Jim Ryan has been in charge of Sony Interactive Entertainment since 2019 and thus also manages PlayStation. What else is there to know about him?
San Mateo – Perhaps the dream job for many passionate gamers: jetting from office to office around the world on behalf of the PlayStation. This is probably how the everyday life of Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan looks like. The 54-year-old has headed the Sony subsidiary since April 2019 and is therefore responsible for the gaming console business. But what else is known about Ryan? An overview.
| Jim Ryan |
| born 1968, exact date unknown (as of October 12) |
| about 1.73 meters |
| CEO of Sony Interactice Entertainment since April 2019 |
| married |
| @JimRyanYOU |
| $250 million |
Jim Ryan: His journey to the top of Sony and the PlayStation
The American Jim Ryan does not reveal too much private information. He was born in 1968 and has lived in America ever since. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has its headquarters in San Mateo, California, from where Ryan manages the business. He has been the top boss at SIE since 2019. However, his time at Sony began many years ago. In 1994 he joined Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe and became its President in 2011. According to the company, SIE is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation.
The future of PlayStation
After Ryan and his team successfully launched the PS5 in November 2020, gamers are now waiting for the successor model. However, it is not yet known when the PS6 will appear. It is questionable whether Call of Duty can still be played on the new console until then. With Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard, the days may be numbered. PlayStation boss Jim Ryan is of course committed to extending it because he doesn’t want to miss the popular game on his consoles.
Ryan’s efforts may already have borne fruit. Because: First, Call of Duty should continue to be played across platforms and devices, reports Xbox boss Phil Spencer in a blog post.
Employees are outraged – petition from the gaming community is ongoing
Since things are rather quiet around the PlayStation boss, his latest misstep is attracting all the more attention. As the American news portal Bloomberg.com reports, Ryan addressed his employees in an internal email about the US debate on abortion rights. He called for different opinions on this topic to be respected – sounds very commendable up to this point. However, he then dedicated the following paragraphs more than extensively to the birthday of his cats – inappropriate, as some employees found.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan (r) is responsible for the Play Station business. © Kyodo News/imago
There is even a petition against Jim Ryan on change.org, calling for him to be removed from his post as Sony boss. The initiators accuse him of having “no contact with the gaming community” and “lying all the time”. 7,500 signatures should be reached. (yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)
