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[X-Wing]

And people thought I was crazy when I said I thought Jim Ryan was fired.

I don't think Sony execs are happy with the changes in PlayStation's operations. From communication to a huge focus on games as a service. I can believe Jaffe when he says that devs are angry at that change. I think Naughty Dog are probably fuming about Bungie coming in and negatively impacting the production of their game though that's probably not done with malice.

But seriously she is a massive loss. Huge changes to come within PlayStation. The old blood are gone. Is this new yharnam blood were seeing??

I think a lot of you have no idea of how a company is run. These decisions aren’t made in a vacuum nor by the CEO alone. Ryan didn’t sit in his office and said “we’re gonna do GaaS” and made the studios shift gears to that. It is much more likely that studios heads saw the monetisation possibility in those games as ways to financial studio grow to tackle the long development cycle for single player games. There is no budget reduction for single player games, only an increase for GaaS.

As for Ryan, he was in retirement age, the man has led the company through hell during the pandemic but the entire industry is facing a terrible economy right now. He most likely decided that now that the first half of the generation is done and the strategy for the future is set that it is up to someone else to deal with that shit.

 

[Silver Wattle]

AFAIK this just looks like some drama stirred up by jaffe, if anything this attention he is drawing to her might actually hinder her in her future job search.

 

[3liteDragon]

I'd be very wary of Hulst

 

[DenchDeckard]

Somethings up, that's for sure. No way employees speak to Jaffe if its not ruffled some feathers. She was obviously paramount to playstations success and it seems she's been let go in questionable circumstances.

I'm not a fan of Herman at all, I really hope he's not in line to be promoted.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Chief hardware designer behind PS4, PS5 and PS VR left Sony to retire a year (or so) ago and no one were concerned because there was no manufactured drama by an aging irrelevant hack.

Gaming community is unbearable at times.

 

[tmlDan]

I heard an interesting theory that Connie wasn't good at managing the production of live service titles and they decided they needed a change.

They still have Scott Rhode, who is likely better at identifying good games and helping with SP production, and Angie is likely just new blood to see what she can do, she was producer at Guerrilla for over 19 years.

The only part that doesn't line up with that is that Angie doesn't have much prior experience in live service production either.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Chief hardware designer behind PS4, PS5 and PS VR left Sony to retire a year (or so) ago and no one were concerned because there was no manufactured drama by an aging irrelevant hack.

Gaming community is unbearable at times.

Retired from Sony or was shown the door? Also, lets be honest. VR is not on the same level as the woman who nurtured syphon filter, last of us etc etc etc...I imagine the list goes on and on.

 

[BootsLoader]

I'm betting Herman Hulst is the new PlayStation boss and he isn't waiting on Jim Ryan's retirement to make his moves.

I really don’t like that guy. He seems to be out of place in his new position.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Retired from Sony or was shown the door? Also, ,etc be honest. VR is not on the same level as the woman who nurtured syphon filter, last of us etc etc etc...I imagine the list goes on and on.

See, you’re speculating because of Jaffe’s cheap clickbait, not because you have any solid info lol. That how gossip works.

Also hardware guy was chief PS hardware designer that was arguably more important and hard to replace for Sony, but it went totally quiet because he was Japanese, untainted by the Western style of fake drama reporting.

 

[DenchDeckard]

See, you’re speculating because of Jaffe’s cheap clickbait, not because you have any solid info lol. That how gossip works.

Also hardware guy was chief PS hardware designer that was arguably more important and hard to replace for Sony, but it went totally quiet because he was Japanese, untainted by the Western style of fake drama reporting.

I'm only getting the vibe from jaffe, yes. I've worked at enough businesses to have some grasp on if a couple of long time staff members who you are still cool with come to you and start talking about how someone youve known and once had a proffesional (potentially friendship nurturing) relationship with has been wronged, disrespected and had years of dedication to a company treated like nothing then shown the door...to know that something off, went down.

Maybe it's not the case, but that's how I understand jaffa got his information. davidjaffe if i am wrong and exaggerating i apologise and happy for you to clarify.

 

[X-Wing]

I really don’t like that guy. He seems to be out of place in his new position.

And based on what do you base your opinion?

 

[BootsLoader]

And based on what do you base your opinion?

I know Sony since PS1 days, I watch their conferences, play their games, read their news. I base that on my intuition and experience through the years. He thinks and acts very differently. And based on what do you make me that question?

