Sony's Ken Kutaragi announces plans to retire

by Christopher Grant { Apr 26th 2007 at 12:05PM }

In March, The Wall Street Journal said Ken Kutaragi was a "stumbling block" for Sony; now they're reporting that the controversial chairman and group CEO for Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. -- and father of the PlayStation brand -- will be retiring his post effective June 19. Of course, the 57-year-old exec was recently kicked upstairs, removing him from day-to-day operations following what many considered to be a botched strategy for the PlayStation 3. Kaz Hirai, who replaced Ken in December, will be promoted to CEO of SCE.

And Kaz, you better start practicing. You've got some large shoes to fill ... four-dimensional shoes that require dual HDMI soles to output 120 footprints a second. But seriously, we'll miss your krazy quotes, Ken!

Update -- SCEI statement: "Kutaragi has said that he has been considering this decision for some time. He 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. Sony and SCE will continue to seek Mr. Kutaragi's input and ideas from a broad perspective, while continuing to support him as much as possible in the realization of his dreams."

Read - PlayStation Creator Plans to Retire (WSJ subscription reqd.)
Read - Kutaragi to step down as Sony game unit CEO (IDG)

Tags: ceo, ken kutaragi, KenKutaragi, kutaragi, playstation, sce, scei, sony

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

WhackMushrooms @ Apr 26th 2007 12:10PM

FINALLY!!!!

CakeOrDeath @ Apr 26th 2007 12:14PM

Are we thinking 'leap' or 'push'?

Fernando Rocker @ Apr 26th 2007 12:14PM

So, sheppy and Jack... I guess that this isnt telling you something about the PS3 again, right?

dave smith @ Apr 26th 2007 12:17PM

Ken is one of the finest engineers of his generation. The Playstation family of products were and are visionary in their design if not in their marketing. Sony will not be able to find a talent of similar stature easily.

Moe @ Apr 26th 2007 12:20PM

:( that's a shame. i liked crazy ken.

Mainman @ Apr 26th 2007 12:23PM

Floodgates. Opened.

Doc @ Apr 26th 2007 12:27PM

seriouly, who was it that said that the ps3's games would run at 120fps? I forgot all about that claim, was it this guy? maybe he was talking about the ducks in the tub tech sim??

Jason @ Apr 26th 2007 12:31PM

According to whom was the PS3 stategy botched? Or is this all speculation on the media's part because of a perceived due to the impossible expectations you had for it?

jojo @ Apr 26th 2007 12:35PM

ok first its official microsoft has bought capcom there is no denying it. and first of all ken kutaragi made snes for nintendo ok, after that he made ps one two three and psp. he was the king of console and made the industry big ok, by the way he was pushed by the dickhead howard stringer ok. there will be no more playstation4 and psp2 of sony they are finsihed ok. and plus is thanks to the media and forum fanboys. plus now mircosoft will rule and they will make u pay for more stuff and add on etc etc. u losers.

Almack64 @ Apr 26th 2007 12:35PM

@ Fernando,
You really don't have to call people out before they even show up. Maybe they won't even post to this post. Like sheppy said it kind of makes you seem a little obsessed. I know you have a point to prove but you do not have to blogstalk to do it.

Todd @ Apr 26th 2007 12:35PM

...of course he's retiring, once he got ousted by Sony as CEO. I wonder if that was humiliating to him or if he is just tired of the game.

LaughingTarget @ Apr 26th 2007 12:40PM

It is one thing to be a visionary, but it doesn't help if there are visionary parts that aren't built around a marketable, cohesive unit. Pushing a technology that is ahead of its time tends to ensure that technolgy will be delayed even further in its acceptance. Many World's Fairs over the last century had technologies that were insane, but most of them failed to reach the market for decades. They were simply too far ahead of their time.

Also, it comes down to the defenition of visionary. The PS3 seems to follow the dogma of "more is better". More storage space, more speed, more this, more that. Anyone can pack more space into a CD, that doesn't take vision, it is just a natural extention of things. If computer engineers in the 50s had the same kind of vision as Kutaragi, our computers would only get bigger, tape drives longer, to meet computing demands. Kutaragi's vision would make my current 3 year old desktop PC a 500 ton behemoth with a ten mile tape drive.

