Jim Ryan of PlayStation Retires

The narrative will say Jim Ryan wasn’t a good PlayStation CEO. It will be around his failed attempts to battle Microsoft in court and his demands for Bethesda to release on PlayStation. It will be about Call of Duty, which he has secured for the next 10 years. Whatever your thoughts about Jim Ryan. His direction has led PlayStation to a really successful period commercially speaking. One could argue, that he’s been riding the wave of success of the PS4 and I’d agree with you there. But fundamentally, PlayStation hasn’t been in a better position commercially. But here lies the problem and why he needed to go.

PlayStation has lost its way over the last three years. Most PlayStation fans know it and so do the scribes who do great work at Push Square. They’ve always echoed the sentiment of PlayStation has been too quiet and that there are communication issues. These have been around since Jim Ryan took over. It’s imperative then that PlayStation now moves in a new direction next year and gets itself back on track. Not commercially, because they’re doing great. But back on the side of their customers. The alarming thing for Sony will be the uptake and growth in Game Pass, it’ll be the success of the Series S. You might laugh that off, but if you think Sony doesn’t need to be worried about one of its biggest rivals then that’s a little bit naive. To say it simply, we don’t know much about the future of PlayStation beyond Spiderman 2 in terms of its game line-up. It’s been an alarming discourse that live-service games are coming and nothing much beyond that right now. The same could be said about Nintendo and Xbox who have their own ilk of videogame styles but are heading in their own directions to great success.

But getting back to the point, however, you remember Jim Ryan’s stint at PlayStation. We’re not going to know the full story until this generation is over. Ultimately, Jim Ryan’s work as CEO probably sees itself through to the latter end of this generation in terms of how he’s run the ship and the direction it’s heading in. But what I will say, is that this is great news for PlayStation fans that are disillusioned with PS5 right now. Those fans who want more reasons for why they bought a PS5 in the first place. With the change now taking place, we might see PlayStation come back to the table in terms of its communication with fans and a full blowout of what’s to come from its games with the PS5 Pro. This could be the reset Sony needs at the top to get them sailing back in the right direction again. For PlayStations fans. This is the change people want. For Sony, it’s the one they needed to make right now because of a resurgent Nintendo and Microsoft and to continue their dominance potentially as the market leader.

It’s the great reset at PlayStation then. Let’s just hope that greatness doesn’t continue to wait for fans and they start firing on all cylinders again.