Hiroki Totoki is now PlayStation’s official interim CEO starting on April 1st. Last year, it was announced that former CEO Jim Ryan would be stepping down.
Totoki will effectively be taking over Ryan’s duties until a permanent replacement is found for the CEO position. His tenure with Sony began in 2013 when he became Representative Director and CFO of Sony Network Communications Inc. Totoki will continue to maintain his current position at Sony while overseeing the PlayStation division.
“Mr Totoki will work closely with Sony Group Corporation Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and the management team of SIE to help define the next chapter of PlayStation’s future, including the succession of the SIE CEO role,” Sony told VGC in a statement.
In February, Sony Group announced its 2023 fiscal year financials. During this, Totoki revealed that PlayStation 5 was entering the “latter half” of the console cycle. He seeks to “go aggressive on improving our margin performance.” He continued to state, “We aim to optimize sales with a greater emphasis on balance with profits, so we anticipate a gradual decline in unit sales from next fiscal year onwards.”
Totoki has also expressed the importance of releasing first-party titles on PC as part of a multiplatform initiative.
“In the past, we wanted to popularise consoles, and a first-party title’s main purpose was to make the console popular,” Totoki said during the February report. “This is true, but there’s a synergy to it, so if you have strong first-party content – not only on our console but also other platforms, like computers – a first-party [game] can be grown with multi-platform, and that can help operating profit to improve, so that’s another one we want to proactively work on.”
Meanwhile, Ryan is leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment behind after 30 years. During the announcement of his retirement, he expressed the hurdles in working within the U.S. while calling the U.K. his home. “I feel humbled at having the opportunity to lead a company delivering products that touch millions of lives,” Ryan said in a press release.
