Jim Ryan will be missed. He was good for Nintendo.
He doubled down on neglecting Japan, so robust third party support for Nintendo is now almost certainly safe for a long time to come. He oversaw the investment in an increased number of GaaS products which first tie a lot of development resources to games that make Sony more like Microsoft (and in turn make Nintendo even more likeable by default) and then require additional post-launch support, so development resources aren't freed up right away. He continued to invest in VR technology, money that could have been better used elsewhere. He greenlit PS Portal which Sony can only hope will be forgotten quickly, because as long as it's being talked about (won't be for long though), it's just advertisement for the way superior Switch technology.
Looking at the Microsoft side of Sony's competition, whoever has the job at Sony doesn't need to be good when Microsoft has Phil Spencer. In other words, just about anyone could have kept Sony clearly ahead of Microsoft because no major decisions were necessary. So Jim Ryan was essentially just the guy who was there during his tenure, except for his decision to port Sony's first party games to the PC, that's not a favorable development for Sony's console business in the long run.
The ideal scenario would be that Phil Harrison gets a shot, but that's completely unrealistic. What I expect is that the new guy will be similar to Ryan, because the current position of PS in the market does not necessitate a person who makes big changes. Japan is deemed to be almost irrelevant by Sony while Microsoft is inept.
Legend11 correctly predicted that GTA IV will outsell Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I was wrong.
