Harsh reminder:
Shuhei Yoshida, the previous Head of Playstation, cared a lot about the customer. He was the one who made sure the PS4 had physical shareable discs that you could lend to friends or buy/sell used.
Then one day, the then President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan kicked Shuhei Yoshida out of the position of Head of PlayStation in 2019 because Yoshida disagreed with his direction for the company.
In hindsight, Jim Ryan’s “direction” became Playstation’s obsession with live service. Yoshida presumably told Ryan that it was a bad idea, and turns out, it was.
With Shuhei Yoshida gone, Hermen Hulst took his place.
After that, Playstation changed - the gutting of Sony Japan Studios in 2021, censorship of Japanese games ramped up, the live service, and the increase in consumer-hostile decisions such as PSN+ price hikes, removing games and movies from your library…
And now the decision to abandon physical discs by 2028.
When you look back at what made Playstation start to rot, it always started when Sony Interactive Entertainment moved its operations to California…and having leadership who want to do everything in their power to get rid of what made Playstation special.
You will never get another Shadow of the Colossus, another Bloodborne or a Gravity Rush - and you have people like Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst to thank for it.