Pachter criticizes Jim Ryan's management at Sony: "They don't know what they're doing"

The games industry analyst Michael Pachter did not spare criticism of the management of PlayStation under the leadership of Jim Ryan. In an episode of his podcast, Pachter stated that "Sony started doing stupid things with Jim Ryan" and that the company "don't know what they're doing" in their business strategy.

The main mistake, according to Pachter, was the change in leadership at PlayStation. He praised former leaders Andrew House and Shawn Layden, calling them "very competent" and "fantastic", respectively.

"I think the biggest mistake Sony recently made was getting rid of Andrew House and then getting rid of Shawn Layden," said Pachter. "They replaced Shawn with Herman Hulst, who was very good, but then was sidelined. They got rid of Shuhei Yoshida, who was really very good. They put Jim Ryan in charge, who was really very bad."

According to the analyst, the management problem manifested itself in the "stupid scene" of chasing the games as a service market. He argues that Sony tried to replicate the success of others but did so in the wrong way. Pachter criticizes the purchase of Bungie for $3.6 billion for the company to make games as a service, since Bungie has only $300 million in revenue, while Sony did not buy Scopely for $4.9 billion, which has between $3 and $3.5 billion in revenue.

"Sony is a bad manager, they don't know what they're doing," continued Pachter. He points out that the company should have acquired studios with experience in multiplatform service games, instead of forcing their own studios to create games of that genre, which resulted in canceled projects like Concord and the closure of a studio.

"Sony has lost its way," Pachter concluded, arguing that the company should not have bought companies that make console games, but rather companies that make service games on various platforms.

The analysis by Michael Pachter is harsh on the management of Jim Ryan. Do you believe that the criticism that Sony lost its way by pursuing games as a service is justified, or was the diversification strategy necessary for the company's future?