RSSSony's Kutaragi Steps Down
By Ed Oswald | Published April 26, 2007, 4:01 PM
PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi will leave Sony at the end of June, the company revealed Thursday. This is only the latest in a string of developments which show the company is serious about turning around its business.
After years of being the top video game maker, it now finds itself in third place behind a resurgent Nintendo and surprisingly strong Microsoft. While Sony expected the video game unit to help it recover, it instead is doing exactly the opposite.
The high retail price for the console has slowed its sales, say many analysts, and much higher spending than initially anticipated have doubled its originally forecasted losses for its video game unit - now expected to be around $2 billion USD.
Kutaragi will stay with Sony, but only as an "honorary chairman" and senior technology advisor. The resignation of the PlayStation creator also likely means the video game division will be more directly controlled from the top - Kutaragi preferred to have a lot of control over the platform.
In fact, Kutaragi's replacement Kazuo Hirai, is widely considered an ally of Sony CEO Howard Stringer. Hirai formerly was the head of the American arm of the PlayStation unit, and was named president of the worldwide arm late last year.
Stringer and Kutaragi have also had their disagreements - the latter's issues in communicating with other Sony officials caused him the loss of control of the daily operations last year, says the Wall Street Journal.
Kutaragi also went over budget during development of the PS3, and even questioned Sony's manufacturing practices, further angering Sony officials.
With all the damage Kutaragi caused to Sony during the PS3 development cycle they should have fired him long time ago.
Kutaragi is the classical recommended guy with no value that's there just because someone put him in that role and not because he is the right one for the job, and he proved this thru his failures.
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|His achievments before the PS3 i think speak for themselves why he was in the position. At the start of the PS3 development i can think of no man better for that job.
Of course his mistakes during it are outright stupid but he was the right man for that job regardless.
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|Sony has failed us in many ways, I am sorry but they no longer have the prestige it use to.
I am happy the NINTENDO era is back.
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|As am I.
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|They may have had a chance had they not forced the idiotic Blu-Ray into the thing and pushed the price over the top. I love how they said it would be so superior that price would be irrelevant. Right.
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|It is superior, sadly theres no such thing as an irrelevant price.
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|what you can't spend 1 week salary on a video game console?
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|Let's just summarize:
- Kutaragi went way over budget during PS3 development
- in doing so, he produced an ill-conceived, overpriced piece of sh*t which bombed and lies like lead in the store shelves, causing staggering losses of 2 billion US$
- on top of that, he pissed off some superiors
...
The only thing that surprises me is that they didn't give him the boot earlier already.
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|The PS3 is the very best and most advanced game console ever designed. Game play is a lot more immersive on the PS3 than the Wii or the Xbox 360, not to mention the PS3 has much better graphics and fully supports 5.1 channel surround sound in the playable parts of games, not just the cutscenes. The only bad thing about the PS3 is the price.
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|Well the 360 does have 5.1 in game. Much better graphics that really remains to be seen. Deeper game play you must have a different system than everyone else since most of the games are on other systems so the deepth is the same. Most of the launch titles stunk up the place. You must be comparing the PS3 to the PS2.
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|Dsfargeg,
it's not Kutaragi. SCE has become 7,000 people company. The core development (hardware and the OS) were done by a small group in Japan that included a weak team of software developers and hardware guys who were brilliant but argued all the time and created a system with great components but bad overall design. Their counterparts in US were even worse and couldn't contribute much even if they were asked (but they were not).
PS 3 was doomed from the start on the price side as well because Sony top management decided to push Blue Ray through PS 3. Kutaragi didn't want it and fought and lost. As a result he was thrown out of the Sony board.
Dropping Kutaragi shows what Sony has become - a house of stupidity and political intrigue. Kaz Hirai, Stringer and Phil Harrison are nothing but political stars. They could do well in the White House.
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|To all who think this is good for Sony... well, DON'T.
What I believe this signifies is the same thing that the departure of Gunpei Yokoi did for Nintendo at the time. You see, Kutraragi stepped down WHILE THE PS3 IS SITTING UNWANTED LIKE A LAME DUCK, and Yokoi had the same situation with the equally-craptastic Virtual Boy way back when. Both consoles sold like s--- (read: not at all) and both execs were out of a job soon after. Both are in danger of falling, or already long have fallen off the market. And both are out of their jobs... and in Yokoi's case he even died "tragically." So therefore, under the circumstances at play here Mr. Kutaragi's departure and the curent "lame duck" status of the PS3 doesn't even bode well for Sony.
