PlayStation CEO Says Creating And Growing First Party Games "Isn't As Simple As Throwing Money" Around

PlayStation's CEO, Jim Ryan, has thrown a punch in Microsoft's direction, stating that nurturing first-party games and development isn't as simple as just "throwing money around".

In an interview with Axios' Stephen Totilo (via VGC) Ryan discussed how PlayStation has improved its initial first-party output when compared with the PS4 generation.

Jim Ryan also highlighted how that was fostered by its studios' culture, rather than just money, seemingly taking a shot at Microsoft's approach of acquiring more than a dozen studios in the last few years.

"In terms of areas we have improved, I’d call out the delivery schedule for PlayStation Studios games. Nurturing creative talent is not as simple as throwing money at it. You also must give them the freedom to be creative, to take risks and come up with new ideas."

He then added:

"Just look at Ghost of Tsushima from Sucker Punch. This was not the game we thought they were going to make, but we are not overly rigid or corporate with our talent. We want them to use our hardware as their creative palette."

"Yes, the output during the PS4 cycle was excellent, but the great majority of those games came in the second half of the cycle. We made a conscious effort to improve on that this time around, and what you’ve seen thus far shows that we have certainly made progress."

This comes just a week after Microsoft's Phil Spencer criticised Sony's PC strategy of releasing games there years after they debut on console.

However, it doesn't look like that criticism phased Ryan much, with him sticking to the console priority in this interview. Its a matter of waiting to see whether Sony's or Microsoft's strategy ends up paying off or if both of them enjoy a successful generation.