Father of Sony Playstation Steps Down

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."

Comments

occasional failure.

[TheGeneration]

Why do the Japanese seem to always throw the baby out with the bathwater? One failure is not equivalent to becoming incapable of producing more success. I'll just be happy I live in a culture where occasional failure is seen as an opportunity to grow and become better.

Re:occasional failure.

[hibiki_r]

About even? I guess that they are, in the same sense that 30 are 60 are about the same.

NPD numbers for May in the US:

        * Nintendo DS: 423K
        * Nintendo Wii: 338K
        * Sony PSP: 221K
        * Sony PlayStation 2: 187K
        * Microsoft Xbox 360: 155K
        * Sony PlayStation 3: 81K

The Wii sells twice as much as the 360, which sells roughly twice as much as the PS3. I call that a spectacular failure for Sony.

Re:Honesty.

[Fozzyuw]

There is a good possibility that gaming would not be as prevelant and pronounced in our culture had it not been for the PS1/PS2.

I agree to your point that Ken was an important icon to gaming simply because he DID do what he did. However, I disagree with the point that the PS1/PS2 where instrumental to the gaming culture. By the time the PS1/PS2 came along, the gaming industry was doing nothing but picking up steam since it's crash in the late 70's early 80's. With the NES, SNES/Gensis battle, Dreamcast, PC gaming on the rise, advances in technology, etc. the "gaming culture" would not have turned out much different, IMHO.

Simply put, the culture drove the companies/systems not the systems/companies driving the culture. If the PS2 didn't exist, then there would have been someone else, with a similar system. Nintendo probably wouldn't have changed, which means the door for the "mature" console (read violence) would be left open. Maybe the Dreamcast would have been much more popular and Sega would have made the "Dreamcast 2" to fill the historical gap. Maybe it would have been more on the PC? Who knows. I didn't happen. However, the PS2 didn't "change" the culture, but it did "define" it.

Much the way I feel the NES defined my generation and the Atari defined the one before me. Thinking in terms of T-shirts and the ones with the NES, Atari joystick. 10 years from now, that generation be wearing a "Know your roots" T-Shirt with the PS2 dual-shock controller and think it's "retro".

Cheers,
Fozzy

Politics

[rlp]

My understanding is that there was no love lost between Kutaragi and Stringer. Kutaragi had expected to be made CEO, but instead the board picked an outsider. Problems with the PS3 gave Stringer an excuse to ease Kutaragi out.