son

They’re having a similar discussion on Pure Xbox regarding Phil Spencer’s 10 years as lead of Xbox. I’d say it’s been a mixed bag for both of them, although seeing console exclusivity potentially end would be far worse than any of Jim Ryan’s missteps.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/03/phil-spencer-celebrates-10-years-as-head-of-xbox-this-weekend

With as many games canceled as released i am not sure this would be top of the game. Considering PS2 and PS4 were putting out much more. Outside of the Dual sense cramping my hands i really like the PS5. Wish there were more games by now. But they will get here at some point. I will trade or sell my PS5 and get the Pro and then on to PS6 which i hope starts faster and stronger.

@lacerz not so sure console exclusives will all the way go away. But as we are seeing consoles need the PC to get to profitability. So in a sense they already ended. I would love to see Sony and MS share some titles once they are older and made their sales and impact. Think of the Last of Us part one coming to Xbox. It wouldn’t make a single PS user sell their PS4 or PS5’s but it would make naughty dog and Sony a nice bit of cash for Last of Us 3 or whatever they are working on next, same with Halo Master Chief Collection, it has done it’s money and impact on Xbox, bring it over to PS. Before everyone say’s well just buy a PC if you want that, well clearly people are and that’s why we are seeing console sales not grow and we are seeing the need of PC sales from publishers. I am trying to give a solution that helps console gaming vs hurting it.

@rjejr Interesting it seems Sony is the 5th richest company in Japan while Nintendo is the 15th thank you for the data ✌️

I'm a real playstation fan. Had multiple consoles and handhelds of each generation, but not even I would say that the ps5 is at the top of its game. Very few ps5 only games.
It's a great console for playing PS4 games, nice and fast and quiet. But it's not as ground breaking as the PS2 or PS3 was at the time

@rjejr Thanks for that link, it's interesting seeing the details for each of the categories, especially revenue in which Sony have 88 billion in revenue compared to Nintendo's 11 billion. Sony pretty much come out on top of Nintendo in every category but I suppose that's expected as they do more than just consoles and games.

@rjejr Whoa slow down there some people don't like sourced data based on factual information!

It's looking unlikely to beat the PS4, never mind the PS2 (only the Switch has the chance of that - we hope not)

Meanwhile, so long Jim. We really won't miss you. Hope the next CEO will communicate and be '4 the Players'. We need another Layden or Tretton.

From a hardware, services (PS Plus/PS Store) and Network point of view it has never been better. The PS5 offers amazing value for money given the tech inside it. The controller is also innovative and very well made.

The software however has been weak. Jim Ryan was trying to play it safe with sequels, remasters and 2P deals. The innovation that brought us the first Uncharted, TLOU, Days Gone, Detroit Become Human, Infamous, GOT etc is really lacking this gen.

The PS5 has so much potential and something like GTA 6 will show what the PS5 can really do. Sadly most devs these days don't have the money or talent to achieve that and look for shortcuts to profit.

@darylb24 We HOPE GTA6 will show us what the PS5 can do. But as it now has a 2026 release date it is going to be more of a PS5 Pro or PS6 game.

The PS5 has sustained itself off the incredible momentum achieved during the PS4 generation, but it's far from being a great console like that was, and looks unlikely to outsell it (let alone the PS2 lol).

As a software publisher, Sony has arguably never been as weak as it is right now, stuck in a rut of occasionally releasing safe, prohibitively expensive sequels to existing properties and little else of consequence in-between.

Moreover, Sony is continuing to expand the availability of its software outside of the Playstation ecosystem, making the PS5 a console that's arguably only necessary for the biggest Playstation fans. It wouldn't surprise me if they eventually get to the point where the window between console and PC releases for big blockbuster tentpoles is non-existent.

Good riddance. This guy was terrible at SCE Europe as well.

@darylb24 Yeah but I got this thing about being "that guy".😂

@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah Sony isn't really all about gaming. Well unless you compare it to Microsoft, which is treating gaming like Apple treats it's little TV box. ie not good. I may have read Playstation does make a nice profit for them though, but I've done enough research for one day. 😉

@Jett You're welcome. 😁

@__jamiie I'm not saying you made it up, I'm just saying it's usefulness is suspect. And probably you saw it on several different sites b/c 1 person figured it out and everyone else just reported it.

