Rumour: Jim Ryan 'Flew To Brussels' To Voice Concerns Over Xbox's ActiBlizz Deal

Not desperate at all

Sad hypocrite

I wonder if google raising concerns whilst simultaneously shuttering Stadia is coordinated?

Cornering off IP - from competitors in the streaming space etc.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I guess he's just doing all he can for his cash cow to keep bringing in the green. I won't ever believe HE is concerned about gamers.

@gollumb82
He is not concerned about gamers has he forces PS5 bundles on gamers as it is the only way to buy a console.
Like this weekend in UK with FIFA 23.
He saves the consoles up, doesn’t sell them solo and makes you buy a digital game bundle.

We should not be surprised by this(assuming its true), Jim Ryan's job is to NOT be happy with the deal and make as much noise as possible.
That, does not of course make him any less of a hypocrite, so expect more if this as the takeover progresses.

@Dezzy70
Honestly, I don't know about that. What I do know is since the launch of PS5 the guys working for the Polish equivalents of Walmart etc have been in collusion with scalpers to hoard and sell PS5 consoles on Polish equivalents of eBay at extortionate prices and then splitting the dough. Disgusting. My guess is those stores decided to sell bundles to make it more difficult for scalpers.
Obviously, Sony tells us it's because of Covid etc but they are probably happy with this myth of the PS5 being something of a unicorn that nobody has seen in a store since launch.
They raised the prices of their games, consoles and are about to launch a single SKU where the disc drive is an option. I'm all for digital gaming but I imagine this will piss off PS loyalists who are clinging on to physical games. This type of attitude is what made me quit PS.

@Swirly

Ok, Playstation i get, but Google?!

Yep, Google are working hard to bring back the Dodo, aka Stadia. Which they deliberately just killed off last week😉

Another reason might be that they are bitter, about the billions they have to pay to the EU regulators for anticompetitive practices. They lost a case recently.

@BartoxAbrasiveness

There's no guarantee Microsoft doesn't try and sidestep the Play Store — perhaps only making these available through a Game Pass/XCloud subscription.

The loss of revenue from a move like that is just too great to ignore, even for Microsoft. It also goes against their mantra of reaching the billions of gamers, one can assume (are) on mobile phone devices. You do not achieve that by cutting off your presence from Google Play Store.

That's my thinking at least.

Loathsome individual, or am I going too far?
Nah.

@Dezzy70 Are you honestly for real?

In your desperate search for acceptance to blast Ryan, you seem to think he's running marketing and personally responsible for bundling games with a console - something that has been done by all console owners since the business started. Your sounding more and more like a blinded fan boy every day, and fast losing any credibility.

This is hardly news, its simply an excuse so that band hopper muppets like you can spew out more ridiculous and unfounded hate.

There's plenty of real reasons to hate Jim without having to make sh*t up... and blaming him for stuff he's not involved in simply takes the pressure off him for all the bad stuff he HAS done.

I don't blame Jim Ryan to have done this, he's just protecting the king of consoles and his kings.

What a cretin that man is

Maybe microsoft should guarantee at least 10 years of cod will be on playstation console, so gamers can choose whether to buy it on playstation or get it on gamepass, I think that's best for gamers.

Surely this is now just souring the relationship between the 2 gaming giants? I fully expect this deal to still go through, Microsoft and their lawyers know what they’re doing. Big Jim has to be careful here, he doesn’t want to poke the nest too hard, he has to try and get what’s best for PlayStation without angering Microsoft too much, otherwise they could end up with nothing eventually which is the opposite of what Big Jim wants.

A lot of rumours this site and pushsquare are milking to get views I see. These rumour articles are the ones that get the most clicks as well. 😩

If true though then you can't blame the guy as he's just doing his job to protect the PlayStation brand, Phil Spencer would do the same for xbox.

@Fenbops oh look a bear ...give me a stick

I agree once this is over and done with I can see Microsoft going after a lot of exclusives just cause they can afford it

@UltimateOtaku91 he's not protecting the brand he's protecting his paycheck , if he was protecting playstation he wouldnt keep running it In to ground like more expensive consoles ,£70 games ,buy more games to get better support , £70 remakes
The only thing he cares about is his bonus package will b light after cod loses the exclusive stuff

@Martsmall well I can't argue with that, well hopefully the deal goes through, and playstation sack him for failing. Think I'd rather go back to Shawn layden or a japanese ceo

@UltimateOtaku91 I hope so too cause playstation is losing a lot of customers with each of Thier anti consumer moves and that's not going to help keep happy customers with the brand , especially when money is a lot tighter for a hell of alot of ppl

If there is something I can’t stand, is a fully grown man in an age that could easily make him my dad, being a little crybaby over something that will never happen. Xbox will not let the revenue of playstation cod sales go. It sells like hot cakes. They will put in 70B, the least they want is to make it back and profit from it. He’s simply trying to avoid having to pay his competitors a hefty amount to keep cod on playstation 3 years from now. That’s how this works. When a contract is about to expire, you renegotiate. I’m pretty sure this was how it went before, he’s just being a sourpuss over this issue. Flying to Brussels just to cry a river to them regulators…

Soo.. being an American based company, what would the UK even be able to say about it? Would they ban games or something? Shareholders have already ok'd it. Serious question.

