From Jim Ryan’s Exit to an Abandoned the Last of Us Multiplayer: Can PlayStation Make a Glorious Comeback?

Jim Ryan is all set to leave PlayStation behind. And once he gets done in March 2024, Hiroki Totoki will take his place. While he worked at PlayStation on several posts for around 30 years, he was only named president back in 2019. He stated “increasingly difficult to reconcile living in Europe and working in North America” as his reason for stepping down. But many fans think that he is leaving because of how he set out to push the PlayStation brand in a direction that was not so promising.

He made a number of decisions during his time as president. The most noticeable one was to buy Bungie. He also announced a bunch of live-service projects based on various PlayStation first-party IPs, such as The Last of Us Online. One wonders: could PlayStation change for the better now that Jim Ryan has stepped down as president?

Was Jim Ryan keeping PlayStation from reaching new heights of success?

The PlayStation 5 launched back in 2020. Every game that was announced for it, be it launch titles or games that were to launch later, was announced in 2019. The console marked the PlayStation brand’s entry into the ninth generation of gaming. And the games that have launched for it since have shown its potential to the fullest.

Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy 16, and Demon Souls are the standouts. But one question that lingers is, “Did any of this happen due to Jim Ryan?” No, all these games were in development before he stepped in. Maybe his predecessors, John Kodera or Andrew House, made those decisions, but he did not, as games that are released in 2020 or even 2022 start development 4-5 years before their launch.

All that Jim Ryan announced were those live service games. Under his leadership, Sony announced in April 2022 that the PlayStation brand would launch more than 10 live service titles in the near future. He probably even purchased Bungie, thinking they would somehow help PlayStation make those 10 titles. However, that plan ended up failing in a number of ways.

For one, he is stepping down from his position. And second, Bungie is losing at the game he was supposed to be a master of, as they lose player count for their game Destiny 2. And let’s not forget the sad state of their upcoming title, Marathon. Third, the moment he announced his decision to step down, The Last of Us Online, one of the online games that was announced under his plan, was doomed.

He literally stopped a major first-party studio from working on a gate that they excelled at for this. A game that is never coming out. They are currently working on at least two new games. One of them is rumored to be The Last of Us Part 3, and the other is supposedly a character-driven game set in medieval times. It would be great to see what Neil Druckmann decides to reveal first.

In short, these games would have at least been announced if Naughty Dog was not busy fiddling with something they never cared for in the first place.

What can happen now?

Now that Jim Ryan is stepping down, Hiroki Totoki will take his place on April 1, 2024. No one knows what his game plan is, but one thing is for sure: developers are already feeling liberated. This can be said by the way Naughty Dog reacted mere months after Ryan’s stepping down announcement. And this can also mean that many other studios will follow suit. This does not specifically mean that all those live service games would be canceled. But they would not be a priority anymore.

Fans can hope to see that online game set in the Horizon universe someday. But Guerilla is also working on the third installment in their mainline series. There’s also a rumored Twisted Metal title in the works at Firesprite. No one knows if it will be online only. These games may or may not launch anytime soon. But all the above-mentioned studios would no doubt once again start putting more focus on their primary single-player experiences.

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And this means PlayStation can once again continue its upward journey. With games like Wolverine, Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Stellar Blade, and Death Stranding 2, Sony has no shortage of excellent games. And who knows, one of the above-mentioned live service titles might even turn into a success. That would mean this brand can grow even further.

Jim Ryan, leaving Sony, only means that fans would not have to deal with a million live-service games at once. Those titles are often seen as quick money grabs by many, and Sony PlayStation has never been a brand going for a quick money grab.

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