PlayStation head honcho Jim Ryan, known for his controversial takes on console functionality and one of the people responsible for the company’s headquarters relocation to California, has announced he’s stepping down in March 2024.
As of October 2023, Hiroki Totoki will be appointed chairman until the official handover, where Totoki will act as the interim CEO.
Despite constantly confirming the company’s commitment to Japan, the PS5 was massively understocked in Japan at launch and was also responsible for the closure of Japan Studio (Gravity Rush, Patapon, Ape Escape, Ico) as they were deemed “too unprofitable.” During his reign, Japanese games also began to face heavy censorship in order to “protect the children” through an internal guideline besides the officially-recognized ESRB.
I won’t hold my breath for playstation till they move the company outside that woke state and fire 80% of the staff.
Location really doesn’t matter anymore. ESG s♥♥t has their poisoned claws sunk in companies everywhere around the globe. Nintendo lets their western localizers dictate character design and s♥♥t now.
Ryan already made an abundance of terrible decisions and I doubt the new guy will do any better. He is Japanese, but nothing short of a miracle will redeem the company.
This is only a small step. Next step if they want redemption is to leave California/USA. And final step: burn their usa offices.
If the censorstation goes back to Playstation, I might think in getting one…
Well … that can be good for high end gaming but make sure to access at least a weak PC too.
If steam censor something there are uncensored patches outside, also there are doujin games/VNs on DL site/joh ren/manga gamer, also there are mods and free games/free online multiplayer on PC.
Good. Now we can only hope the new CEO will make things better for japanese games on sony consoles.
I have to agree