There is more to vision than saying, "I think we need a DVD, but with 50gb!" That isn't vision. I can do the same, "Hey, lets make a DVD with 1tb! Ha, take that Sony! I have better vision!" If anything, Kutaragi is not particularly visionary at all. Sure, Cell is pretty damned cool, but IBM was the principle developer. Kutaragi just took it and stuffed it in with a 2 year old video processor and put in a bigger disk medium. Where is the vision? Apart from the eye candy, the PS3 isn't doing anything the last generation didn't.

I think this is good for Sony. To keep competetive in an innovative field, it is important to keep the engineer turnover high while seeking younger up-and-comers. Sony doesn't need someone saying, "If product A was good, then to make product B five times better we have to make it five times faster or put in five times the storage." No, that just makes it the same product with a bigger disk.

Vision is "Hey, I bet you have never seen this before." Not, "This is what you expected."

Seedy @ Apr 26th 2007 12:43PM

Well, you know what they say about rats and ships.

Zootittles @ Apr 26th 2007 12:44PM

@8:
If I am expected to get a second job just to afford a videogame system, then I think I'm entitled to raise my expectations somewhat.

Fatass of Kickassness @ Apr 26th 2007 12:45PM

Fernando, shut the hell up. You're like a broken freaking record.

C. Grant @ Apr 26th 2007 12:45PM

Jason: are you serious? You don't think there's anything about the PlayStation 3 or its launch that could have been done better?

Rod @ Apr 26th 2007 1:01PM

"Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!"

Just thought that was somehow appropriate...

Jason @ Apr 26th 2007 1:02PM

Dude got fired.

For reference I'm not the Jason above. Can someone change my commenting name to Iscariote?

Jason @ Apr 26th 2007 1:06PM

@16, Well, I don't see exactly what causes everyone to view Sony as a blundering corporation when it comes to the PS3. It is a powerful piece of hardware obviously not targeted to nongamers and it's not an entry-level gaming system. Any childless adult with a job in America can afford one, so the price doesn't really mean much.

All I'm saying is this. The blogosphere thinks the PS3 should be selling like the Wii, but it never will. And upon hearing the price tag, who expected it to? But we can't say Sony's strategy is botched by Kutaragi because Sony released an expensive, powerful gaming computer. What would it take for us not to perceive it as botched? A Sony version of the Wii, cheap and below average graphical capabilities?

Joystiq assumes Kutaragi was completely out of touch with reality when directing the development of the PS3 and now he is paying for it. It's all speculation to me unless I can hear from someone other than a no-name game analyst's opinion.

SONY SUX @ Apr 26th 2007 1:08PM

HAHAHAHAHAH SONY IS a POS!!!
He's Leaving because he already knows He's Knee Deep in his own $%^!

Jason @ Apr 26th 2007 1:07PM

And I am not either of the previous two Jasons! I want to change my name too... Is it a matter of cookies, what??

Sam G. @ Apr 26th 2007 1:35PM

It's just like in professional sports: a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. Ken was a visionary, but the PS3 was a gamble any way you look at it, and the results (while no awful) have been less than stellar.

Thus, Ken got SHITCANNED!!!!!

Todd @ Apr 26th 2007 1:13PM

@Jason

"Any childless adult with a job in America can afford one, so the price doesn't really mean much."

FYI. A biased opinion does not equal fact. You are incorrect in this assumption.

binzuki @ Apr 26th 2007 1:13PM

...If you cut off the head, the beast will die...

Mike @ Apr 26th 2007 1:13PM

He's off to the 4th dimension

mj @ Apr 26th 2007 1:15PM

"Did you feel that? Like millions of videogame bloggers all cried out at once."

vidGuy @ Apr 26th 2007 1:15PM

Bout damn time.

Digi Smalls @ Apr 26th 2007 1:19PM

there's vision and there's execution. managing thousands of people in different units across the globe is much different than managing ideas.

the PS3 was much more ambitious than either the PS1 and PS2, and considered by many, too much for Kutaragi (and Sony) to chew.

that pic is kinda spooky now, it looks like Ken's carrying a gravestone. or a baby coffin..

