As the above Tweet shares, Jim Ryan is retiring from Sony after a tenure of almost thirty years with the company. Hiroki Totoki, president/COO/CFO of Sony will serve as interim CEO of the games division as he assists the company in finding a permanent successor.
Recently, the man has made headlines for justifying the worldwide price changes to PSN, repeatedly refusing to engage with Sony enthusiasts, wanting Sony's portfolio to embrace games as a service as the future, walking back comments that he hates old games and backward compatibility, and sending an email to all employees in Sony's game division that everyone should "respect differences of opinion" on abortion rights following the Dobbs case overturning Roe v. Wade in the United States and then immediately transitioning into his two cats' birthdays, their habits, and his desire to get a dog in the same email.
However, as Stephen Totilo put it best, recency bias aside, Ryan presided over the righting of the ship with the launch of the PS4, a huge PS5 launch during a global pandemic, the expansion of AAA titles onto digital PC marketplaces, major studio purchases (Bungie, Haven, Housemarque, Bluepoint, Et al.), and the launch of a VR division that has found a niche as one of the most recommended console VR headsets.
With all of that in mind, how do you weigh the pros and cons of Jim Ryan's tenure? He was far from being a popular figure, but there's no denying that he was incredibly competent and shrewd with the many hats he has donned while at the PlayStation division. And more than anything else, he's the origin of one of the most memorable moments in Giant Bomb history:
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