 

[Cyborg]

Signs of change........ effects felt in a generation or two! This GaaS bullsh*t will be a massacre

 

[PaintTinJr]

I know Sony since PS1 days, I watch their conferences, play their games, read their news. I base that on my intuition and experience through the years. He thinks and acts very differently. And based on what do you make me that question?

Agreed. When you think back to PlayStation's darkest hours with PS3 having hardware costs, production and software issues he looks like he brings nothing of value to stop the ship from sinking. He looks like a feather weight manager more suited to head up something like UT in FC24 for EA.

The whole shift of "let our games do the talking by Jim" was probably a result of Hulst not being like those that came before to actually drop in to a Sony ICE team and do amazing work or do amazing creative work as a director. For me that's the type of person PlayStation needs front and centre, a Yoshida or Cerny, or a Kojima. No someone giving off a failed catalogue model vibe preoccupied by his or her choice for their coffee that day.

 

[SenkiDala]

Somethings up, that's for sure. No way employees speak to Jaffe if its not ruffled some feathers. She was obviously paramount to playstations success and it seems she's been let go in questionable circumstances.

I'm not a fan of Herman at all, I really hope he's not in line to be promoted.

I could post the same comment I totally agree. I dunno what is happening but it is happening. And knowing that he was the person who decided to close Japan Studios (it was A MAJOR historic studio, symbol of quality, for Sony) changed my opinion on him (I didn't have any before that).

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

I think a lot of you have no idea of how a company is run. These decisions aren’t made in a vacuum nor by the CEO alone. Ryan didn’t sit in his office and said “we’re gonna do GaaS” and made the studios shift gears to that. It is much more likely that studios heads saw the monetisation possibility in those games as ways to financial studio grow to tackle the long development cycle for single player games. There is no budget reduction for single player games, only an increase for GaaS.

As for Ryan, he was in retirement age, the man has led the company through hell during the pandemic but the entire industry is facing a terrible economy right now. He most likely decided that now that the first half of the generation is done and the strategy for the future is set that it is up to someone else to deal with that shit.

I know exactly how a company runs, but thank you for your condescending response.

At the end of the day, part of Jim's role was responsibility and accountability of the PlayStation sector of Sony. He can't have people below him making decisions without consulting him first or being a part of the process when it's something as big as this.

As someone who's worked as a regional lead for a company, I learnt my lesson once when a manager decided to start making it up as he went along and I paid the price for his stupidity.

Jim will have been aware of all of this. And involved. The people above him hold him accountable to PlayStation's success. And shit rolls down till.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Agreed. When you think back to PlayStation's darkest hours with PS3 having hardware costs, production and software issues he looks like he brings nothing of value to stop the ship from sinking. He looks like a feather weight manager more suited to head up something like UT in FC24 for EA.

The whole shift of "let our games do the talking by Jim" was probably a result of Hulst not being like those that came before to actually drop in to a Sony ICE team and do amazing work or do amazing creative work as a director. For me that's the type of person PlayStation needs front and centre, a Yoshida or Cerny, or a Kojima. No someone giving off a failed catalogue model vibe preoccupied by his or her choice for their coffee that day.

Seems to me like you and others just don’t like his face and maybe his accent? It’s hard to figure out how you guys are extrapolating so much while dismissing so much history.

Like for example, Herman being a big part of Kojima making Death Stranding for PlayStation.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

Man, it's a group of people who want Sony to be in shambles so bad, but I'm not seeing the evidence.

 

[midnightAI]

And people thought I was crazy when I said I thought Jim Ryan was fired.

I don't think Sony execs are happy with the changes in PlayStation's operations. From communication to a huge focus on games as a service. I can believe Jaffe when he says that devs are angry at that change. I think Naughty Dog are probably fuming about Bungie coming in and negatively impacting the production of their game though that's probably not done with malice.

But seriously she is a massive loss. Huge changes to come within PlayStation. The old blood are gone. Is this new yharnam blood were seeing??

Huh? how can he be fired? if you fire someone you don't keep them around to cause chaos you get rid of them, that's what firing means.

 

[SenkiDala]

Seems to me like you and others just don’t like his face and maybe his accent? It’s hard to figure out how you guys are extrapolating so much while dismissing so much history.

Like for example, Herman being a big part of Kojima making Death Stranding for PlayStation.

