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Sony's Ken Kutaragi To Step Down
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Apr 26, 2007 01:16 PM
from the no-more-easy-quotes dept.
from the no-more-easy-quotes dept.
Joystiq reports that Chairman and group CEO for Sony Computer Entertainment Ken Kutaragi is retiring as of June 19th. The Sony reshuffling of executives late last year left Mr. Kutaragi out of the PS3 nitty-gritty, and one could imagine led to his decision to leave the organization. From SCEI's official statement: "[Mr. Kutaragi] stated that, in the six months since the appointment of Kazuo Hirai as President in December, the new generation of management, led by Mr. Hirai, has continued to develop. With the March introduction of PS3 in Europe completing the successful launch of PS3 worldwide, Mr. Kutaragi has identified SCE's Annual Shareholders' meeting in June as the ideal timing to pass on the torch to the new generation of management. Mr. Kutaragi will now apply his extensive technological knowledge and leadership skills to take on new challenges beyond the world of PlayStation."
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Kutaragi Thumbs Nose At Other Consoles 128 comments
Ken Kutaragi thinks very highly of the PS3. So much so, that he is once again badmouthing his competitors in the press. From the article: "This time, Microsoft has stated clearly that it is going after PlayStation. However, they're going not after the PlayStation 3, but the PlayStation 2. They were looking at 2, and that's why [Xbox 360] became like that". And by "that", he probably means crappy. I'm just guessing.
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Ken Kutaragi's Famous Last Words 527 comments
When we look back on this E3, I think one of the moments we're most clearly going to remember is the dead silence in the Sony press conference following the price announcement. Eurogamer and GameDaily has coverage of Phil Harrison's spin work, trying to recover from that moment, discussing how Sony is not ripping off Nintendo and Microsoft probably won't meet their 10 million units goal. More interestingly, they discuss an interview with Ken Kutaragi conducted by a Japanese website. From that piece: "SCEI president Ken Kutaragi has defended the PlayStation 3's high price tag once again, declaring that not only will consumers be prepared to pay the cost but that the console is 'probably too cheap.' In an interview with Japanese website IT Media, partially translated by IGN, Kutaragi said: 'This is the PS3 price. Expensive, cheap - we don't want you to think of it in terms of game machines ... For instance ... Is it not nonsense to compare the charge for dinner at the company cafeteria with dinner at a fine restaurant? It's a question of what you can do with that game machine. If you can have an amazing experience, we believe price is not a problem.'"
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Kutaragi Admits Sony Hardware In Decline 68 comments
An anonymous reader writes "In a surprising admission, Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutaragi acknowledged that Sony's strength in game hardware might be in decline. BetaNews has the article, which reports on Sony's PS3 struggle for the holiday season." From the article: "In an extraordinary public statement of regret and despair over having to postpone his company's PlayStation 3 debut in Europe and Australia until March, and to limit availability elsewhere to only 500,000 units come November, Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutaragi is quoted by Reuters as having told reporters, 'If you asked me if Sony's strength in hardware was in decline, right now I guess I would have to say that might be true.'"
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More PS3 Words From the Horse's Mouth 78 comments
Game|Life had the chance to sit down with Ken Kutaragi, Phil Harrison, and Kaz Hirai; Chris Kohler has some details on things left unsaid at the PS3 conference. From the article: "Q: You're the head of Sony's worldwide development studios. What the hell is up with that Africa game? A: Video games have a function in life, and that is: wish fulfillment. You can become a mercenary, a fighter pilot. On PS3, we can expand the realm of that experience. Africa allows you to experience a very interesting part of the world, a safari in the plains of Africa. The gameplay is entirely non-violent. You don't kill the animals. It emphasizes the positives rather than the negatives. It's about collecting experiences and keeping them for posterity."
