Summary
PlayStationCEO Jim Ryan is working his final day as the head of Sony’s gaming giant, as the executive is set to retire from the company on March 29. Ryan was promoted to the position in 2019 and ledPlayStationthrough some of its most successful years.
The move wasfirst announced in Septemberwhen Ryan explained that working in the United States while living in Europe was catching up to him. The Englishman also expressed gratitude to Shuhei Yoshida, a long-time Sony executive whom Ryan praised for his “incredibly sensitive and supportive” leadership.
Ryan went on to explain in the September announcement that PlayStation is a “very special company” and that he has greatly valued his time working for the Sony-owned brand.
PlayStation will always be part of my life, and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of SIE - Jim Ryan
Ryan is being replaced by Sony president Hiroki Titoki, who is set to serve as an interim CEO for PlayStation until a permanent replacement is found. Sony has yet to confirm when fans can expect an announcement regarding PlayStation’s next leader.
In December,PlayStation threw a farewell partyfor Ryan, where the CEO was gifted with a one-of-a-kind PlayStation 5 modeled after the PS1. The company is understandably sad to see Ryan move on, as he worked at Sony for over three decades and led PlayStation during the opening years of its highly successful PS5 era.
In fact, thePlayStation 5 is on track to be Sony’s most successful consoleever, selling 38 million units by the end of March 2023, which significantly outperforms the PS4 in the same span of time following its launch. In Ryan’s final interview on the Official PlayStation Podcast, the CEO said the PlayStation 5 is “well on track to be our most successful console ever, across multiple vectors.”
In the podcast, Ryan further explained that thePS5’s strong lineup of first-party titlesis the best ever seen in PlayStation’s history. The company’s smart investments across different developers have positioned PlayStation in an incredibly strong position, Ryan believes, an advantage that will only snowball going into the future. World-class developers like Santa Monica Studios,Naughty Dog,Insomniac Games, and others have regularly released game-of-the-year contenders for Sony’s console.
What’s Next for PlayStation?
PlayStation likely intends to continue innovating in the future, with recentrumors claiming that a new PlayStation handheld deviceis in the works. The company has apparently partnered with AMD to produce the device, which is still in the very early stages of production. However, this news is unconfirmed at this time.
Sony PlayStation 5
The Sony PlayStation 5 console is one of the most popular gaming machines currently with a fast SSD, a custom AMD APU, and 16GB of GDDR6 console memory, making it one of the best options on the market. It also happens to have a surprising number of console exclusives and currently trades at a discount at multiple retailers nationwide.