Here's another financial website where you can sort Japanese companies by about 2 dozen different metrics. I can't get Nintendo anywhere near the top for any of them. And even just looking at all of their numbers, there are other companies with better numbers.

https://www.tradingview.com/markets/stocks-japan/market-movers-highest-cash/

If being "the richest company" was important don't you think we'd be able to find it on one of these investment sites? 🤷‍♂️

@FantasyExplor3r88 calm down! You would've done the same if you were in his shoes in this era when one such game is enough to bring more cash than all the single player games combined

One of the people that’s helped shape PlayStation since day one. Massive effort. Thanks for everything Jim!

PlayStation better start dropping some bangers or it won’t even touch the PS4 sales and the main reason is the Nintendo next system if Sony fail to
convince or if their current Fanbase is not happy with them I can easily see scenario where Nintendo can draw more people to their next gen console especially if it can play current 3rd party games good. Nintendo will be a massive threat to PS5 sales down the line

@rjejr I know what I read. I know what is fact. I don't know why you feel the need to argue with facts.

Maybe they'll stop chasing that Fortnite model and go back to what they're good at.

worst playstation ever

@__jamiie

You clearly don't, and it is hilarious 😂

Your ability to argue has been reduced to "I know I am right." What about sharing a link to this factual information that you claim to have?

I'll admit to trolling the troll, here, but these answers you provide are a joke when the other part goes out of his way to demonstrate the facts that establish a premise.

Good riddance, you won't be missed!

I really don’t understand people complaining about this generation. The console is good, better than PS4 was at the time. The games are good. First and third party games. At least for me, this is the best gen yet. Been in the game since before PS1 came out. The only PS gen I didn’t care a lot about is PS2, I played only GT4. Because I was mainly playing on PC and Dreamcast. Or was XBOX? I always get confused with that gen. Anyway. Best PlayStation yet for me, for sure. My fave too, surpassing PS4? We’ll see. Too soon to tell, but so far I’m very happy with it.

Cheers.

@PlayStation_Dawg1994 Go ahead! A 3DS remaster (I like Luigi's Mansion tho) and Princess Peach while you asking for bangers in a timespan where LoU2 remaster, GB Fantasy, Helldivers 2, FF7 Rebirth and Ronin dropped. Then you got 3rd party with Tekken 8, Like A Dragon, P3, DD2.

Also the PS5 is outpacing the PS4 in US and Japan despite COVID and the irony is EU got shafted with supplies for the US due to competition of Xbox there. Lol.

More evidence of how delusional these CEO's are. They only see money and their stupid narrow-minded spin. How about the optics? PS5 is barely worth getting. Nowhere near enough exclusives to make it tempting, a rubbish build and it's visually ugly and it's still overpriced. Most people don't care about it that I've talked to, just going to PC gaming or sticking with PS4. I'm absolutely chuffed I didn't knee-jerk purchase one. Sounds worthless. Not paying £500 to play Spider-Man 2.

Yet as a gamer I've played it far less then every other Playstation generation so far. We're coming up to 4 years in and I can count on one hand the amount of games I've enjoyed on PS5 that weren't available on previous generations

@carlos82 Dont forget half of the better games come to PC anyway, making the actual console even MORE worthless.

And yet, they fired over 900 employees, and have no games.

@EfYI https://metro.co.uk/2024/02/20/nintendo-now-richest-company-japan-sony-dont-make-top-300-20315697/

@EfYI https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/nintendo-is-the-richest-company-in-japan/vi-BB1iAEOm

@__jamiie

First, thanks for providing the link.
Second, I think you just state a fact, whereas others want to start a debate on which is better. I cannot fault you for that, so my comment to you is now obsolete and also misleading. Sorry for that.

It is, however, an interesting question: who is stronger Sony or Nintendo. Their "specs" are as different as their consoles.

But yeah, we're done here.

@EfYI Thank you so much for releasing me from this stupid back and forth.

My boy ryan must be drunk, the ps5 is the worst ps ever, even the ps3 had more games.

@RainbowGazelle spot on

@Pompey71 i love that there are so many of us PlayStation fans completely fed up with their *****

@pirlega it took long enough . some of us that saw it sooner were just labeled trolls and doomers .

