In a surprising move yesterday evening, Sony Corporation announced a shuffling of executives. Specifically, Jim Ryan, current Sony Interactive Entertainment Deputy President has been named the President and CEO of SIE. While John Kodera, current President and CEO of SIE will take the role of Deputy President.
The President and CEO of Sony Corporation, Kenichiro Yoshida, made the following statement regarding the moves:
Our Game & Network Services business has grown into the Sony Group’s largest business in terms of both sales and operating income. Furthermore, our business in this domain holds significant importance as our growth driver going forward. At the same time, this industry is relentlessly fast-moving, and to remain the market leader, we must constantly evolve ourselves with a sense of urgency. Based on extensive discussions with John, I have decided to change the management structure of SIE to ensure sustainable evolution of the PlayStation® platform and further growth of the network area. Jim Ryan has been long committed to the growth of the PlayStation® business for the last 25 years. I believe that this new structure, where Jim will manage SIE’s overall organization and operations, and which will allow John to focus on the key mission to further develop PlayStationTMNetwork (PSNSM) that has now grown into an immensely large platform with over 90 million Monthly Active Users worldwide — will enable SIE to accelerate its innovation and evolution even further. Moving forward, I also have expectations for John to lead the Sony Group’s DX (Digital Transformation) strategy drawing on his wealth of experience with PSNSM, in addition to his mission at SIE.
You can find the formal announcement here : Sony shuffles its executives in SIE
Our Take
This seems to be a rather interesting move, particularly as Jim Ryan is known for making some pretty outlandish statements over the years. That said, Sony has a tremendous presence in Europe and it’s great to hear that they are looking to the future for PSN and their network services.