Don't like him too and I'm French so I won't judge his accent...

Well having a Kojima game exclusively on your system is always a great business decision, even if it costs you the source code of their 3D engine.

 

[SlicedBread3]

I'm fully supportive of Sony and their GaaS adventures. It's their money to spend, and I'll buy their games as long as they're good.

The issue I have is making studios with no experience in MP games, let alone GaaS games, spend their time on these. Sony is more than capable of spinning up a studio to focus on literally any facet of this industry. There's no reason Naughty Dog should be working on an MP game. Give it to someone else, with Neil Druckman or someone else from ND overseeing it to make sure it aligns with the brand.

5 of the last 7 Naughty Dog games have had multiplayer. Not sure where this idea that they have no experience in that area comes from.

 

[Topher]

5 of the last 7 Naughty Dog games have had multiplayer. Not sure where this idea that they have no experience in that area comes from.

Yeah, MP in the traditional way though where it is added on to a single player game. What they are having to do now is create a game based entirely around a business model in which they have no experience, or frankly, desire, imo.

But your point that they have done MP is valid.

 

[Topher]

I think a lot of you have no idea of how a company is run.

I don't think it is far off to say that probably no one here knows how a multi-billion dollar corporation is run. Including you. So anything said here is just speculation.

 

[StealthGoblin]

5 of the last 7 Naughty Dog games have had multiplayer. Not sure where this idea that they have no experience in that area comes from.

Exactly. They clearly approached Factions as an MP game and did a lot of design around something potentially more traditional before it needed to become a GAAS title.

I imagine it always had GAAS elements, but looking at what modern GAAS titles need (content, content, content) to maintain engagement and the potential idea that this had more storytelling it - maybe the potential expenditure long term caused concerns.

Sony don't mind spending a lot of money on a ND SP title as they are usually best in class, but that isn't guaranteed or even likely with GAAS.

I think Sony need to do a few things with their GAAS titles:

1. Day and date on as many platforms as possible.
2. Take a long view approach akin to something like Sea of Thieves.
3. Embrace silliness in some titles.

 

[kruis]

How you read that from Jaffe is beyond me. Jaffe was potentially standing up for her and calling out Sony firing her/team. He obviously worked with her personally and gets her value, sounds like an internal shift/power/vision struggle over at Sony.

I don't understand who the parties in this power struggle are. Was Connie Booth fired because she spoke out against the switch to GAAS that Jim Ryan forced upon everyone? But why then are people thinking Jim Ryan was fired too, when he won out in this conflict? Or was Jim Ryan ordered by Kenichiro Yoshida to make Sony gaming more profitable by investing in GAAS and was he fired because his studios are failing to get these GAAS games out?

 

[Thirty7ven]

Don't like him too and I'm French so I won't judge his accent...

Well having a Kojima game exclusively on your system is always a great business decision, even if it costs you the source code of their 3D engine.

Don’t see why it cost them the source code of the engine but ok.

 

[SlicedBread3]

And people thought I was crazy when I said I thought Jim Ryan was fired.

I don't think Sony execs are happy with the changes in PlayStation's operations. From communication to a huge focus on games as a service. I can believe Jaffe when he says that devs are angry at that change. I think Naughty Dog are probably fuming about Bungie coming in and negatively impacting the production of their game though that's probably not done with malice.

But seriously she is a massive loss. Huge changes to come within PlayStation. The old blood are gone. Is this new yharnam blood were seeing??

If anything I suspect it was the execs pushing for Gaas in the first place. The CEO was talking about pivoting towards subscriptions and recurring revenue models back in 2018.

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/...away-from-gadgets-whats-that-mean-for-the-ps5

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ho...o-yoshida-outlines-shift-content-1113823/amp/

I don't think it is far off to say that probably no one here knows how a multi-billion dollar corporation is run. Including you. So anything said here is just speculation.

I agree, it's just the dude I was replying to specified "MP let alone Gaas" so I took that to include traditional.

 

[Hypereides]

Agreed. When you think back to PlayStation's darkest hours with PS3 having hardware costs, production and software issues he looks like he brings nothing of value to stop the ship from sinking. He looks like a feather weight manager more suited to head up something like UT in FC24 for EA.