Wait tell me this isn't a joke? Jim Scumbag Ryan is going??? Does this mean we can finally go back to PlayStation being for the players instead of being for the corporate greed and laziness

@Pompey71 exactly I genuinely don't see the need to buy the next Playstation console, I could just get a PC and then play Xbox, PS and PC games all in one place with better performance and visuals console gamings time is coming to an end for better or worse

It honestly feels as though despite Jim Ryan leaving, the Jim Ryan era has only just begun. Like games tend to take around 5 years to make nowadays and Jim Ryan became head of Playstation in February 2019 (a bit over 5 years ago).

Jim Ryan’s main legacy so far is the really bad stuff like the mess regarding Bungie, the recent layoffs and studio closures, the gigantic push towards live service in general (Factions 2 even got caught up in the crossfire), the end of smaller single player games, etc.

The one positive that Jim Ryan has done was fighting against the Activision acquisition. While he failed to stop it, his efforts were not wasted.

@__jamiie " I don't know why you feel the need to argue with facts. "

I'm not arguing w/ the facts, just that the facts don't really matter when they are hand picked. You know, like the fact that you brought up Nintendo's worth on the PushSquare website and Nintendo is not mentioned anywhere in the article. So why did you "feel the need" to bring that up, huh?🤷‍♂️

@B_Lindz Definitely an issue with single player games. I finished Rebirth and said ok, what's next. There isn't a single decent PS5 single player game I haven't played. Depressing....

@Gamestation Why get an Xbox if you build a decent PC? Pretty much the exact same games.

@CrackmanNL You are still buying the "I a retiring to spend time with my family" story. Listen you don't put the head bean counter of all Sony (a man with zero gaming experience) in charge of your prized position SIE the very minute Jim writes his goodbye letter. If the Jim Ryan was doing well and leaving of his own accord. Why did Sony proper immediately hand the reigns over to Totoki and relieve Jim of any power? That fact is, Ryan was given a graceful exit of 6 months of goodbyes and no power over SIE to avoid the even greater damage it would do to the Sony stock. I could only imagine the actual damage if Sony proper's unhappiness with Sony gaming with respect to Ryan's leadership was even more apparent beyond obvious assigning of Hiroki Totoki to immediately adjust the gaming division finances.

Ryan's failure is evident by moves made almost immediately under Totoki's rule I.E 900 jobs gone. Those jobs weren't mainly support staff that Sony had plenty elsewhere like the majority of 1900 laid off by MS was (beyond the scenes like HR, legal, etc..) The Sony layoffs were almost exclusively the creatives that build the games. Plus cancelling 6+ games and that is after they shutdown 6 of Ryan's GAAS games a few months earlier. And it included closing of a studio (almost two studios). As for VR I don't necessarily blame him because he never liked VR (that was forced upon him) but he still is the one in charge with PSVR2 not selling (just sitting on shelves and warehouses). He is responsible for mismanaged studios and focusing too heavily on GAAS. He is responsible for Desitny and the mess they are causing. Ryan is responsible for lousy 6% realization on 25 billion revenues and the likelihood that will continue to plague Sony. That 6% right there gets you fired when they were expecting 20%. Investors know what is up and that 6% lost Sony over $11 billion in value (they still have not recovered from.)

Edit: I didn't even get into the PS Portal. The first hardware I have seen since 2013 that Sony not actually announced numbers for. Sony loves to announce numbers. That just signals to me the Portal is about as dead as PSVR2 with no real numbers to get excited about. At least the PSVR2 got couple of numbers announcement in the first several months than nothing.

Edit: I guess I can't give all that bad realization numbers to Ryan. If we are going to give Layden the credit for greenlighting those games that cost 250million, 300 million, and growing. Then he should get the blame for causing so little profit return as well.

Edit: Music is now heading to become golden boy profit generator for Sony surpassing Music.. And it is doing it for far less risk than gaming requires. Whereas gaming is risking over 23 billion in expenses to just get 1.7 billion in net and with costs going up and up that net may dwindle even more. Maybe that is why Sony proper are taking a lot of those billions they set aside for acquisitions and partnerships and spending it on their growing music division and nearly a peep with any of it being spent on gaming.

@LifeGirl It will still come out on the basePS5 though, even if the launch does slip into 2026. If anyone can get a game running great on weaker hardware it's R*.

In what way is PS5 going to be the most successful PS gen ever? The PS isn't surpassing the PS2 unit numbers. That is rich if you think that is possible. The PS5 probably isn't likely to surpass the PS4 unit numbers. So, where is PS this gen actually heading to be the most successful?