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Why Sony Needs a 'Major Nelson' 84 comments
Microsoft's 'Major Nelson' and executive Peter Moore have been visible representatives of the 360 console for well over a year now. 'Grandfather of Gaming' Shigeru Miyamoto and asskicking Reggie Fils-Aime have have preached the Wii concept through good writeups and bad name jokes. Sony ... well, Sony has Ken Kutaragi, Phil Harrison, and Kaz Hirai. They say helpful things like 'we don't care', and 'disks won't matter', and (my personal favorite) 'the PS3 is a computer'. RPG Site has a compelling argument stating that Sony needs a Major Nelson to cut through this crazy executive talk, and reconnect the company with real gamers. From the article: "While it's not something that appeals to every group of people that play games - the casual market and kids, for example, the existence of these people allows the part of the market that is most opinionated - the core gamers, those who have a very clear opinion on what they want and what is good and bad - to interact with somebody who can actually bring about change. Hell, on a lesser note, it even gives the fanboys someone to worship."
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What the Sony Reshuffling Actually Means 30 comments
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal steps up this morning with some interesting analysis of the Sony re-organization that occurred late last month. Mr. Croal points out the difficulty of understanding the machinations of a notoriously tight-lipped foreign company, and attempts to look at the executive movements from the games business view. From the article: "Here's what's on SCE's plate at this very moment: three product lines that must be managed over the next five to six years (PS2, PSP and PS3); two more product lines that are almost certainly already in the planning stages (PS4 and PSP2); an online service, an online store, operating systems and system updates for each of the post-PS2 machines; and one of the world's largest game studio operations. Given that workload, Sony desperately needed to free Ken up to do the vision thing, and groom the next generation to run SCE on a day-to-day basis, much like Microsoft did when Bill Gates ceded operational control of Microsoft to Steve Ballmer. So while we have absolutely no visibility into whether this evolution was initiated by Kutaragi or by Stringer, it strikes us as precisely the right move to help ensure the future health of the PlayStation business."
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Sony and Kutaragi - What Went Wrong? 57 comments
Last week's news that Ken Kutaragi was stepping down from his post at Sony wasn't exactly a surprise, but it does raise a number of questions. Given reports that Kutaragi has visions for PlayStations 4, 5, and 6 and analyst speculation that he'll be involved with those products as well, why is he on the way out the door? 1up's Editor Sam Kennedy spends some time ruminating on the situation on his site blog, and comes to the conclusion that this may be what Kutaragi wanted all along. "No one doubted Kutaragi's vision or ability to create fantastic hardware, but his failure as an executive was holding the division back. This is why Kaz Hirai took his place. With the PS3 off and running at the start of a 10-year life cycle, Sony won't need a visionary for quite some time -- now, it needs someone to run the business. And Kaz is right for that. He's a team player and has great relationships with the publishers. He can take things from here. But in all of this hubbub surrounding his departure, what's perhaps been overlooked is that this may have been what Kutaragi had also wanted. It's unfortunate, as the expectation was always for Kutaragi to climb the corporate ladder, yet this wasn't necessarily his goal. As he once told Newsweek about his executive role, 'We have so many things to create, but unfortunately for me I have a lot of responsibility right now...This was not in my dream.'"
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Father of Sony Playstation Steps Down 57 comments
Raver32 wrote with a link to a CNN article about the end of Ken Kutaragi's time at Sony. His departure was announced back in April, and now leaves Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) headed by Kazuo Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment's (SCE) former president and COO. "Though no longer a board member, Kutaragi will hold an advisory post at the gaming unit, according to SCE official Sayoka Henmi. The departure of Kutaragi, an icon among gamers, marks the end of an era at Sony Corp. that saw the company long dominate the video game industry with its flagship PlayStation consoles. But it also highlights troubles at Sony amid a series of blunders over the rollout of its PlayStation 3 and intense competition from Nintendo Co.'s popular Wii console and Microsoft's Xbox 360."
