Sony has announced that Jim Ryan, the head of PlayStation and CEO of the company, is stepping down at the end of March 2024 according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.
Sony Group Corporation president and COO Hiroki Totoki will become the interim CEO of Sony starting April 1st 2024. He will become the chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) next month ahead of Ryan’s departure after four years in that particular position.
Ryan confirms in a statement he’s made the decision to retire from SIE after thirty years. During his time, Ryan most notably oversaw the launch of the PlayStation 5 which is currently seeing robust sales.
Totoki will work closely with Sony Group Corporation Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and the management team of SIE to “help define the next chapter of PlayStation’s future” including the new SIE CEO.
Ryan’s exit comes as questions are circling over PlayStation’s strategy moving forward. In recent years the company has been pushing towards more live-service multiplayer games with ten reportedly in development.
That’s a stark contrast to the narrative-rich single-player titles like “God of War,” “The Last of Us” and “Uncharted” which are the core of the company’s first-party lineup.
Sony has reportedly sold 40 million PlayStation 5s since first launching the console in 2020, including 3.3 million in the second quarter of this year – up from 2.4 million in the same period last year.
Source: The Verge