Do you mean revenue? OK, sure revenue is up. Revenue is only a chest pounding exercise if you don't understand what a company really cares about something more than revenue. You know what is also up (way up)? Expenses. You know what is down for Sony gaming and likely to stay down because of increasing expenses? Net-income. Yes net-income or profit/ That is the money Sony gets to keep after all those expenses and investors get a piece of. That is where you should be pounding your chest for not revenue. Sony expecting 20% and getting 6% realization off of revenue really a chest pounding King Kong moment. Especially with that it is not likely to change for the foreseeable future with some big moves curtail expenses and drive up their post console sale adoption numbers in software and services. Reminder 6% realization with their consoles being sold no loss (at cost or a slight profit) and that is with your main competitor selling consoles at a loss yet still has a 30% better realization off its revenue then Sony gaming.

So how is the PS5 heading to be most successful with net-income down. PSVR2 in a death spin. First-party studios mismanaged and poor ROI on games that have ballooning budget.

I do think you are right about one thing. This PS gen is going to be the most successful gen but it won't be on most successful for consoles but on PC. The PC is helping to compensate for massive game expenses. It is sad day when a Ratchet game is only profitable because the released the game on PC.

@rjejr I responded to a comment made by a Push Square writer who mentioned Nintendo. Will that do?

@ImGumbyDammit I don't have to look at anything, I look at facts. Not head spinsel, and fact of the matter is Jim got a big celebration and respect from HQ in Japan. Layden got escorted out of the building (per David Jaffe sources).

PS breaking records, PS studios tripled in size, best 1st party output of any console, managed COVID & secured CoD in the ABK trial until PS7 and beat Xbox to 3rd party. I don't have to buy anything

@nomither6 as if we had something to gain that we bought a ps5 and have no games to play with

@ImGumbyDammit releasing gsmes on pc will be the death sentence for ps exclusives. Exclusives cant be system sellers if users know they will eventually land on pc.
This idiot ceo sold the future of the company to doctor his balance sheets to pretend he did a good job.

@pirlega i know right? good point!

@pirlega @nomither6

That's why I can't take majority of y'all serious. The porting to PC was an initiative from Layden. Not only under his time but he confirmed he started in the WUPPS podcast interview. Imaginary headspinsel...

@ShogunRok No Sony digital store does not make more then all of Nintendo. Neither does it make more if you include the whole of all Sony gaming; Nintendo makes more profits than all of Sony gaming interests. Maybe you are confusing revenue with net-income. Sony's overall gaming net income was around $1.75 billion for this past year; that is a 6% realization off around 25 billion revenue for the year. Nintendo had a net income of $3.03 billion for the same period. I assume we can agree that over $3 billion in profits is much more than $1.75 billion in profit from gaming. In fact, Nintendo is actually at decline from the previous year where they had $3,2 billion in net income. Except for an outlier in 2020, Sony (the whole company not just gaming) usually lands somewhere between in 6.4 to 7.4 billion in net income for a year.

Every time a I see PS fans chest pounding it is about revenue never about realized profits. Learn the difference. A company cares a lot more about actual profits it keeps and investors love it because they get a piece of profits not from large revenue that has to paydown most and returns a low realization value from over extended expenses on that revenue. In fact, ABK makes more net-income (actual profit on yearly basis then all of Sony gaming) I.E. for the same 2023 period ABK had 2.2 billion net income of off ~$8.5 billion in revenue. I can only imagine how bad Sony's profit outlook is going to be for this new fiscal year with no big first-party driving in any profits for the whole year along with a possible PS5 Pro release that may be set a price to be a loss leader or force their PS5 consoles to be loss leaders when they aren't now.

Music has surpassed gaming as the number one profit generator for Sony. Again, there is a reason Ryan is going bye bye and Sony proper put the head accountant of all Sony in charge of gaming. They aren't growing profits in the console space. Sony is flat in gaming profits. Sony gaming is gathering an increase in revenue but not profits. I.E. The sell a lot of consoles they are selling at a mid gen increased price but aren't capitalizing on after a console buy with sales of software adoption and services.

@CrackmanNL then they‘re both stupid. Your point being?

@__jamiie

@pirlega I agree with your point about PC and it's detriment to PS just simply looking at Xbox for the results.

My point is that the previous CEO sold out and went to that point of no return. And a lot of folks in the comments either are misinformed are just spouting head spinsels.

and if we go by the Jim Ryan interview a year back regarding this, he wants to stagger the releases more between them en not shorten them at detriment of the console