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A Catalog of Lost PS3 Exclusives 95 comments
Game|Life has a breakdown of the numerous PlayStation 3 exclusives that might have been. The high cost of making games and Sony's slow start out of the game means that titles like Assassin's Creed and Devil May Cry IV, which may have been exclusive to a Sony console at one point, will now be leading a double life on Microsoft's Xbox 360. "Grand Theft Auto IV -- Peter Moore shocked the world at E3 last May when he announced that GTAIV would appear day-and-date on Xbox 360 and PS3. Months later, Newsweek reported that Take Two had wanted to continue its long-standing practice of giving Sony a lengthy timed exclusivity on the game, but they didn't want it. Newsweek says that former Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi's 'radio silence' on the issue left Sony's American execs without the authority to make deals, and nothing happened. Same with ... Assassin's Creed -- Again, Newsweek revealed that Ubisoft had actually gone to Sony with an offer to make the game a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Although Sony did go through the trouble of asking Ubisoft to make it seem as if their multiplatform action game Assassin's Creed was indeed PS3 exclusive , it came out shortly after E3 that it would ship simultaneously on both platforms."
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Meaning? (Score:1)
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"Here, YOU start bailing water. I'll take my chance in the ocean."
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Yokoi? (Score:3, Funny)
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I was envisioning an expensive Sony-brand proprietary Wikazashi(sp?), a blade shorter than a katana that is especially for suicide. That seems more appropriate.
Either that, or he'll be assigned to staring out of a window forever, or maybe that weird white cube-room we saw in the bizarre PS3 commercials.
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I think something should be missing... (Score:4, Funny)
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I suppose it depends on your definition of success.
Re:I think something should be missing... (Score:4, Funny)
Yep, but so did the Challenger.
Parent
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Yep, but so did the Challenger.
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No, what I meant was that both the PS3 and Challenger technically "launched," but were equally unsuccessful. See also: "Titanic."
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By that comparison, 3D0, the Sega CD, Atari Jaguar, and the Intellivision II all had successful launches.
Re: Long live the Vasa! (Score:2)
The Vasa! [www.abc.se]
Well, it's about time. (Score:2)
Rob
"His decision to leave the organization?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, thanks to Ken, for one of the most entertaining business dramas I've seen since 3dfx.
Re:"His decision to leave the organization?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Leaves to spend more time with family - Flat out quit, had to be begged to give some kind of notice
Leaves to take on new challenges - "There's the door, don't let it hit you on the ass."
Parent
Mod parent up (Score:1, Insightful)
Wow. Just wow. If only I had mod points.
If I did, however, you'd probably get "Insightful" rather than mere "Funny".
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Re:"His decision to leave the organization?" (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a code phrase for "This guy did a really lousy job and we're finally happy to be rid of him."
If you follow college football at all, this kind of thing is normal. You learn that, for example, the administration making an official statement to the effect of "We stand behind Coach Winsnogames 100%" is pretty much a guarantee that the guy is either about to be fired, or will be if he doesn't win it all the next year. "I committed to this school because of their outstanding academic support" means that someone will take the tests for him. And "I committed to Texas A&M" means the athlete's only committed to that school until a real school offers him a scholarship.
I mean seriously... A&M's had what, 6 decommits already?
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Heads continuing to roll at Sony (Score:2)
I guess Gabe Newell (head honcho at Valve) had it right all along [destructoid.com].
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My question is.... (Score:5, Funny)
RIIIIDGE RACER (Score:5, Funny)
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A visibly distressed Mr. Kutaragi was seen crawling from head offices clutching his crotch. Meanwhile, a victorious looking Mr. Hirai gave an applauded speech at the press statement, explaining how he had been inspired by a battle that took actually place in ancient Japan, and how his new strategies are based on japanese history.
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The reporters weren't quite sure how to take it until he explained that he was working at Sony for far "too cheap". "Is it not nonsense to compare the charge for dinner at the company
Goodbye Krazy Ken... (Score:1)
This is not the first time Kaz has replaced Ken. Remember, remember, the 30th of November [wikipedia.org]
GTA4 (Score:1)
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Because it won't change the gameplay? It won't look dramatically better, which is what it would really take.
