Ryan’s career
Jim Ryan came to Sony in 1994, where he began working in the company’s European region and since then held various executive positions, including head of sales and head of marketing for the company globally.
He also served as vice president of SIE before being named CEO of the division in which he was responsible for the launch of PlayStation 5, as well as the Virtual Reality system, PS VR2.
“Jim Ryan has been an inspiring leader throughout his tenure with us, but never more so than in overseeing the launch of PlayStation 5 amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. “This extraordinary achievement by the entire SIE team has been constantly developed and PlayStation 5 is on its way to becoming SIE’s most successful console to date,” commented Kenichiro Yoshida, one of the company’s most important voices and who is now is in charge of the indie games division.
According to the latest quarterly figures from Sony, PlayStation 5 has sold more than 40 million units of its next-generation console, which represents significant data in the midst of a component crisis that hit the gaming industry.
Ryan, a controversial figure in the world of gaming
Ryan’s decisions were not always well received among the players. Recently, for example, he decided to increase the price of the PlayStation as a measure to overcome the crisis that the shortage of components had represented.
However, he was also one of the most persistent and critical figures of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, which, he said, could negatively impact competition in the market.