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

Honesty.

[Pojut]

While I have consistently prefered other consoles over the Playstation platforms, I cannot deny the impact that Sony has had on the gaming culture as a whole (both positive and negative). 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.

Mr. Kutaragi, I rarely agree with your opinions on the business of video games, as well as your opinions on what gamers "want". However, you are still an icon in the industry and I respect you as such. Godspeed to you, sir.

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

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.

[aichpvee]

Seems to me that PS3 is doing pretty well. It's outselling 360 in Japan and selling about even here in the States. All that at a price tag that's basically twice as high. Of course 360 is selling about as well as the original xbox. So while it isn't exactly something to brag about, I wouldn't count Sony out yet. They've definitely got a good shot at being the dominant "HD" console this generation, and who knows how it'll be doing against Wii 3 or 4 years from now. Though I wouldn't put it past Sony to blow the chance that they have now since it won't be there forever and microsoft still has the chance to turn their fortunes around, too.

I guess I was just being redundant and agreeing with you. I'm not sure how much Bluray is going to matter for the "console wars" but it definitely has a better chance of giving Sony a boost than microsoft with their HD-DVD drive, especially in light of Disney (they sell a ton, regardless of quality) backing it exclusively and Blockbuster recently dropping HD-DVD at most of their stores.

Sony is actually in a very similar situation to Nintendo right now. It's totally their game to lose. The only difference is that it's a slightly different game given that the market today for HD consoles seems significantly smaller than for Wii. That and they aren't selling a billion consoles a day.

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.

Father of the playstation?

[niceone]

So the first two kids turn out fine, there's problems with the delivery of the third and he's leaving!? Does that make him the Delinquent Dad of the PS?

Re:shame and dishonor

[Applekid]

Clearly, an honorable suicide is the only way to remedy this situation.

I snickered when I read parent and the bottom of the slashdot page had the following quote:

Practice yourself what you preach. -- Titus Maccius Plautus

Re:Bouncing tits

[dj_tla]

Is this post a joke? Maybe my sarcasm-radar is on the fritz, but if you're serious, you and that developer are off your respective rockers. Maybe different consoles have different standards for games they licence; I don't know, I've not developed for a console before. But to think that their different standards have something to do with the country they're based in is ludicrous. The forum thread you linked to discusses differences in Resident Evil 4 between various versions; one poster noted: You got it wrong. The japanese version has bouncy tits, the american don't. And its the japanese Playstation 2 version. Look at the textures. I suspect that the difference is the console the game is on, not the country the game is released in (which, according to that post, is backwards from what you describe anyway, assuming that poster is correct).

Just to put things in perspective, the primary console (not including the PC) that the AV and H productions publish their games on is the Dreamcast, what you would consider a Japan-based console. People also like to reference the Dead or Alive series when talking about bouncing tits, a series that lived until recently primarily on Sega's and Sony's consoles.

We need to stop obsessing over and searching for differences between cultures. There are so many more similarities than differences, obsessing over what sets us apart only serves to keep us apart. I, for one, am glad at how much international collaboration happens in the game industry as opposed to other media; we need to keep this train rolling forward, as we still have a long way to go.

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.