Jim Ryan is one of a few Sony suits you'll recognise from previous press conferences. He's been with the company since 1994, and was made president of SIE Europe in 2011. He was also made head of global sales and marketing in 2016, and helped launch the PS4 Pro and PlayStation VR.
His hard work seems to have paid off, as he's now been appointed a deputy president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, and will be working alongside fellow DP Kazuo Miura and current CEO John Kodera.
In a statement, Kodera was very complimentary of Ryan.
“I’m very happy and pleased to have Jim as deputy president. Jim has more than two decades of experience at PlayStation and has a great record of success, including the successful launches of PlayStation 4 Pro and PlayStation VR that he led as Head of Global Sales and Marketing. With his deep knowledge around the game business and industry as well as his understanding of our own culture and strengths, I am confident that he will take our business to an even higher level.”
Ryan himself added, "It's a huge honor to be named a deputy president of SIE. I'm looking forward to leveraging the experience that I have at PlayStation, both in Europe and also in leading Global Sales and Marketing, to support John Kodera as SIE strives to further expand the PlayStation business globally."
While he's made some slip ups in the past - perhaps most notably his infamous comments regarding backwards compatibility - he clearly knows his stuff, and we're pleased to see him join the top brass.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 11
Good for him! Has been interesting to watch all this leadership shakeup over the past few months
OH Good! In fact he can see Kodera . Not many people can do that lol .
Hopefully this promotion keeps Jim in an office and off the stage at events. I like the guy (he's like Sony's slightly bothered uncle) but I think he's one of the company's weakest presenters.
They are obviously aligning their top talent to a particular aim. What that is though is still for us to find out. Clearly they see their networking side to be a crucial revenue earner with Kodera now in charge. Interesting times for Sony!
When you consider that ol’ Jim has been in charge of Sony Europe (where PS4 is most popular) and head of marketing (when PS4 has had record years) it makes sense that he’d get promoted.
He’s a veteran at the company and knows the business back-to-front.
Maybe he said something silly that forum posters didn’t like, but he’s clearly ridiculously good at his job.
Seems to me they are getting well ahead of the curve for when gaming inevitably becomes 100% cloud and subscription based.
I'm not really in favour of having the old guard replaced by the old guard, but there isn't anything massively wrong with Sony/PlayStation so I guess it's fine.
As for Jim Ryan...
I like him. Sure he say's some things that get taken out of context- like his comments about older games at a GT event, but I like his vision of games.
Shadow of the Colossus is an example.
Sure they could re-release the PS2/3 version or they could enhance it, like they're doing with the PS4 remaster turned remake.
Good luck to him.
@YummyHappyPills Just keep him off the stage and away from interviews and they'll be fine. It's not like he didn't have an important position at Sony before, and they seem to be doing fine in Europe.
@YummyHappyPills everyone makes mistakes even poor old Jim Ryan. But can't you see his achievements have majorly outweighed his cons? 20 years marketing the playstation brand. This is the guy who went through the turbulent start of PS3 and battled on and is part of Sony that has helped PS4 dominate this console generation, that is part of a console generation where critics said it'll die and instead it's grown massively to near 75million consoles and is not stopping! Also providing some of the best games in any console generation. Haven't we all said a few dumb things? But have you or I fallen down and got back up stronger than before? This guy and Sony have got up and fought on, probably doing more than what you or I do in our average day lives. I say give praise where praise is due!
@YummyHappyPills I think you should take some happy pills mate you bum me out.
One of the good guys in the industry (depsite the occasional nonsense slipups) Good Luck to him, and hope all of the top tier continue to steer the PlayStation brand in a positive exciting way
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