@Arcnail If they don't approve it, then any game developed by Activision Blizzard would have to have a separate, 3rd party, publisher.
A practice that is already fairly common.

So at the end of the day, not a whole lot of difference regardless what the UK decides.

He’s waisting his time and our time. He’s not going to be able to stop it, just slowing it down. He should focus more on his job than what another company is attempting to do.

Ryan is a disgrace, an incompetent manager, is damaging the PS brand, and truly needs to be let go!

@Titntin
I thought he was in charge of all decisions
Guess not. Liked had to sign off on these things.

With Stadia going, which was actually used in our household, and consolidation of all these brands year after year in the industry, I don’t see any of this as a good thing for my family as customers/consumers down the line.

Stadia brought 4K HDR streaming with little lag to our household, I’m told by blinded Xbox elitism that I’m supposed to be happy with Xcloud as an alternative, a service with ridiculous lag, 1080p at a push, and pixelisation that makes a torrented film from early 2000’s look 4K.

That, and now the bloody games are turning into a subscription model. I just don’t believe everything being on anyone’s service or all split helps us.

We have either everything on one service, and they can do and charge what they wish, or, have numerous services competing for our wallets to the point it’s not realistic.

I just want gaming to be what it used to be, like the film and TV industry of yesteryear.

As for this deal, I’ll play some Activision games like I always have, on the device that I prefer at that time. I just wish it wasn’t now being used as a childish way of defending one over another.

This deal going through doesn’t help me personally, it helps shareholders and the Xbox brand, same if it went the PlayStation direction instead etc.

I’m just sat here confused as to why this deal is positive for anyone who plays games, as it apparently won’t change a thing. Like yes, we may get games added to a service that isn’t profitable seeing as I pay £0.50-£1 for it a month, but other than that, it changes nothing for me as a gamer. So why does anyone outside of shareholders cheer it on?

Yes, Sony doesn’t want it to go through, but neither would I if I were Sony. It’s all just going the way of TV and film whereby to actually watch everything I need to subscribe to 15 different companies.

@Titntin
Ok, fair point
I will change it from Jim to Sony then.
Not a fan boy, but Sony just seem to have no general public and or concern over money.
I guess it is a business and make hay whilst the sun shines is the old saying.
But since this generation started they have totally shown no public concern etc.

@Dezzy70 doesn't matter where you move the hate, its still unwarranted.
Sony are simply making and selling games and consoles in pretty much the exact same way as Nintendo does.
What the blind fail to appreciate is that Microsoft are literally buying market share by running their business at a continual loss, which is great for all of us, but its not something any other company can do because they don't have the magic money trees that MS do.

Sony DO have concern over money, that's why they raised prices to £70 for AAA titles, as they obviously feel they need to do that in order to retain a good profit. If you scaled up PS4 release titles price in line with inflation , those titles would be nnearer £90 in todays money. They would not have wanted to take the step to raise prices, but seeing that they need to make money, they need to do it and look less competitive over their main rival.

These childish ideas that business should run at a loss to appease gamers is plain silly.
Having relied on the games industry to make my own living for more than 2 decades, I see attempts to devalue games as dangerous to an art form I love, and people I still care about.
Devs deserve to make a good living too.

@Titntin
Developers and all jobs deserve to make a good living absolutely.
I think with Sony it comes from being with them since the PS2 days and the amazing PS4 days.
Watching them since the PS5 days, from the console itself and other decisions, right or wrong always seem to be awkward or anti consumer.
Not thought out towards the customer.

@Dezzy70 No , the difference here is that you now absorb all the nonsense spread all over these types of channels, the sewers of the internet.
Any decision taken by any corp or dev, is subject to intense scrutiny and will have whichever set of 'fans (I use the term losely) attack them for whatever decision they make regardless.
If you are absorbing all that and actually assigning it any real value, then your gonna be pretty twisted in a way that you wouldn't have experienced the same way in previous gens. As the internet gets ever more toxic, you need a good set of reminders that this is all hot air from the very worst people - people who don't absorb all this infighting would wander wtf you are talking about.
Everyones different, but to have any kind of over view based in reality, you have put that stuff through a pretty vigorous filter.
All three console producers are doing great things, and some not so great things. No one is righteous, and no company is evil - they are simply jockeying for position in their own game of power as they ebb and flow market share.
The internet will always sensationalise. Anyone with sense who wants a more realistic view, has to to take that into account imo.

Edit** I know I came in quite hard on you, thanks for not taking offense, you know I love you really!!

The drama is getting stale over it at this point. As much as Jim Ryan has made some daft quotes and calls him doing this is completely not a surprise, doing what he can to protect what probably makes Playstation a lot of money.