Rather, I believe this is the beginning of the end for the dominance of thbe PlayStation brand in the videogame market. The PS3 was il-concieved, ill-priced, and is falling apart like all those other consoles that followed a similar mindset in their design (read: 3DO, NeoGeo, etc.) The PS3 was simply the wrong idea in the wrong market, so to speak. I think once the dust settles, Kazuo Hirai will just plain skewer the PS3 to an early death and be done with it, like Nintendo had to do in the Virtual Boy, N64 and GameCube for their respective failures.
Only except in Sony's case, without a new console to replace the PS3 it will either be permanently-continued PS2 support... or the rehashing of the downfall and rebirth of Sega all over again, and all us gamers know how THAT turned out. Besides, if it weren't for the Wii then Nintendo would have been the one to do it but now that Miyamoto and Iwata have a winner once more it will most likely now be Sony doing it instead. And the ironic thing is that Sony basically f---ed the Big N with the original PlayStation IN THE FIRST PLACE, and after a deal that basically got Sony f---ed first (remember, Sony tried making a CD-ROM gizmo for Nintendo, and Nintendo didn't like Sony's terms leaving Sony to go solo). And the rest became history, and history then came full circle with Nintendo's Wii (finally) beginning to f--- back at Sony this generation.
Anyway, sorry for this long rant... but that's basically what there is to look at. It's not pretty for Sony, but for a long time the same could be said for Nintendo... and now look what happened with the Wii. That is why I see this as Sony's console-market "swan song" even though the axe hasn't fallen yet... but the frat lady is close to starting a song, too, and I can honestly tell you PS3 fanboys that your product's days, based on current facts and historical events, are clearly numbered. Trust me on this: Sony had it's chance to break the "decade curse" in the videogame market... and they completely blew it on a bloated, expensive piece of s--- that nobody wants. It's the pure logic of marketplace economics, folks. Sony WILL fall. I GUARANTEE IT.
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|Sony is being taken over by non-technical managers.
Good-bye old Sony and its amazing technical leadership. Here comes politicized bloated company that lost touch with reality. More blows to come!
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|I think the company must be devastated. Of course that it's something that happens in the heart of Sony and is hidden to the world, but so much effort ($) in making a console that is a total failure and a hd format that is struggling (no matter if hd dvd is too).
Hope that they stay alive and strong, so that Microsoft is not the only "serious" console producer left.
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|For those of us who don't speak "cool" web talk, can you translate FUD for us.
This is a dark day for Sony and a sign of things to come with the failure of Blu-Ray.
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|http://en.wikipedia.org/...C_uncertainty_and_doubt
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|That's what FUD means????
Are you ****ing kidding me? That is without a doubt the dumbest acronym I have ever seen. But what do you expect from sheep with no original thoughts of thier own.
At least I could come up with something original like GFYM.
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|It's an acronym.
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|Hollywood__ here's one for you:
STFU
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|I always like to think of that as 'Stuff You'.
It's real meaning is more boring.
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|You're right Paul. Acronym. What the hell was I thinking?
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|uber,
I get that a lot. Especially from my wife.
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|Wiki is far from a reputable site anymore.
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|Whenever I see STFU I read it as, "STAFOO" for some reason...
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|Aaaw. Kutaragi did a lot for the gaming industry, it's a shame he's leaving under a dark cloud.
Would have been nice if he'd gone out with the success of the PS2 behind him and left it at that.
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|Where is the dark cloud. Seems to be his choice to levae. The PS3 is now out, little remains to be done..
"My Work Here Is Done"...
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|Let's see the Sony fanboys turn this into an indicator that the company is doing great!
Let's see...I know, he's stepping down because the company has rewarded him with multiple sequential round the world trips as a token of their appreciation and the trips will simply take too long, so it is only prudent that he reluctantly step down as he would otherwise be away too long...
I guess even Sony's board of governance is finally getting the message.
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|FUD FUD FUD
Hehe. :P
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|As much as i dislike some of sonys decisions recently, every company has people come and go. I doubt I would stay with one job for as long as that guy has.
Ken has talked some utter crap in recent years but he's still successful. Best of luck to him, and honestly i am happy to see him get off the playstation wagon. Hopefully his successor is more in touch with reality.
*edit* sorry dude this wasnt meant to be a reply to your post hehe*
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