Jim Ryan, the CEO of PlayStation, has been named by Variety as one of the top 500 “most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry”. The British born executive – who also featured in the 2020 and 2021 incarnations of the same list – is credited for completing the acquisition of Bungie, which will give Sony “live service ammo”.
Variety states: “The company has continued to make strategic investments, acquiring 14 per cent of FromSoftware and injecting $1 billion into Epic Games, and has also objected to the Activision Blizzard deal, which the FTC is now attempting to block. PS5 is still outselling Xbox Series X|S nearly two to one, but Xbox’s domain over subscriptions prompted Sony to overhaul PS Plus in June, offering a greater library of titles to gamers.”
Ryan is also acknowledged for spearheading the organisation’s freshly minted PS Productions division, which oversaw the release of the Uncharted movie in 2022, and is poised to launch HBO’s hotly anticipated The Last of Us adaptation later this month. And of course, the upcoming PSVR2 is also mentioned.
Jim isn’t the only PlayStation executive on the list, as PS Studios boss Hermen Hulst is also honoured. He’s recognised for Sony’s slate of award-winning exclusives in 2022, including God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, as well as for having the vision to diversify the firm’s portfolio, which will see it release its first live service and smartphone games later this year.
[source variety.com, via variety.com]
Comments 47
Cryin' Jim takes a win
So he must be doing something right. You wouldn't believe so the way people hate on him regularly.
PlayStation 5 outselling Xbox Series X|S 2:1? That's the way it should be. It was a shame it seemed like both consoles were selling equally as fast while Sony was releasing so many great games and Xbox continued to do a whole lot of nothing.
Well done and congratulations to both. Onwards and upwards for them going forward, and Playstation.
@TheCollector316
Is:
28.97 PS5 console million
20.61 series console million
2:1???
And more worrying , whilst doing a whole load of nothing as you say, And also in the UK for year 2022 sales
Only 20 thousand consoles separating
Switch, PS5 and Series Consoles.
Switch first
PS5 second
Series consoles third.
I have all three consoles but let’s not get to carried away.
Congrats to Phil Spencer, Satya Nadella and Sarah Bond on making the list too. Good stuff all round.
Phil Spencer is on the list too so at least they can’t be called fanboys.
@TheCollector316 I don’t know where they got that data as in VGChartz both are relatively close and definitely not 2:1 as with PS4 and X1.
But more importantly, that ratio wouldn’t be good for anyone, the closer they are means more competition, which also means more benefits (more games, better prices and more) to consumers of both platforms.
@UltimateOtaku91 The man has been at PlayStation since the PSOne (20+ years) & was largely responsible for PlayStation’s dominance in Europe.
People are always looking for someone to blame, but when your top dog the buck stops with you. I don’t think he’s loosing any sleep over it, as PlayStation is as strong as ever (as a brand).
In Jimbo we trust 🫡
@IOI
Normally, I'd agree with you but Xbox has made some moves that complicat things. For example, Xbox first party games are all on PC day one. That alone means there are people out there that would have bought an Xbox that no longer need to. I also don't think the consoles should sell as well as each other when one console is releasing far more games and thus attracting more interest. We as consumers wouldn't want to reward laziness, would we?
Neil Druckmann made the list too btw
@Dezzy70 I was just going off the information quoted in the article. I'm not sure where you got your numbers, but hopefully not VGChartz.
The gaming world may heavily dislike him but end of the day he's making the choices what are making the PS side of Sony money, it may not benefit us but it does Sony hence why he's going no where and appearing on lists like this.
Also i think the fact he's refusing to just let MS buy Activision without a fight paints a good image. Last year Phil was hyping up fricking God of War when Xbox got "nothing", the PureXbox community were furious over him gushing over PS while giving his "side" nothing but Indies on Gamepass. Not saying i'm siding with Jim as i side with neither but Phil constantly gushing over the competition is not a great look.
@TheCollector316
Yeah the usual place, not really sure of any numbers now a days.
It’s was more a bit of fun.
I think the UK 20 thousand difference for year 2022 between all three maybe correct as that is from the UK real figures. But the UK has always been probably the only country in Europe where all three systems sell around equally, we a bit universal like that in the UK 😂 and probably good multi console owners as well.
I'm getting light headed... Because of all the xbots...
He's influential because you people won't stop talking about him! Of course, being influential is relative, since he's something like 4th or 5th in the chain of command at Sony.
Unbelievable. Ryan should be fired. Blind fanboys will gush over Ryan, combined with blind brand loyalty to Sony being impenetrable, but taking a more objective analysis to what all the competition offers, and their messaging, Ryan is the worst, most disconnected, out of touch figurehead of the bunch.
Sony has the 1st party exclusives and the 3rd party deals to keep people coming back, despite their many other downsides. 🤷♂️
Just for the record Xbox 20 million sales is BOTH S/X consoles combined.
