End of an era: Jim Ryan has stepped down as PlayStation CEO, he's no longer at Sony

Ryan has been leading the PlayStation gaming business since February 2019 and has worked at Sony for a total of 30 years (his career started a year before the first PlayStation console was released). Now the division is led by Hiroki Totoki - the current financial and operational director of Sony since April 1, additionally and temporarily took on the responsibilities of the head of PlayStation (while Sony is looking for a full replacement for Ryan).

Ryan left, now Totoki is in charge

The resignation of Ryan became known in the fall of 2023. He left Sony against the background of extensive business restructuring and massive layoffs (900 people were left without jobs), which affected many projects - personnel "optimizations" in internal PlayStation studios became part of massive layoffs, which began in the game development industry at the end of 2022 and intensified in early 2024. Earlier, the new temporary boss of PlayStation Hiroki Totoki, against the backdrop of a 25% decrease in the quarterly profit of Sony's gaming direction, noted certain problems with budget allocation for development in the context of discussions on profit-enhancing measures.

The End of Ryan's Era at PlayStation

By the way, this is already the second significant resignation in the gaming industry in a fairly short period of time - at the end of 2023, CEO Bobby Kotick left Activision Blizzard. Opinions about Ryan in the industry vary, the top manager left a rather controversial legacy: on the one hand, many note his contribution to maintaining Sony's leadership in the market, on the other hand, he is criticized no less for excessive focus on game services and rising prices on PlayStation 5. In any case, under Ryan's leadership, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR 2 were released, and the PlayStation Studios lineup included Bungie (Destiny 2), Insomniac Games (Marvel's Spider-Man), Bluepoint Games (Demon's Souls remake), Housemarque (Returnal), and Nixxes Software (PC ports). So it is definitely the end of an old era and the beginning of a new chapter in PlayStation history.

Before leaving, the former Sony top manager made several interesting announcements - he named the main games of each PlayStation generation in an interview with Variety (PlayStation - Ridge Racer, PlayStation 2 - GTA 3, PlayStation 3 - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, PlayStation 4 - Marvel's Spider-Man, PlayStation 5 - God of War Ragnarok), clarified the circulation of the cult PS2 - it exceeded 160 million copies (by the end of 2023, Nintendo had sold 139.36 million Switch consoles, so the competition for the title of the best-selling console continues). Ryan also stated that the PS5 is doing well and has every chance of eventually becoming the most successful console in Sony's history - as of December 31, 2023, PS5 sales reached 55 million, at the same time the company lowered its forecast for this year (from 25 to 21 million). Sony is now preparing to release the PS5 Pro - a mid-gen upgrade is expected in the fall of 2024.

It is not yet known in which direction Jim Ryan's career will go after Sony and what he plans to do next. At the same time, he has previously hinted that he is not planning to retire just yet. What do you think about Jim Ryan? Share in the comments!