The whole shift of "let our games do the talking by Jim" was probably a result of Hulst not being like those that came before to actually drop in to a Sony ICE team and do amazing work or do amazing creative work as a director. For me that's the type of person PlayStation needs front and centre, a Yoshida or Cerny, or a Kojima. No someone giving off a failed catalogue model vibe preoccupied by his or her choice for their coffee that day.

I honestly get the feeling the top brass over in Japan don't know or care about adhering to PlayStation's philosophy and let the western counterpart strong-arm the power balance away from them. They don't strike me as having any particularly interest in gaming nor the medium. Its more like an annoyance standing in the way of their earnings. There's such a stark contrast between what they were about and what they're doing now. Say what you will about Kutaragi, but at least during his tenure developers created far more memorable, imaginative and worthwhile games than what we see now.

And people thought I was crazy when I said I thought Jim Ryan was fired.

I don't think Sony execs are happy with the changes in PlayStation's operations. From communication to a huge focus on games as a service. I can believe Jaffe when he says that devs are angry at that change. I think Naughty Dog are probably fuming about Bungie coming in and negatively impacting the production of their game though that's probably not done with malice.

But seriously she is a massive loss. Huge changes to come within PlayStation. The old blood are gone. Is this new yharnam blood were seeing??

Nah, you weren't the only one. I got the impression his argument was a flimsy attempt at a diplomatic graceful exit.

But, who knows? Its plausible he's retiring. On the other hand, Sony might want to minimize damage, avoid a stir and gave him an opportunity to walk away on his own.

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

Huh? how can he be fired? if you fire someone you don't keep them around to cause chaos you get rid of them, that's what firing means.

Because it's part of way people are in Japan. If Jim's boss put his arm around him and said, "Have you ever thought about retiring?" What he's actually saying is, "There's an opportunity to walk here before you're pushed."

Nintendo did something similar with Square. When SquareSoft staff met with Nintendo to ask their permission to bring final fantasy 7 to PlayStation as well as Nintendo platforms the Nintendo executive just put his hand his shoulder and said "I wish you the best." And that's effectively their way of saying "If that's your decision, it won't be on our platforms."

People keep saying businesses don't work like that but businesses work differently around the world. Letting Jim "retire" peacefully doesn't give any indication into internal issues etc. Whereas firing him outright would cause many issues. Especially the media to question if it's a direct response to Microsoft's aggressive acquisitions. But Connie going also really gives credence to the fact that something is going on.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

I don't understand who the parties in this power struggle are. Was Connie Booth fired because she spoke out against the switch to GAAS that Jim Ryan forced upon everyone? But why then are people thinking Jim Ryan was fired too, when he won out in this conflict? Or was Jim Ryan ordered by Kenichiro Yoshida to make Sony gaming more profitable by investing in GAAS and was he fired because his studios are failing to get these GAAS games out?

When multiple foundational staff leave or get fired it usually equates to big corpo changes being afoot. As to what that is and means for Sony's output...

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Someone photoshop this with Jaffe's face

 

[NEbeast]

There's some smoke starting to build up between Jim retiring, layoffs, and now this. And ima throw in the fact that they took a year off from their showcase only to come back with that trash showcase 1st party wise.

 

[Topher]

There's some smoke starting to build up between Jim retiring, layoffs, and now this. And ima throw in the fact that they took a year off from their showcase only to come back with that trash showcase 1st party wise.

I believe it has been two years since we had a proper Sony first party studio showcase. Wasn't the last big reveal Wolverine back in September 2021?

 

[Fake]

You will regret your words and deeds towards Herman.

He is the Alpha Male this industry and PlayStation needs......hopefully.

He is many things, but not a alpha male thats for sure.

 

[SenkiDala]

Don’t see why it cost them the source code of the engine but ok.

"As a gesture of goodwill, Guerrilla gifted Kojima with a box containing the source code of their then-unnamed in-house engine"

Decima

The Decima engine is a game engine developed primarily by Guerrilla Games, and improved upon by Kojima Productions. It is currently optimized for PlayStation 4 system software and powers Death Stranding. Initially, the game engine did not have a name when it was used to power Killzone: Shadow...

deathstranding.fandom.com

 

[SHA]

People at a company for 30 years eventually want to retire and not die at work, news on X formerly Twitter

Strange how this is some weird manufactured scandal when the departure of Jim Ryan after 30+ years also wasn't. Who's pulling the strings behind the scenes to manufacture scandals at Sony?

Dying at work with PhDs specifically, I've seen this before, it really sucks, I would rather do my own thing than holding a PhD and being told what to do.

