Unexpected ending Jim Ryan as head of Sony’s video game division. After almost 30 years of working for the Japanese corporation, Ryan made the decision in early 2024. resign. The company will be looking for his successor.
Ryan will remain CEO and President. Sony Interactive Entertainment until the end of March 2024. From 01/04/2024 he will be appointed interim CEO of SIE. Hiroki Totoki. He is the President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Sony Group Corporation.
Totoki will work closely with Sony Group Corporation Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. to help define the next chapter of PlayStation’s futureincluding SIE’s new CEO.
Sony thanked Ryan for his work. “Jim Ryan has been an inspiring leader throughout his tenure with our company.” said Kenichiro Yoshida, CEO of Sony. In particular, Yoshida recalled the launch of the PS5 in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, which the entire SIE team coped with. “PlayStation 5 is on track to become SIE’s most successful console to date,” Yoshida added.
“I am extremely grateful to Jim for all of his accomplishments. “I respect his decision to end his long career at Sony, and given the importance of the gaming division, I have an important decision to make regarding his successor.”
“We have intensively discussed and created a new management structure. Our goal is to further develop and grow the Sony Group, making the Game & Network Services division even more successful.” Yoshida added.
Ryan thanked PlayStation players for their support (which can be discussed below) and cited the difficulties of balancing his life in the UK with his job in the US, where Sony’s video games division is based, as the reason for his resignation.
“I leave with the honor of leading a company that impacts the lives of millions of people with its products. “I’m extremely proud of what we’ve achieved, from award-winning games to the incredibly exciting technical achievements of PlayStation 5, and I’m very optimistic about the future of Sony Interactive Entertainment.” Jim Ryan added.
Jim Ryan has shown himself lately big opponent of Microsoft’s merger with Activision Blizzard, criticized the historic nearly $69 billion acquisition and wanted to block it; he was afraid of losing the irreplaceable Call of Duty series. But as we know, he did not succeed and in the end Sony signed an agreement with Microsoft that CoD would remain on the PlayStation for at least 10 years.
Ryan had previously questioned backwards compatibility and saw no reason why players would want to play older games. Players also attribute this to Sony’s emphasis on live-service games and lack of exclusives.
Ryan has led PlayStation since 2019.Thus, among other things, he was responsible for the launch of the PlayStation 5 console. Under his leadership, Sony achieved great success, the company, among other things, started publish computer games and went on to develop a number of exclusive games, including Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök. He took over the presidency from the very popular Shawn Layden, who had a successful PS4 with Sony.
Ryan has been with the PlayStation division for nearly 20 years, previously serving as head of SIE Europe and global head of marketing.
It’s doubtful that anything will change as Microsoft goes the Xbox Game Pass and cloud route while Sony focuses more on live service games and single-player story-based games.
Source :Indian TV
