Long-time Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan has left PlayStation. CFO Hiroki Titoki took over his role at least temporarily. Ryan is leaving Sony after 30 years, as he announced last September. He has led the PlayStation division since 2019. Even before he left, he shared some interesting information.
In an interview for the official PlayStation podcast stated that the PlayStation 2 console has sold 160 million units. This makes it the best-selling gaming system of all time. But it is interesting that until now the most recent figures indicated the figure of 155 million sold PS2. The manufacturer has not published this data for a long time due to the age of the console. It’s interesting because we’re still waiting to see if the Switch can beat the PlayStation 2. According to the latest numbers of this year, Nintendo’s hybrid console has already sold almost 140 million devices.
“PlayStation 5 is well on its way to being our most successful console ever, in more ways than one.”
However, it is not only Nintendo that has a penchant for the title of the most successful console of all time. Sony would like to keep this title. According to Jim Ryan, he believes that the PlayStation 5 is on track to become the most successful gaming device in many ways. According to Ryan, Sony is at the top and the titles that players will find here are the best, the outgoing boss believes. The PS5 currently has over 50 million consoles, but it’s not certain that this is the scale Ryan was referring to. The PS2 had a very long life cycle, which greatly helped it to unprecedented sales. However, PS5 sales can potentially be boosted and the life cycle extended by the speculated more powerful Pro version.
It is worth adding that Jim Ryan left Sony at his own request, citing the increasingly difficult combination of private life in Europe and work in the United States. In the past, Jim Ryan was in connection with his announced departure, for example, in an interview for a magazine Variety asked for the best game from each PlayStation generation.
From Ridge Racer to God of War
In the case of the original PlayStation, he brought up the first Ridge Racer because he felt that as a launch title it set the standard for what followed in that generation. From the PS2, Ryan singled out Gran Theft Auto III because he felt it was a game-changing title that had a huge lasting impact on the gaming industry and the PlayStation. From the PS3, Jim Ryan poked the action-adventure Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune because, according to him, the technology at this time began to allow telling a story and emotions in a different way than before. He is proud that the game was created by Sony’s own studio.
According to him, the PS4 generation was defined by Marvel’s Spider-Man, who he says is truly amazing. And even though the PS5 generation is still going, Ryan names God of War Ragnarök as its successor, which he says is a wonderful game that has also done well with critics.
In an interview with Variety, Jim Ryan also stated that he was grateful that he didn’t have to work in a boring industry.
Who is Jim Ryan?
Jim Ryan was born in Great Britain and grew up in Kenton. After his studies, he joined the Ford Motor Company. That was in 1982. Later he also worked at Amstrad and Oracle Systems. He has worked at Sony since 1994, when he joined Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. This was before the first PlayStation was released. Back then, this division was called Sony Electronic Publishing. His job was basically to help build Sony’s presence in Europe on the gaming field. From 2011 to 2019, he headed the European branch of PlayStation.