.

Jason @ Apr 26th 2007 1:23PM

I don't make much money. I just graduated from college and I make like $12 an hour in a research lab while I'm applying to graduate school. I had no problem buying it. And I had student loans which I paid off already as well; I have a girlfriend and a car, both of which are money drains. I also have a 1080p HDTV and a 360, and I'll get a Wii whenever I can. I have no credit card debt, either. I'm sure most people make more money than I do, so I don't see what is the difficulty in affording a PS3. Of course I had to save to buy these things, and I'm still not broke. Plus, I don't blow my money on certain things like eating out all the time and buying overpriced clothing.

calsurfer18 @ Apr 26th 2007 1:29PM

@9--- OK!

Panadero @ Apr 26th 2007 1:35PM

Ok, I can't let this slide. jojo, Kutaragi didn't "make" the SNES for Nintendo. He designed the soundchip for it. Given the amazing quality of the chip, I'm of the mind it's the best thing he's ever done. In the end, it's not a lack of intelligence that's led to his perceived insanity, it's hubris.

Tuatara @ Apr 26th 2007 2:02PM

Hey Jojo, how about aging a few years and having a little respect for the English language? People might take you seriously then.

Joshua @ Apr 26th 2007 1:44PM

"He stated that, in the six months since the appointment of Kazuo Hirai as President in December..."

December -> April = Four months. lawl

roflcopter @ Apr 26th 2007 1:46PM

@19

No matter how you look at it, selling less than the GBA is bad...even if you factor in the price difference

It's selling below Sony's own expectations as well, if it didn't we wouldn't be writing comments for this news item right now.

Sony's strategy is to sell the console at a loss at the beggining, but that only works when they can achieve total domination like with the previous playstations.

If it's only a moderate success (or a hit among the hardcore gamers) like the first xbox was, they are in deep shit, seeing how the xbox was a huge money pit, and Sony is not sitting on the kind of money MS does.

HotShotX @ Apr 26th 2007 3:19PM

"Kutaragi has said that he has been considering this decision for some time."

Translation: Ever since the utter failure of the PS3 started to become clear, Kaz knew the day would soon come where he would be forced to retire, or be fired publicly.

~HotShotX

waLLy @ Apr 26th 2007 1:56PM

@ jojo

ok

Edge of Blade @ Apr 26th 2007 2:02PM

@Jason:

The media had unrealistic expectations...because Krazy Ken GAVE them unrealistic expectations. 4D came out of his mouth. Were you just born? Of course the wiser of us filtered what the media and Kutatagi said. You would be a sheep not to.

DaiMac79 @ Apr 26th 2007 2:06PM

Ok, does the way that Sony (and to a lesser extent other Japanese game corps) move their execs around based on completely nontransparent personal and political motivations remind anybody else of the way the CCP power structure works? Maybe I'm too much of a PRC nerd, I dunno, but the quoted statement from the SCEI sounds just like a CCP press release, and not just because its translated of course ;)

Just made me laugh a bit because I imagined Kaz Hirai addressing the sony board and promising to hold to "Ken Kutaragi theory" with modern principles, yeah I'm a nerd :)

Shawn @ Apr 26th 2007 2:27PM

@ Jason...

Let's do a little math shall we?
You said that you make 12 bucks and hour. So, that's approx $2112.00 per month. (12 x 8 hours x 5 working days x 4.4 weeks in a month avg) Now, i'm in Canada so i'm not sure about income tax, but i believe your taxes are higher than ours. So let's use mine as a starting point (approx 33% tax rate). So now you're down to $1412 to work with. Here are some general bills:

Rent: $600
Phone bill (basic package): $40
Car payment: $300
Car insurance: $100
Groceries: $100
Basic cable: $40
Gas for car: $40
Internet (as your obviously online): $40
Power bill: $50

So even after all that you only have $102 dollars left per month, and remember I was being EXTREMELY generous with all of the above, as most peoples bills (including mine) are way higher than these 'examples'.