 

[mckmas8808]

Sony having some internal issues it seems

Are they though?

 

[Thirty7ven]

"As a gesture of goodwill, Guerrilla gifted Kojima with a box containing the source code of their then-unnamed in-house engine"

Decima

The Decima engine is a game engine developed primarily by Guerrilla Games, and improved upon by Kojima Productions. It is currently optimized for PlayStation 4 system software and powers Death Stranding. Initially, the game engine did not have a name when it was used to power Killzone: Shadow...

deathstranding.fandom.com

That’s pretty crazy.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

I believe it has been two years since we had a proper Sony first party studio showcase. Wasn't the last big reveal Wolverine back in September 2021?

The "phase 2" showcase earlier in the year had Marathon, Fairgame$, Helldivers 2, Concord, and Spider-man 2. We could definitely see something was up with first party there, since that was the first proper showcase (if you can really call it that) in 2 years. It was so bad that people here were convinced there would be another showcase in just a short time later.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Are they though?

The greatest companies can run into internal issues and come out stronger

 

[SenkiDala]

That’s pretty crazy.

Yes that was insane and I was surprised how it wasn't so much commented, like "they gave him their engine ? that costs dozens of millions of dollars ? ah ok", that was HUGE.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

He is many things, but not a alpha male thats for sure.

he was the one in charge for the masterclass in studio management From Killzone to Horizon Zero Dawn and handled the source code of Decima Engine to the other Alpha Male (Hideo Kojima)..a Japanese game developer . Alongside a third Alpha Male (Mark Cerny), Kojima Productions and Guerrilla were improving the Decima's Source Code in tandem in real time. Pretty cool, right?.
The initiative of sharing your own technology with Kojima...only someone with an Alpha Male attitude could have made such a move.

 

[AlphaDump]

The greatest companies can run into internal issues and come out stronger

That's not answering what he asked.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

That's not answering what he asked.

I stand by my original post

 

[Topher]

The "phase 2" showcase earlier in the year had Marathon, Fairgame$, Helldivers 2, Concord, and Spider-man 2. We could definitely see something was up with first party there, since that was the first proper showcase (if you can really call it that) in 2 years. It was so bad that people here were convinced there would be another showcase in just a short time later.

Primarily because insiders like Tom Henderson said he knew Sony had more to show because he had seen the trailers that weren't shown. So that has left a lot of us scratching our heads wondering what is going on. At this point, it is hard to imagine Sony having a showcase during this time of transition so we are looking at mid-year 2024 at the earliest.

In the meantime, we now have reports that the live service effort within Sony studios is not going very well. A prominent executive has been fired soon after the announcement that the CEO is retiring. None of this is giving me confidence in the current state of PlayStation.

Let's be clear though. I take no pleasure in any of this. I am and have been a massive fan of PlayStation games. I'm just not going to pretend everything is fine when my gut says otherwise. If I didn't care about the future of PlayStation, I wouldn't even bother saying anything. And as I've said plenty of times before, I'll be extremely happy if all my concern over all of this is for naught and we will soon see multiple awesome games coming from Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Santa Monica, GG and the rest.

That's not answering what he asked.

Yeah, but there is no definitive answer to what was asked.

 

[mckmas8808]

Of course it is. There is next to no first party games announced for the future.

Not a chance that was the plan.

Jim Ryan just hated to talk about anything. Dude is HORRIBLE! But it doesn't mean they aren't working in full production on games.

Big loss since she was involved in a lot of titles that made PS. Now we are stuck with movies games and nothing else from Sony.

Oh.......so that's what we are calling them now?

The greatest companies can run into internal issues and come out stronger

True. I'm just not sure that's what's happening here. It "could" be, but we have no evidence of that yet.

 

[AlphaDump]

I stand by my original post

Yeah, but there is no definitive answer to what was asked.

Standing by nothing definitive. Got it.

 

[Pipescl]

Who’s Jaffe in the first place? Who’s Connie?

 

[Topher]

Standing by nothing definitive. Got it.

When HeisenbergFX4 said "it seems".....what part of that was "definitive" to you?

Sony having some internal issues it seems

 

[AlphaDump]

When HeisenbergFX4 said "it seems".....what part of that was "definitive" to you?

Him standing by the assertion of sony seemingly having issues.

It's okay Topher. We will get through this.