Some news out of Sony today: Sony Interactive Entertainment deputy president Jim Ryan is to drop the "deputy" and become president and CEO of SIE as of April 1st, effectively swapping roles with current president and CEO John Kodera.

It's a significant shift since Kodera only replaced ex-Sony frontman Kazuo 'Kaz' Hirai last April, shortly after Hirai stepped down following a six-year run.

The company took the opportunity to reorganize its global operations last April, establishing a new structure which reportedly set up all sales and marketing divisions within Sony Interactive Entertainment America (SIEA), Europe (SIEE), and Japan Asia (SIEJA) to report to Ryan. 

In his new role, Ryan will report to Sony Corp. chief Kenichiro Yoshida. Kodera will step down into the SIE deputy president role, and the company makes a specific point of saying he'll be focusing on "enhancing the network."

"Jim will manage SIE's overall organization and operations," reads an excerpt of a statement attributed to Sony chief Yoshida. "Which will allow John to focus on the key mission to further develop PlayStation Network (PSN) that has now grown into an immensely large platform with over 90 million Monthly Active Users worldwide."

Ryan's been kicking around the Sony org charts for ages, though before he landed the deputy president role he was perhaps best known as the (now former) president and CEO of (the division formerly known as) Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.