PlayStation is destroying itself from within and I’m worried for the PS5 – Reader’s Feature

What is going on behind closed doors at Sony? (pic: Sony)

A reader worries that disagreement within Sony has led to the exit of boss Jim Ryan and a rebellion of disgruntled PlayStation developers.

For months now, over a year really, PlayStation fans have been trying to understand why Sony has been so quiet, why they haven’t announced any new games, and how it could be that they now have no scheduled exclusives at all. Especially since when they did actually release something it turned out to be the amazing Spider-Man 2, which was a massive critical and commercial hit.

There’s never been any explanation, other than doing nothing doesn’t seem to stop console sales going through the roof so why rock the boat. But no, surely that can’t be it. But this week we seemed to get a hint of what is going on. Talk emerged of Connie Booth, the head of PlayStation’s internal development, being suddenly sacked after almost three decades on the job.

I’m not going to pretend I’ve ever heard of her before but clearly that sort of job title is very important. Sony later admitted she had gone but didn’t say how or why. But the same guy that first leaked the news (the original creator of God Of War) says it’s because she was being blamed for not quelling a rebellion amongst Sony developers, who didn’t want to make live service games.

If you’ll remember, Sony said it was going to make at least 10 live service games by 2026 but hasn’t so much as shown one in public so far, let alone released any. Which means it’s got to launch at least three a year for the next three years to make its targets, which I think we can all see is not going to happen.

Presumably this is why Connie Booth was sacked, because I guess that’s her job, to get games made, but the word is that Sony developers are not happy at being taken off quality single-player games to work on free-to-play rubbish filled with microtransactions. I mean, imagine going from The Last Of Us Part 2 to that.

You’ll have to imagine it too because that game already seems to have been cancelled and it’s very easy to imagine Naughty Dog leading the rebellion against the whole concept. If in fact that’s what’s happening. I’m just spitballing here, but the leaker was right about Connie Both leaving and there’s clearly something that’s gone very wrong with The Last Of Us multiplayer.

So it’s not much of a leap of logic to wonder whether PlayStation boss Jim Ryan was pushed rather than left of his own accord. He is, by all accounts, the one that pushed for the focus on live service games. It’s also pretty obvious that live service games aren’t the guaranteed success that he (and other companies like Ubisoft) thought, so it’s not hard to imagine Sony HQ wanting to replacing him.

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If the new boss immediately starts talking about how much they love single-player games and we don’t hear much more about live service games (there’s no reason why they can’t have a few) then I think we’ll have a good indication that my theories are correct.

Hopefully, we’ll have more leaks that will make it clearer what’s going on, but I worry that Sony is in the midst of tearing itself apart and, like the Roman Empire, it won’t be outside forces that destroy it but, as the rumours say, ‘internal strife’.

By Ashton Marley

The Last Of Us multiplayer game may already have been cancelled (Picture: Sony)

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A reader worries that disagreement within Sony has led to the exit of boss Jim Ryan and a rebellion of disgruntled PlayStation developers.