Exiting PS CEO Jim Ryan Grateful He Didn’t Work “In A Boring Industry”

gameranx.com:

Jim Ryan has shared what may be his final interview as CEO of PlayStation.

Jim has been CEO of PlayStation since 2019, overseeing the transition from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5. He was also made head of PlayStation during the difficult pandemic years, which for Sony, meant supply issues for their chips and PlayStation 5 consoles themselves.

Jim’s tenure with PlayStation has been considerably longer, of course. He started out in PlayStation Europe in 1994, all the way back from when Sony launched its gaming division. He oversaw the console’s wide adoption and mainstream success in Europe, taking on multiple roles through the years.

Jim’s tenure as PlayStation CEO was also defined by something that happened a little earlier than when he started. In 2016, Sony undertook a reorganization of their network and Playstation services, bringing them together and renaming Sony Computer Entertainment to Sony Interactive Entertainment.

That reorganization was overseen by Jim’s predecessor, Shawn Layden, and was only one of many such moves to restructure the business. When Shawn stepped down from being PlayStation CEO, and left Sony itself, it was speculated that he went through a power struggle with Jim. Shawn later stated that he chose to retire simply because he was tired of the job.

Jim shared similar sentiments in his pending retirement this March. In Jim’s retirement letter, he told the public that he had grown tired of having to travel between work in the US and his home in the UK.

Now, in his interview with Variety, Jim was surprisingly upbeat on what he admits was a difficult tenure. He says:

“I’m just so grateful that I didn’t work in a boring industry. It was my job to exude a sense of calm and serenity.

Actually, I was there at my dining-room table, head in my hands, wondering how we were going to do this.”

Jim also shed light on some of the specific problems he went through his tenure:

“We assemble the great majority of the PlayStations in China, and nobody could