Who is the new CEO of PlayStation after the departure of Jim Ryan?

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Last Friday (29) was also Jim Ryan’s farewell as CEO of PlayStation. The executive ends a three-decade career at Sony and has been in charge of the games division since 2019; He is now retiring and intends to spend time with his family. Meanwhile, the Japanese company remains with an interim director, until it finds someone who will take on the permanent role.

This transitional role was in the hands of Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s current chief financial officer (CFO) and operations manager (COO). He will take direct control of the PlayStation division for at least a year and will continue to work closely with Sony’s own CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida. In the company’s words, the duo will also help define the future of the company’s gaming brand. @

The announcement that he would take over the role previously held by Ryan was made in September last year, when the then CEO also revealed that he would retire. Despite the trio of roles, Totoki appears to be paying special attention to the PlayStation division, spending the last few months visiting studios around the world and strengthening ties with partner developers.

At the same time, he also takes over the company at a complex time not only for the brand, but also for the games market. Totoki becomes CEO while Sony is still dealing with the consequences of studio closures and the layoff of 900 people, announced in February this year.

It is also a time of contrasts, with rumors pointing to the imminent arrival of the PS5 Pro, a more powerful version of the brand’s console, and problems in sales of the PSVR2, which would not have the performance expected by the company. At the same time, his arrival also accompanies a certain enthusiasm from fans who, for some time, were unhappy with Ryan’s management and, mainly, his focus on service games.

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Who is Hiroki Totoki, the new CEO of PlayStation?

Hiroki Totoki built practically his entire career at the Japanese company. He was hired by Sony in April 1987 and became an executive in February 2002; At the time, he was one of those responsible for launching Sony Bank — yes, a bank. The financial institution was one of the first to operate entirely online in Japan and, to this day, is the leader in the country’s fintech market.

He remained in the position for years, climbing the company’s financial services structure, until moving to the technology sector, first as CFO of So-Net, the company’s communication services provision arm. He remained in this position until 2018, while accumulating other functions within the corporation.

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One of them was the reformulation of Sony’s cell phone arm, in 2014 and still in the early years of the smartphone war. Even though the business is not doing very well today, the work was considered successful and he continued to climb Sony’s internal structure, becoming executive vice president and CFO in 2018.

As this brief CV points out, much of Totoki’s experience existed in the financial sector, precisely one of the main points for any games company today. Finding the balance between the increasingly high costs of game development and technology, in the face of a market that has been cited by manufacturers as close to saturation, must be your main dilemma at the moment.

While leading the PlayStation division for the next year, Totoki will also maintain his positions as Sony’s chief financial and operations officer. Outside the company, he is also one of the directors of Recruit Holdings, a human resources company with international operations and owner of the website Glassdoor, which operates independently.