The CEO and President of PlayStation Jim Ryan will retire at the end of this year, the company has announced. He will be succeeded by the President, COO and CFO of Sony Group Corporation Hiroki Totoki. Totoki will assume the role of President of SIE from next month.
Ryan is a 30-year veteran of PlayStation. He joined the company in 1994, before the release of the first PlayStation, and has since held key roles in the launches of PS2, PS3, PS4, and PS5, as well as the portable consoles PSP and PS Vita.
In 2011 he was appointed president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, before taking on a global role as head of sales and marketing for the entire company in 2016. After a period of success as vice president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, in 2019 he was named managing director and president of the PlayStation division.
"After 30 years, I've decided to step down from SIE in March 2024", said Ryan in a statement. "I appreciated the opportunity to have a job I love at a very special company, working with fantastic people and incredible partners. But I've found it increasingly difficult to balance life in Europe and work in North America. I'm leaving having had the privilege of working on products that have touched millions of lives around the world; PlayStation will always be part of my life and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of SIE. I want to thank Yoshida-san for placing so much trust in me and for being an incredibly sensitive and supportive leader."
The President and CEO of Sony Group Corporation, Kenichiro Yoshida, added: "Jim Ryan was an inspiring leader throughout the entire period spent with us, but never as in this case did he oversee the launch of PlayStation 5 during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The extraordinary results achieved by the entire SIE team have been continuously improved, and PlayStation 5 is on the right track to become SIE’s most successful console. I am deeply grateful to Jim for all the results achieved. Respecting Jim’s decision to end his long career at Sony, I now face an important decision regarding his succession, given the importance of the Game & Network Services sector. We have discussed this intensively and have defined the new management structure. Our goal is to achieve further evolution and growth of the Sony Group through even greater success in the Game & Network Services sector."
