Damn shit, an old rich white man said something controversial and wrong? I gotta jump to his defense!!
What the hell is wrong with some people lol
What the hell is wrong with some people lol
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IGN Middle East: No, Jim Ryan - Gaming In The Middle East Existed Long Before PlayStation
- Thread starter Canas Renvall
- Start date
- News Sony
It's the power of branding. They're not defending Jim Ryan, they're defending the honor of Playstation and Sony.
He doesn't really leave any lines to read between in his comment - he literally says they had never played games before.
I think the most "charitable" read you could make, is that perhaps he meant some other market and misspoke. Not that I think this is something worth getting upset about to begin with. At worst it's ignorance, not malice.
PC's and NES were what most people played with growing up. Infact, NES was still being played until the 2000s.
Same goes to Sega Mega Drive. Stores would sell discs with 300 or so roms and an emulator.
Perhaps he means business wise? Still, he is wrong.
Same goes to Sega Mega Drive. Stores would sell discs with 300 or so roms and an emulator.
Perhaps he means business wise? Still, he is wrong.
I think we all know what he meant but if your the CEO of the company then you should come prepared.
About what he meant, people in the Middle East have played since the 80s but from the business point of view it was mostly imported consoles with pirated games especially for the ps1 and 2 so there was not a market for the official console release until the ps3.
About what he meant, people in the Middle East have played since the 80s but from the business point of view it was mostly imported consoles with pirated games especially for the ps1 and 2 so there was not a market for the official console release until the ps3.
What is there to misconstrue? His literal quote is "people had not played games before PlayStation in the Middle East."
He didn't say we expanded the market like Bernie Stolar could have with X-Men Vs Street Fighter on the Saturn in North America.
It's pretty cut and dry.
He didn't say we expanded the market like Bernie Stolar could have with X-Men Vs Street Fighter on the Saturn in North America.
It's pretty cut and dry.
The new and game boy and N64 was popular here in Saudi Arabia.
Even pepsie was promoting game boy and game boy colors every now and then.
I said the same thing in the other thread and people thought i am just taking thing literally.
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even if youd take his comment literal, what is there to be offended about?
Weird response considering there's an IGN article and two tweets right there in the OP.
It paints the Middle East as a backwards region in a regard they never were. It's not so difficult to understand why that kind of comment would rustle feathers.
It's just more ignorance about the Middle East from a white man that insinuates that people were backward and behind the times. And he's in a position to be heard and respected. Someone who doesn't know better will carry on those idiotic remarks. Its only thanks to people like us calling him out that you'll know better.
I feel like a very, very generous reading of Jim's words would be that he meant the Middle-East starting getting fully legal, day-and-date console game releases with PlayStation (thereby eliminating PC gaming and Famiclones from the conversation). I can't speak for Middle-Easterners, of course, but I do think that was the case in India.
Of course, though, there were literally a million better ways to phrase that than "No one played games here before we showed up" lol
> Middle Eastern people saying this statement made by Jim is wrong
> Your first reaction is "YIKES"
We have people here defending this obviously wrong statement and you are here complaining about "people insulting other users for expressing their opinions"? lmao
I don't know who prepares Jim Ryan for these interviews and talks but either they're total incompetents, or Jim Ryan is a fool who doesn't listen to his team for talking points.
A person in his position being that ignorant about a subject like this is quite weird, but at the very least don't make broad statements like that painting yourself in a corner.
A person in his position being that ignorant about a subject like this is quite weird, but at the very least don't make broad statements like that painting yourself in a corner.
Perhaps.
Growing up we had PS1s and 2s but they were mostly pirated, same with other hardware actually.
Still, the biggest gaming device over there to this day is PC (with Steam) and mobile. Maybe he is talking about the gulf countries though as I hear console gaming there is popular.
Jimbo seems like a guy who goes off-script and then just slips-up, maybe he shouldn't.
And he doesn't seem to be too good with words, he isn't a fluent talker.
I'd be far worse than him, but I'm no CEO.
Or maybe he's ignorant about gaming in the middle east and just made up some shit.
And he doesn't seem to be too good with words, he isn't a fluent talker.
I'd be far worse than him, but I'm no CEO.
Or maybe he's ignorant about gaming in the middle east and just made up some shit.
No, NeoGeo and Mega Drive were sold via official distributors. They also come with Arabic manuals but sadly no Arabic localization for games.
Also, in the 80s, we had MSX with Arabic games being sold via Sakhr (A Kuwaiti Company). So saying Middle East didn't play games before PS1 is wrong.
Heck, we even had gaming magazines too before PS1! You can't have these if gaming is not already popular in the region and "gaming culture" is already there.
What are you talking about?
I'm just saying that in this forum you should be able to express an opinion without being attacked. It is not difficult to understand imo
Yeah, the guy gets paid very well to do his job, giving interviews is part of that job, so he should choose his words better.
No. He explicitly says "(they) never played videogames before and that "culture" didn't exist.
Did people even read the interview before even start defending the rich guy?
That's ignorance, and still it comes from racism and xenophobia (given how he included Russia and Spain)
An example:
A Console You’ve Never Heard of Kickstarted Gaming in the Middle East
Sakhr was the first (and last, so far) Middle Eastern video game console
superjumpmagazine.com
But no, he just assumes other countries (aka non-white / poor / non-English speaking) are backwards and never had gaming culture until the white man's company saved from being uncultured.
Defending an obvious statement regarding a country from which you have people living there telling you it's wrong is not "expressing your opinions" it does not work like that lol
Jim Ryan: "People didn't play games in the ME before PlayStation"
Actual ME people: "No we did with plenty of consoles"
ERA user: "ACTUALLY Jim Ryan tried to say this instead of that"
How can you tell me the "ERA user" pool is "expressing an opinion" when it's factually wrong? Jim speaks english, if he wanted to say "we grew the gaming industry in the ME with PlayStation" he could've said simple and clear. He was wrong but some people here can't comprehend this.
Thanks for bringing this up.
So even business wise he is wrong...
You have a very broad definition of attacked, no? This is a pretty black and white case, he said something extremely dumb. Defending him is being objectively wrong. What are people supposed to do, not call out the weirdness in defending these comments?
It's not a case of opinion vs opinion.
He 100% meant there was no gaming or any culture of it there. He said so in plain English, and he is clearly singling out the Middle East from other regions and countries in that regard. Defending him when his words are pretty clear is just next level embarrassing.
Far as I can see, Jim gets paid for what he says (whether it is right or wrong), people here doing volunteer work for the "Playstation Nation"
User banned (2 weeks): Dismissive commentary over a sensitive topic, multiple prior bans for console wars
Jesus Christ, Era...
Were these grey imports though? US or Japanese consoles? From what I can see the N64 was not officially released in the Middle East.
Technically those would have been counted in US/Japan industry sales, as they would have been purchased there and sold on.
Almost certainly what he meant, legit sales instead of grey imports only.
But what he actually said is very stupid.
These users expressed their opinion about what they think he was trying to say in this context.
While I still think the way Ryan expressed himself is unfortunate, I don't think these users deserve this treatment.
Might want to take up your issues towards IGN and the middle eastern voices instead.
I constantly ask myself why they're trying to put Jim Ryan in that public face of the company thing similar to Reggie, Shawn Layden, etc. He doesn't come off as personable, doesn't have the charisma and constantly says things at odds with the consumer base.
