Jim Ryan, the current CEO of PlayStation will be stepping down, Sony has announced. After nearly thirty years with the company, Ryan will be retiring and passing the torch. The current Sony Group Corporation President Hiroki Totoki will take over as the SIE CEO in the interim. Totoki will also continue his roles at Sony Group as the President, COO, and CFO.
Ryan has served close to three decades with Sony but he hasn’t always been CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. He only recently became CEO in 2019 after taking up the mantle from then CEO John Kondera. Kondera then stepped into Ryan’s role at the time of Deputy President for SIE. While Ryan was CEO these past few years he’s most notable for overseeing the launch of the PS5 console. Initially the PS5 was exceedingly hard to get due to supply chain constraints.
But Ryan’s leadership helped the PS5 well on its way to becoming the most successful PlayStation console so far. In more recent months he’s also become well-known for his role in the battle between Sony and Microsoft over the latter company’s yet to be finalized acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Jim Ryan will be stepping down as PlayStation CEO in March
Ryan may be stepping down and retiring from SIE, but that won’t be happening just yet. Sony states Ryan will effectively retire in March of 2024. Hiroki Totoki will then take over the role on April 1 of 2024.
Totoki will also help transition Ryan out of the role while assisting in finding a new permanent CEO by taking over the role of chairman of SIE in October of this year. In short, there’s a lot of restructuring happening at the top end. Ryan says that he’s “relished the opportunity to have a job I love in a very special company, working with great people and incredible partners.” But he says it’s become more difficult to deal with living in Europe while working in North America.
It’s also made clear that Ryan’s leadership presence within SIE was instrumental to PlayStation’s current success. With Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida noting that he’s immensely for Ryan and all of his achievements.