The CEO of Sony’s video game division PlayStation, Jim Ryan, will no longer be the boss. But before he steps down, he is revealing some surprising facts. The sale of the PlayStation 5 is excellent. Ryan says: Right now, we are at the top of our game.
Where does the information come from? Jim Ryan was on March 29 in the official PlayStation Podcast and made some interesting statements during a one-hour show.
This is how he currently sees the PlayStation: The departing 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 that the PS5 could become Sony’s most successful console: “Right now, we are 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. However, he does not specify which factors these are.
One can speculate that by “most successful console” he does not mean the number of units sold, but rather new factors that reflect a market that has shifted significantly towards digital and microtransactions. Factors in which the PS5 shines could now be something like “revenue when considering microtransactions” in 2024.
How does he see the PS5 leading? According to Ryan, they have already released more games for the PS5 in its current lifecycle than in comparable ones.
The games on PlayStation are also the best they have ever had.
What else did he say? Ryan looked back at the PlayStation 2 and corrected the numbers upwards. Instead of 155 million consoles sold, as was last assumed in March 2012, it was actually even more in retrospect: they sold 160 million PS2 consoles.
PlayStation Boss leaves after 5 years in office and 30 years at Sony
What will happen to Ryan? Ryan took over PlayStation on April 1, 2019, and is now leaving the position on April 1. He is retiring. Overall, he spent 30 years at Sony, starting there in 1994 at the age of 26.
He announced his departure back in the autumn of 2023.
Sony is focusing on service games – Is this the right way?
What’s behind it: The PlayStation and Sony are in a challenging situation after Microsoft was recently able to strengthen itself with Bethesda and Activision Blizzard and has a strong contender in the Xbox Game Pass.
Since 2023, Sony’s strategy seems to be to increasingly focus on service games like Destiny, but they have brought in a problem bear with Bungie. Moreover, 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 been postponed (via gamepro).
But Ryan seems to want to highlight only the good as he leaves: And as seen by the ongoing scarcity of the PS5 during the Covid period, the gaming brand “PlayStation” currently seems to really enjoy the favor of the players.
It is expected that Sony could soon introduce a PS5 Pro:
