This is the breaking news of the night of Wednesday September 27 to Thursday September 28, namely the sudden and unexpected announcement of the resignation of Jim Ryan as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. Although he had held this role for four years, he had been a member of the Sony family for more than 30 years, having joined the Japanese company in 1994. If the announcement may seem brutal, that’s fine. because Jason Schreier decided to leak the information on his Twitter account (sorry, we refuse to call the platform X). A rumor made official an hour later by Sony Interactive Entertainment firstly through the way of a press release. Jim Ryan calls into question the balance between his family life and his work, which requires him to travel regularly between the United States and Great Britain:
After 30 years, I made the decision to retire from SIE in March 2024. I relished the opportunity to have a job I love in a very special company, working with great people and partners incredible. But I’m having more and more difficulty reconciling living in Europe and working in North America. I will leave having had the privilege of working on products that have touched millions of lives around the world; PlayStation will always be a part of my life and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of SIE. I want to thank Yoshida-san for putting so much trust in me and being an incredibly sensitive and supportive leader.
It is therefore at the end of March 2024 that Jim Ryan will leave office, just after the end of the fiscal year. Hiroki Totoki will succeed him, but temporarily until an official replacement is designated. Moreover, so that the handover goes smoothly, Hiroki Totoki will begin his work in October, the time to find a real replacement. It is this extraordinary and clearly precipitated situation that leads us to believe that Jim Ryan’s “resignation” suggests a crisis situation within Sony. When large groups decide to change CEO, the replacement is generally known several months in advance and the announcement is made in a calm and controlled manner, and not catastrophically as is the case here. This is all the more suspicious as this announcement comes a little more than 24 hours after the announcement of the hacking of internal documents by a group of hackers who threatened to reveal important elements.
Beyond a possible controversy that could surround Jim Ryan, it is also fashionable to remember that the latter was not the CEO most appreciated by the PlayStation community. Often singled out for disreputable decisions such as the increase in prices of the PS5, games, but also services, he is also designated as being a very poor communicator, conveying a less than cheerful image of the PlayStation brand, like these numerous clumsy speeches surrounding the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft. He is also accused of having lied about the transition of the PS4 and PS5 generation and of being the exact opposite of Phil Spencer at Xbox, who tries to be as close as possible to the players, even the leak of some of his emails confirmed the opposite to us. Many are wondering whether his departure will allow PlayStation to change its philosophy and stop copying Apple’s strategy in terms of image and communication.
In any case, at Sony, we are pleased to have had a Jim Ryan at the head of PlayStation, since we must still remember that the Japanese company has never made as much money as since his presidency . The image is certainly tarnished and we have clearly moved from the “For the Player” era to “For the Payers”, but the financial results are looking good. Here are the words that Hiroki Totoki may have had towards Jim Ryan.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Jim Ryan for his outstanding achievements and contributions during his 30-year career at Sony, including the great success of the PlayStation 5 launch. The PlayStation business managed by SIE is an essential part of the activity of the Sony group. the entire portfolio of activities. I will work closely with Jim and the management team to ensure our continued success and future growth. I also look forward to creating the exciting future of PlayStation and the gaming industry with all of SIE and its business partners.
It remains to be seen how things will evolve in the coming months, and whether the hack will have a real impact on this sudden and unexpected resignation.