I guarantee that if the boot was on the other foot and lets say, Sony had the cash and acquired EA. Microsoft would kick up the same amount of fuss over Fifa.

In summary with anything relating to Sony crying over this deal: nothing to see here.

@Titntin
I just go by my own experience and what I see and discover and what is fact.
For example the PS5 itself.
To expand ssd memory you have to open the console up and do screws. That’s not general public good customer design.
Having a stand you have use to keep the console up right and the size of the console. Not great design.
Having to register and update controller with the lead, this can all be done via Bluetooth as we both know. A little thing but not consumer ideal.

Deliberately not releasing Solo consoles then releasing as bundles only, like HFW and FIFA 23 with a digital game, costing more to the general public.As it’s the only way someone’s young son or daughter can get a console, through the digital bundle that Sony do, not the shops.

They just seem so anti consumer and I’m done with Sony, so they lost my business now and in the future.
Same with TVs I just purchased an LG C2 65” great tv, due to the Sony having a slightly more expensive A80K 65” but only having 2 hdmi 2:1 one of which I need for earc. Also their implementation of things like VRR is not right and Dolby Vision, you have choose you can’t have both on at once. They just a dam awkward company, when others just get on an implement things correctly.

It’s just Sony I don’t hate them, they just seem to me to think they are privileged and the customer owes them.

Anyway that’s their console and tv business that has lost me, won’t matter to them of course
But I know in the tv market thousands have gone to LG and Samsung so that cheers me up.

@Dezzy70

Wow... Such rediculous things to get worked up over. Astonishing. A choice you are entitled to make.

The only person who loses is you as they make and will continue to make some of the very best game experiences you can have.
They also make some of the best tvs, and having had an LG C1 for the last year, Ill likely get another Sony next year:)

Still, ill pay for my blind loyalty by having to plug my controller into the machine to pair it. Once. Lol lol 😂

Jim Ryan It's enough We've all known you You’re really like a jealous old Rat, I liked PlayStation But I'm going hate it…

Just goes to show how strong Playstation brand is, despite this buffoon's efforts to run it into ground. I understand it's his job, but it's just series of questionable decesions in current climate. Playstation and gaming industry deserves a better leader.

Brussels 🤦‍♂️ the unelected dictatorship

He can't just be happy having the exclusive rights to Spiderman or Street Fighter 5, can he ???

Sell more copies of God Of War then...

This is pathetic.

@TheElectroFunky You might be paying £0.50-£1 a month, but chances are you are doing so via Bing Rewards, and Bing Rewards in turn are financed by advertising revenue. So you might not be paying for it, but someone else is paying for you.

@Arcnail

being an American based company, what would the UK even be able to say about it?

Well, this is not about the UK, this is about the EU now. They would hold a bit more influence than the UK alone.

But even then, it takes a lot for an unconditional opposition. Chances are there would be either some conditions, or local businesses would have to be spun off into independent entities.

An example of a condition is Disney's acquisition of Fox, they were not allowed to buy Fox in full. Fox News and sports branches had to be removed from the deal, because Disney having themselves dominant news and sports arms was seen as a problem. Disney owning the Simpsons, one of the most recognizable brands int he world? Not an issue.

@Tharsman Actually, I pay for the digital code/key each month via various key websites such as Kinguin, Gamvio and so forth.

Have done for months now. You just let your GamePass expire for an hour or so, then chuck in a key that’s about £1-£1.50 after tax.

Same as I always buy Turkish or Greek game codes, activate with a VPN and they work every single time.

@TheElectroFunky you do you on that one. I dont trust those marketplaces especially at those prices. These are marketplaces that allow third parties to acquire keys via fraud and resell them.

Not a judgement against your purchase, just that its very likely at the end of the day, Microsoft got paid for those keys, be it by someone buying them, or a credit card company insurance paying for them.

@Tharsman Oh absolutely, I don’t know anyone in my personal life that doesn’t use them. Like how the CDkeys website is owned by a Saudi person yet claims to be British. Not so much when I check their UK filings under Companies House.

But sadly, myself and others are going to pay the price that’s competitive and not the one directly advertised.

I judge myself daily for it, but then as I say, I don’t know anyone that doesn’t use this method in my immediate circle.

I mean hell, I even made a few grand myself selling codes bought in those means before I shut my eBay down due to refunds people made on PayPal.

I’ll happily pay the full price, but not when I can easily simply not do so. The Turkish and Greek keys for example are simply usually keys that are bought at their exchange rate, so by default I save given the currency I buy in at.

This man will not stop until he get what he want,i see the kind of guy 🤦‍♂️

OMG dude, just go away. Jim Ryan is like that mosquito that just keeps flying in your face.

@PlayAnywhere It's not nearly as strong as we think or this would not be happening. I always hear how great Sony is, unfortunately, I mostly hear this from Sony. If you say something often enough, people take it as gospel.