Series X 15 million
PS5 30 million
2:1
@Dezzy70 the series s shouldnt be counted its not a next gen machine. its ony 1440p. lol now ps5 vs series x is the argument and ps5 is outselling it. i see no ps5 in stores while xbox sits there no one wants them here
He may have been around for years and knows the business which is understandable and he knows the ups and downs, he knows the trends/or way to make PS stand out I guess or hopefully make sure the studios are managed well and what not. I still love the Vib Ribbon quote by one of the prior heads, that got me. Either way more power to people that like their current games direction and whatever thoughts on management it just isn't for me.
While they went 'we don't have all customers buying our games because they are too varied' for me I was like 'sweet a variety of genres' to them it was 'make them all feel like a movie like experience to suit the brand' and I was like 'cool I'll give up on you guys thanks for making my decision easier'.
He may understand how to make money and understand the direction for the brand. But because of the current direction he made it easy for me to not want a PS5 as well as the others that were in charge before leading PS4 too far in that direction.
If it was a handful like PS2/3 with The Getaway, Uncharted and a few others but still kept to having other genres/themes in games then I wouldn't be questioning it but all these games with a movie like direction just made it easy for me to give up on the brand, get a Vita and play the last of the PS1-3 era, third parties back then and move to another platform. I'm all for half movie and half not but too much of the movie experiences and long running IPs also conforming made me push away more and more gameplay (the reason I buy and play games and the mechanics getting boring more time) and story/theme/graphics wise.
Think of it like Nintendo. Many are Mario games I don't care to play any of them but I do their other IPs. They offer enough ideas, themes, characters, gameplay, 'story' and so on. Changed direction of old or new IPs, pass.
Sacrificing Japan Studio made sense from a business stand point but also annoyed me as they were the last umbrella of studios I was relying on and with them gone even more reason I moved on. Astrobot, Dreams and PSVR are cool but eh not enough. Concrete Genie and Sackboy are fine (too expensive Sackboy still haven't played it).
Now I have to go for third parties (already was but still) or Nintendo for the type of games they offered which is annoying. Also I love they use the Dualsense features more than they did the Dualshock 4 and that annoys me. Niche Japanese devs used it the best, some started using it and gave up, then the last year of the PS4 it was used for Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima and I was like, what, really you start using them heavily now, where were you after launch or middle of the generation using the controller features?
I can leave the 'don't care for old games' part (even if doesn't help and how the PS5 is has it's issues that may get fixed but like Xbox One & Series/Switch I hate the UI/folder design and so on, the awkward backwards compatibility approach it's just eh and made we happy with my PS4) people are like that sure players and those inside any company but I feel other staff at Sony show how much they care for the brand more than he does and otherwise while I never expect a company to connect with their userbase at all (Sony has shown that more than the others) his decisions and 'what we do see' hasn't made me care about their current direction for the brand.
PS3 sure it was an awkward time in the beginning then changes but we still got a variety of games/genres I wanted to play regardless of that and nowadays I can play them (age/never saw copies but have now found copies over the years).
But now I haven't picked up a Sony game in years because I don't want to play any of them personally. Ratchet has issues, GT5 to 7 had issues (GT7's menu design is bafflingly bad, controls are the same direction since GT5). God of War is eh combat and eh story/boring set pieces.
The last game I got cheap was Dreams and Song of the Deep, maybe Gravity Rush. Otherwise not picked up a big one since (even then I only played Spiderman to get it over with because people kept pestering me to play it, I did a non-open world fan and the side quests were the best about the game but I still hated it compared to Gravity Rush or Sunset Overdrive being better and less Ubisoft open worldly of a direction I don't like them being handled).
Still don't like him, Playstation has taken a 180 degree turn towards anti-consumer this generation under his leadership.
@Dezzy70 there is no official number from microsoft thats based on vgchartz which is very subjective
Top 500? Sounds like a nothing accomplishment... Especially if the list more accredits goings on at Sony rather than anything Jim's personally five.
He is lucky to have bosses and the best developers in the world working for PlayStation studios because he is tr*sh we all know it lol.
His big push for games as a service doesn't scare me because one of my favorite games of all time is a service (DOTA) but hopefully he won't ***** up the medium size amazing projects like Returnal in his years.
@EVIL-C thats the only side we gamers think about tbh
No, he should be awarded for being the person who is ruining and destroying PlayStation. Andrew House, Shaun Layden and also Jack Trenton are the true greats not Jim Ryan.
It would be more newsworthy if the heads of all the big games companies weren't on there with him. Even Bobby Kotick is still there after all that controversy so seems like it is hard to get kicked off the list.
@EVIL-C Jim is making the PS side of Sony tons of money. Newsflash corps don't care about us they just care that we give them money and we are as PS is doing really really well, Sony are not going to fire someone because gaming nerds dislike him when he's bringing in the $$$.
Also Jim is no better then Phil, in fact you could argue he's "better" due to where PS is compared to Xbox. Also 2022 saw zero 1st party games for Xbox outside of Grounded and that other one from Obsidian i think. Xbox's biggest game of 2023 is Starfield a game that was happening regardless if MS bought Bethesda or not, if MS never bought Bethesda then the biggest 1st party game of 2023 for Xbox would be another Forza game. Say what you will about Jim but PS as always is giving players what matters most the games.