There are few games that have the power to draw people to a console even when they are exclusives if that console doesn't have a life o
Shareholders (Score:5, Insightful)
aka. poisoning the water supply. (Score:2)
That's me birthday! (Score:2)
Gunpei Koto (Score:3, Interesting)
Ken's a scapegoat (Score:4, Insightful)
Remove the 6 month delay necessitated by adding the Blu-Ray drive, as well as the expense, and the obvious maneuver to push Blu-Ray into homes using fanboys and loyal customers, and it's an entirely different story... Sony still has a problem with the gaming experience, and the whole fiasco over feedback controllers, but those become minor issues. In making DRM so central to the PS3's strategy (or should I say, making the PS3 central to Sony's invasive DRM strategy) after Sony's horrible anti-consumer behavior primarily in its media divisions has made many of its loyal customers angry and resolute in not supporting the company. It's made them consciously avoid all things "Sony" - from CDs that may install rootkits that open security holes on your PCs, to movies that take extreme measures to eliminate fair use of customers to back up their own movies (while pirates release those same movies on the net days or even weeks before they are released for retail). Until Blu-Ray is added to the mix, one can simply argue that the PS3 is an island in the sea of things wrong with Sony as a corporate citizen; with Blu-Ray, however, the PS3 becomes yet another pawn - a cynical move in an agenda to control consumers' rights and increase control in media markets.
So, here we are, months after the PS3's dismal launch, and we all can agree, game quality issue aside, the PS3 would have sold much better without the Blu-Ray drive inflating the price. All of Ken's crazy words would have merely been a sidenote in a frenzied battle of consoles. It's launch would have occurred 6 months BEFORE the Wii, striking quicker and likely deeper into the market that the Wii got exposure to on equal terms with last holiday season. Can you blame Kutaragi for it all? Would he have agreed to include the Blu-Ray drive if he had not gotten incredible pressure from higher up?
It's no coincidence that Sony's leaders are media people - their media division makes money by the tankerful. What nobody seems to grasp is that those profits are not thanks to those same executives that wield so much political power within Sony's corporate arena.... media sells these days, even crap media. The world is hungry for movies and music - I suppose you could say they at least didn't make so many boneheaded moves that they dragged the company down, but even that's not entirely true - yet they hold the power, and likely forced Blu-Ray upon the PS3.
Ah well... they sweep Ken out the door and play it up as a "shake up" between the lines, it looks like SCE is making moves to improve the PS3 situation, but in reality, it does nothing to solve the underlying problem of a system tied down with a 50-ton boat anchor. It will satisfy the stockholders, many of whome have no idea when it comes to gaming consoles, only that that division has lost money for the last 5 years and is losing money at a rapid pace (even though others might realize it's a strategy to lose money on every PS3 sold).
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In fact, I find it funny that the only highly rated games for the system are ports from successful PC games. The reviews are high, but they all say the same thing - "If you played this on PC, there's nothing new here." So why shell out $60 more for something I played 1-2 years ago?
I'll buy GT5, White Knight (if we see it here), FF XIII... that's
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Of course this comment parallels both the Xbox and 3DO though in both cases some of their best exclusives were also ported to the PC (Gex,Halo,etc).
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There was less competition in the prior generation. Dreamcast was killed at least in part by Sony's fraudulent claims of performance. (Not only could the system actually not push as many triangles as they originally claimed, but it CERTAINLY couldn't push that many triangles in anything but a demo.) Gamecube was still
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I think you over state the case. The PS2 can indeed push a lot more poly's then the DC but they are of a somewhat lower quality. You'll see in games like FFXII that it is indeed a decent machine. Compare it to a
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As far as the new consoles go.. I think I'll only be getting a Wii (when I can find one..) I can't stand the evil empire, and the PS3 is just.. well, too expensive. That leaves Nintendo.
Re: DS Lite FTW. (Score:2)
Actually, I agree. If the PSP is 'teh Sexy'... then apparently it just isn't my type. I like the sleek industrial design of the DS Lite over the PSP, and even taking the games out of consideration (which we know is the reason to buy one in the first place) I simply think the DS Lite is a much better design.
The GBA SP
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I'm not saying the PSP doesn't look good. I'm saying it looks like a toy. So does the DS, but not the DS lite. The DS lite and the GBA SP look like they could be travel alarm clocks or something, except for the much better fit and finish than you usually find those sorts of things with. They look like just another
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