Rumors started spreading as we hear about PlayStation's expansion from the console department and I am already excited for PlayStation to expand beyond the console department. But there's something about PlayStation's expansion beyond the console department that I am excited for. Why am I excited about anything I know nothing about? Well, there is one obvious detail we do know for sure. One that is obvious and unanimous is that Hideaki Nishino and Herman Hulst will be leading Sony Interactive Entertainment and maintaining all of PlayStation.
Now before you give me props and credit for being a Nishino and Hulst shill, let me explain myself on why am I excited for this. What makes this exciting? It's actually not the fact that Nishino and Hulst are leading the PlayStation brand. But better yet, it's who is NOT leading the PlayStation brand. That is Jim Ryan. But why is that important, you ask?
Well, you see, Jim Ryan became president of Sony Interactive Entertainment as a whole in 2019. He did something nice with the launch of the PS5. This is where you'll argue and that say that the launch of the PS5 is considered to be the best, so what exactly is the meaning of this? Sure, Jim Ryan did something very nice about the PS5's launch despite its shortages that were caused by supply chain issues that spanned over the course of the pandemic. But he also did something very awful when the PS5 was released. His four year tenure was marred by a influx of flubs that caused PlayStation fans to hate him to the max. Jim Ryan did something amazing.
During the Gran Turismo event, Jim Ryan went for the record and said that PS1 and PS2 games looked ancient and asked why would anyone want to play this and straight up confirmed that the PS5 has backwards compatibility to a vast majority of PS4 games and rejecting the legacy trio of consoles. I mean, come on! He did not just say that! He went on to turn down the golden age that is retro gaming just by saying that!
This led to him addressing about what he said and had regretted saying that. It's because the he made it clear that they need to focus PS5's backwards compatibility support on PS4 games, not for older generations. It was reported that Jim Ryan doesn't hate old games this entire time and he also stated on what's really important is that time, engineering resources and money are finite when developing a new platform. So it appears that Jim Ryan regretted spurning older platforms and cared about them.
However, it's worth noting that the PS4 and PS5 bear the same structure while the PS3's structure is completely different and is hard to develop for, unlike the Xbox 360, which bears a straightforward structure relatively easy to develop for. That's how the Xbox Series X/S and the Xbox One X managed to achieve full backwards compatibility. It's clear that Microsoft is the big winner and Jim Ryan stated that he had no intentions to follow on Xbox's footsteps, so this makes Xbox the leader in the backwards compatibility department and they would play Whacked! on the latest Xbox.
In response to the PS4 and the PS5 not being backwards compatible to previous generations, Bloomberg reported that Sony was actually working on an Xbox Game Pass-esque three tiered service codenamed "Spartacus." The reports from Bloomberg shown that the first tier would have the benefits the original PS Plus has while the second tier would offer a catalog of games on PS4 and PS5 and the third and final tier would offer streaming, game trials and a catalog of classic games released on PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3 that are added monthly.
When the developers intended to keep the Plus branding as a way to stay true to their brand, they confirmed that PS Plus and PS Now are gonna merge together to establish PS Plus 2.0 and give it three tiers, Essential, Extra and Premium on both the PS4 and PS5 and have discontinued the service on the PS3. The Premium tier is the way to revisit classics from back in the day.
However, there is a catch. The PS1, PS2 and PSP games are available to both stream and download. PS3 games however, are only available to stream due to the PS3's hard to work with structure that made it hard to emulate. But it's fair. The PS3 games are not that important to me anyway. For markets without cloud streaming, there is an alternative to the Premium tier called the Deluxe tier, which has benefits the Premium tier offers at a discounted price without cloud streaming.
The only thing about this is that we get to play PSP games on the big screen for the first time, like the old PlayStation TV days. I know that there are a vast majority of fans that adore playing PSP games on the big screen for the first time and we're revisiting PS1 and PS2 games thanks to PS Plus Premium, the hero that revived the PlayStation Legacy. It's only a taste as to how Jim Ryan would regret disrespecting the older platforms.
After getting confirmation that the PS5 is backwards compatible to PS4 games and the PS4 is lacking backwards compatibility because of the PS3's structure that is hard to work with, PS Plus Premium is an obvious solution, right? Sure, it is the hero that revived the PlayStation Legacy, if you like Johnny Test, when you dreamed of a new console to be backwards compatible to all previous generations.
At present, the process of releasing new PS1 and PSP games is coming along nicely as Sony is very serious about bringing their beloved classics back, But turns out that we are not getting a new PS2 game, until there is good news that Sony now has a brand new PS2 emulator to light the way for new PS2 games to have rewinds, save states, up rendering and video filters like the PS1 and PSP games starting in June. Jim Ryan was seemingly embracing players revisiting games from back in the day. But he could not understand that in the first place.
Jim Ryan had affected Japan Studio. They were a great developer who developed the Ape Escape franchise and others. But it was merged with Team Asobi, founded in 2012 when they were with Japan Studio. Ryan did something awful just by letting their money go to waste. It's bad enough that Volition shut down on August 2023 and we were dishearted to experience that. London Studio was also closed down during that recent restructuring. It was reported that Jim Ryan has caused this situation. He just screwed it all up. Badly.
This is when the dead franchises come in. Franchises such as Killzone became dead. We've desired for the developers to revive franchises, but they are not getting revived. They did try reviving the franchises, but that didn't work out, so things got scrapped, rewritten, didn't work out, have shelved and they currently had no plans to revive them. Many difficulties and issues of reviving the franchises were reported based on Jim Ryan's antics. That's why there isn't a new game in the franchises. We've already seen the new Super Mario and Sonic games releasing for decades and these two distinct franchises are not dead.
Even though we got heavy hitters, like Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin, ones that beared high caliber and don't contain intense violence despite their M rating, Jim Ryan couldn't figure how to be a decent PlayStation CEO if it meant his life. It took years for Jim Ryan to actually know what he was doing, and even though he regretted spurning PS1 and PS2 games and embraced Xbox, he still struggled with trying to be a better CEO.
And even in the case of the Xbox v. FTC case over the Activision and Bethesda acquisition, Xbox has won the case to purchase Bethesda and Activision fair and square and the FTC did NOTHING. This was just a devilish mess of things that weren't even fully cooked because Jim Ryan let his guard down and couldn't figure out what tactics he wants to plan to keep Xbox from purchasing the companies. Right as Jim Ryan tried to be a better CEO, Hiroki Totoki has replaced him as temporary CEO and just undone some of the failures.
The only big takeaway from this is that Jim Ryan would succeed Shawn Layden, who was met with some love that he maintained the brand for the greater good. When Layden is no longer CEO, Jim Ryan had shown his true colors and his lack of skill as Sony's totally subpar fizzle of a CEO.
Hideaki Nishino and Herman Hulst are now two CEOs of Sony Interactive Entertainment, dividing the space into two sections, with Nishino leading the Platform Business Group and Hulst leading the Studio Business Group to change the industry to its core. They will hopefully pave the way for the greater good of PlayStation and the brighter future of the brand, revive franchises and undo failures Jim Ryan's antics have created. That's why I am so excited for the brighter future of PlayStation. And when the PS6 is revealed as Sony confirmed it, even though they wouldn't stop making new consoles as doing so is expensive, everything can change for the better.
So that's all I had to ramble about how Jim Ryan was totally awful to PlayStation. With Hideaki and Herman leading the way, the brighter future is upon us, so to heck with Jim Ryan. To heck with him. He can forever kiss my butt for all of the failures he caused with his antics. And I mean it. Here's to Hideaki Nishino and Herman Hulst for being better CEOs.
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