Yikes. Ok then.
what a load of *****
@Snake_V5 exactly ; wtf is wrong with people , this guys terrible , no playstation fans like him but that exceptional few . the gaming community as a whole knows this undesirable hack isn’t good for playstation . he doesn’t/didnt even play video games , howd he get in the business ??
@WallyWest gaming nerds huh ? y’know it’s funny as hell how only gamers get singled out in a derogatory fashion about a hobby but nobody else does 😂 and to top it off it’s by other gamers themselves 😂
on a serious note , “ Newsflash corps don't care about us they just care that we give them money” - yeah that’s the problem . whether it’s business or not , who gives a ***** ; i don’t care , nobody cares , you shouldn’t care . it sucks for us and that’s what we should care about .
Is he number 500 of 500 on the list?
@nomither6 Come on did you bother to see the context of what i was saying. I'm not being derogatory i'm telling someone how Sony and other gaming corps see us. As for the other stuff well again did you skip the context? They want Jim fired and i'm explaining why Sony have little reason to fire him. I'm no corp lover far from it but i am good at seeing things from their side and why they would act like they do hence why its easy to see why Jim made this list. End of the day i love playing games and Sony still put out amazing games and the PS5 is a great console, i'm happy for the most part with gaming right now and i thought 2022 was the best year in gaming since 2018 so to be blunt i don't think i care all that much that Jim is running Sony or not because as long as the 1st party output stays strong i'm happy with PS gaming.
@WallyWest what made 2022 so great for you , and what makes the ps5 so great for you ?
Jim ain’t so bad, but he is afraid of competition. It is clear he knows MS woke up and the industry is looking to shift. Once gaming moves further from console and more equal spilt of console PC and cloud, PS isn’t structured to compete there for a few reasons. This isn’t to be a fanboy or to bash anyone, i just don’t like how Jim is crying in the face of an industry that knows only 1 thing to always be true and thats change. However if Jim would bring day 1 PC releases, I’d honestly give him a B+, there’s not much to say about him thats truly bad. Maybe he makes moves a few of us don’t like, but he has many on board with those decisions. I do think PC day one needs to be looked at tho for most PS titles. MS showed that is a winning formula for the almighty dollar and it gives players choice. Choice in technology these days should be automatic.
@nomither6 2022 gave me two games what are in my top 10 ever list in Elden Ring and God of War. I also loved both Pokemon offerings despite the big issues with S/V. Xenoblade 3 is easily the highpoint of the series. Monster Hunter Rise saw an amazing expansion. Horizon, Gotham Knights and Dying Light 2 were all good/great if flawed open worlds. Midnight Suns was a lovely surprise. No Man's Sky saw one of its best years. Indies wise it was an incredible year with the likes of Vampire Survivor, Tunic, Stray, Prodeus and the incredible Sifu that captured the feel of films like The Raid perfectly. Scorn wasn't for everyone but i loved it and then you have Yugioh Master Duel what is a dream game for me as i love the card game. Finally i thought The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk received fantastic PS5 versions. Overall i loved 2022 year for gaming.
As for the PS5 well 60fps being more or less standard and the insanely quick loading are big reasons i love my PS5, the Duel Sense is also my fav controller.
Blahahahahahaha.....😂😂🤣🤣☠️☠️
Corporate BS
@SerJosh97 Series S is just as next gen as the X and PS5.
@Orpheus79V it’s not in the same league is it come on
@IOI
how to put it simple, VGChartz is unreliable and most of the time their numbers are taken out of their a$$s.
@Dezzy70
jizz, xbox didn't sell 20M. use your brains and not VGChartz, who makes numbers up.
Bean counters are making moves.
@Phantasystar77
Yes, I do realize that. However, the number of folks who normally would buy a console that have no need to now is not zero. (It's at least one because I sold my Xbox One X and opted out of getting a Series X because I'm a PC gamer first and have access to all Xbox's games for almost free, but realistically it's a large enough number to reduce Xbox console sales far beyond that.)
I think Sony's strategy is much smarter. By not releasing games on PC and console at the same time, they impact console sales much less than if they took the Microsoft approach.
Their business models are not the same, anyway. Since Microsoft game sales have tanked as a result of Game Pass, it makes far more sense to make their games available to buy everywhere possible to make up for the Game Pass effect.
@PlayStationGamer3919. Jack tretton is the best word up son
@Orpheus79V lmao no its not. i own it, and its a half step. its only 1440p. isnt as fast as either series x or ps5. the series s is just like the pro. it was made for gamepass not next gen. but keep drinking the kool aid. ps series s sucks regret buying it. also its holding next gen back just like the ps4. theres articles written about how devs dont want to develop for it but xbox makes them.
@PlayStationGamer3919 Those guys were great!
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