This list doesn't include expenses for your girlfriend, any loans or credit card payments (as most people have), clothes, medical/dental, cell phone, life insurance, investments, unexpected expenses (i.e. xmas, b-days, holidays, special occasions), grooming (i.e. hair cuts etc), apartment/home insurance. Shall I go on? And don't forget most peoples rent/food/insurance/car/utility expenses are normally way higher than the numbers stated above.

So unless your mommy or daddy is paying for your rent and car payment, or you have other 'sources' of income then I suggest you shut the hell up. You obviously don't live in the real world.

chazz06 @ Apr 26th 2007 2:29PM

@ Jason...the one who makes 12 bucks an hour...

Ok...so you must still live at home, not have any car insurance; or maybe your girlfriend pays the rent. That claim that adults without children can afford the ps3 is somewhat infuriating. Plus, I don't know what your major is, but if you have paid off all of your student loans, you must have only had half a semester at a community college where you already had a full scholorship. It's ignorant thinking like that which is why the ps3 hasn't faired so well yet. Sony was right to call it a fine dining experience. How often do people go out to expensive restaurants? And what type of people can afford too. Sounds like Sony many a social decision when they priced the ps3. Seems like they don't want "regular" people to play.

Admiral @ Apr 26th 2007 2:26PM

News flash: Every news item related to Sony, henceforth and here-to-for, shall be instantly attributed to the supposed failure of the PS3.

That is all.

The GeeT @ Apr 26th 2007 2:27PM

Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Tirrrrrrrrrrrre!

Jake @ Apr 26th 2007 2:41PM

@40

"Now, i'm in Canada so i'm not sure about income tax, but i believe your taxes are higher than ours."

I am pretty sure Canadians pay higher taxes, despite the expensive US foreign policy.

And to $12/hr Jason. Hey Moneybags, I'd hate to break it to you, but $12 ain't shit. I make $30 right out of college and $600 still ain't cheap. The only way your statement can even partially work is if you live in a small town. I think the truth of the matter is you are not a fully independant adult.

vidGuy @ Apr 26th 2007 2:43PM

Everyone has a point here. I'm a junior in college ("university" for those overseas) and I could afford a PS3 if I wanted to. Hell, I just spent $300 on a digital camera for my girlfriend. However, the fact is that $600 is twice the investment we are used to for a video game console, and that's a hell of an increase.

Is it possible to buy a PS3? I think almost everyone could make it possible. I saved up for the Wii by not buying my daily coffee for 6 months before launch. Is buying a PS3 a smart investment? It depends on what you are looking for and how much extra cash you have floating around. For someone on a tight budget, there has to be a lot of return on that $600. If you are making $100,000+ a year, $600 can be chump change.

However, natural operation of the market suggests that a $250 console is going to beat a $600 console every time.

vidGuy @ Apr 26th 2007 2:44PM

Yes, our tax rate depends on a ton of things but is usually between 17 and 25 percent for most workers.

Baz @ Apr 26th 2007 2:52PM

I think Crazy Ken is "retiring" the way Russianpresidents used to "retire."

He may be leaving, but I doubt this is solely his decision. No CEO can screw up this badly without facing the coporate firing squad....

Striderhayasa @ Apr 26th 2007 2:54PM

@ Jason

that's bullshit unless you have someone paying your rent or you're hussling. I make a lot more than you and I have no car, no kids and a gf that games (so she buys her own shit and has her own money) and I wouldn't pay $600 for a PS3. I still have rent, phone/online/food/electric/student loans etc. If you paid off all of your student loans in this age of $60,000 to $80,000 for a bachelor degree there's something you're leaving out.

The point is $600 for a game console is too much damn money. $400 for a game console is pushing it when you need mass market penetration to make a profit. Even at $299 MS still lost a ridiculous amount of money on the Xbox, they don't care about it anymore, don't want to think about it and couldn't leave it behind fast enough.

Luckily I got my Ps3 on a come up so it was freeeeeee.

Ken....you're insane with some of the ridiculous comments you've made. You had a good run but good riddance.

Shawn @ Apr 26th 2007 2:54PM

Canada's income tax system is more heavily biased against the highest income earners, thus while Canada's income tax rate is higher on average, the bottom fifty percent of the population is roughly taxed the same on income as in the United States. i'm pretty sure that 12 bucks an hour falls into that category.