Katuragi forced to retire from Sony : Looks like 'Ol Ken is stepping down from Sony

Does this mean we may have logical choices with the PS3 now?

-----------------------



PlayStation architect resigns amid broader struggles for Sony


By RACHEL KONRAD
AP Technology Writer




SAN JOSE, Calif.
The chief architect of Sony Corp.'s flagship PlayStation game console will retire in June as the company struggles to retain dominance in the gaming industry.

Ken Kutaragi, 56, an icon among gamers, will retire as Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s chairman and group chief executive, Tokyo-based Sony said Thursday.

"Mr. Kutaragi has said that he has been considering this decision for some time," Sony Computer spokeswoman Kimberly Otzman said in a statement. "Sony and SCE will continue to seek Mr. Kutaragis input and ideas from a broad perspective, while continuing to support him as much as possible in the realization of his dreams."

Sony executives would not comment beyond the release, and representatives refused to discuss whether the departure was related to performance.

Kutaragi's most recent brain child, the PlayStation 3 console, came out in November but was marred by embarrassing production shortages and a $600 price tag that even some long-standing Sony fans said was too steep. For the past several months, Sony has resorted to giving away free game titles and other marketing gimmicks to spur sales.

Sony has also struggled to expand beyond the young, male demographic of so-called "hardcore" gamers. Investors have been grumbling for several quarters that Sony has failed to attract women, young children and older gamers to its products, and its market share has shrunk as a result.

Problems related to Sony's limited demographic came into sharp focus late last year, when Nintendo Co. launched a rival game console, the Wii, for about $250. The device, which includes a diminutive, wrist-mounted controller and a console that's skimpy on realistic graphics, has become a surprise hit among girls, suburban mothers, senior citizens and other people who have never purchased a "first-person shooter" video game and didn't even considered themselves gamers.

Sony shipped 1.84 million PS3 machines worldwide through Dec. 31. In the same period, Nintendo sold 3.19 million Wii machines worldwide.

The loss to Nintendo prompted Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer to escalate his turnaround effort. In November, the Welsh-born executive, one of the first foreign-born CEOs of a major Japanese electronics company, strengthened control over the video game division, stripping Kutaragi of day-to-day management responsibilities.

The retirement of Kutaragi, dubbed the "Gutenberg of Video Games" by Time Magazine in 2004, will be effective June 19. After that, he'll be honorary chairman of the entertainment division and will serve as Stringer's senior technology adviser. Kutaragi will be replaced by Kazuo Hirai, who is now chief operating officer of Sony's entertainment division.

Although Kutaragi will remain as adviser, some U.S. gaming experts said the retirement may have been a face-saving firing and an effort by Stringer to recover from the botched PS3 launch.

"Sony had too much hype and not enough delivery," Billy Pidgeon, games analyst for research firm IDC, said of the PS3. "Sony didn't notice that their audience was dwindling and didn't increase the base by playing to a wider demographic, and instead it played the old-school game of playing to the 18- to 32-year-old male early adopter. Nintendo saw this as a strategic flaw, and the Wii has basically become the disruptive product."

 

so long for Ps4 xD

I hope the Wii will be the equivelant to the Return of the jedi in gaming

 

It will be interesting to see which direction Sony heads in next...

 

sweet...!

 

He's pissed off at the demotion, no surprise there. Since Sony have ploughed so much money into the PlayStation franchise I doubt they'll step out just because Ken is moving on. Most likely there will be a more generic hardware design next round though.

 

Well, there's always Nintendo

 

I will agree with Dr_Slump. Nintendo could benefit with Krazy Ken onboard - but they might reject him for being so costly when it comes to priorities.

I agree, the man has a vision, but often he has risked grand sums of money for that vision, and the PSP and the PS3 both haven't turned out as good as they *should* to justify the expense in terms of capitalist theory.

 

THerse still time though , esp with the PS3...

I think the PSP hit the homebrew world larger then Sony would have expected/imagined/wanted etc. But by the same token, its re-awakend a fresh interest in Games development for the newer generation.

 

don't get me wrong, but it's time for sony to lose the first place. it's called market rotation, and the winner is the consumer. It's pure maths and statistics really, you can't win every round, because you re bound to make some mistakes on the way that will eventually accumulate and come to haunt you. Nintendo lived through such an experience after the very successful SNES console.

speaking in terms of market economics however, nintendo was able to fullfil the Nash equazion. They priced lower than their competitors with the n64 and the gamecube, and although they didn't win the race, they didn't crash and burn either - the success of their portables also offered significant padding for the company's wallet, especially during the later stages of the GC. Nevertheless, due to extreme bleeding-losses on Sony's camp, this is isn't feasable really for sony, and between MS being the highe price and Nintendo being the lowest, Sony would optimally place themselves somewhere in between to satisfy the market - still, nintendo's lower price (considering marketing trends are in place as they are) will further tighten Sony's position in the market, despite the already large displacement sufferd by th the 360.

Sony's underdog for the company, its bread and butter in other words if they hope to survive, is the PlayStation 2 platform, and they would be wise not to drop support for it in my view.

This is the part that Sony's backward compatibility materializes as a potential issue. By not offering all consumers the whole Playstation 2 benefit , right off the bat, people are made to buy Ps2 units (Which is reflected in the high sales seen accross the globe, from Japan to the UK, the PS2 is second to the DS only) and at the same time ignore the PS3.

Since's people's mind is set in PS2 software for the moment, offering proper BC on the PS3 would mean a foot in the door for forward-thinking consumers, wishing to also ensure their future gaming platform.

Concluding, I would like to say that no matter what your arguments are in showing the lack of hardware b/c of the PS3 in a favourable light, the truth of the matter is that many people just want PS2 titles - and they can wholy achieve this only through the cheaper, more compatible , PS2. In this case, the Ps3 for them would be a highly-priced compromise, with no titles to drag the console so far (nothing as exciting as God of War for example, or GTA).

"But..it's a great Blu-ray player!" - so what? that's just like saying that it comes in a shinny black box. Most consumers are not tech-aware , if you can understand what I mean. And not being able to see the difference between DVD and HD media..well why the hell would they want to buy a blu-ray player?

For those who want a cheap Blu-ray player though, it's a nice product, to the detriment of its company.

From a business point of view, the PS3 is rubbish, it makes no commercial sense - and I don't care how much you hate me for saying this, I m speaking from the shoes of corporate analysis and economic realities (having recently also dealt with the legal side of corporations), and not some fan-boyistic trendy assumption , based on rumours.

 

Good point.. The SNES was their making in the main 'Console Wars' but they took a hammering with the N64....

As you say, maybe its time for a turnaround!

 

we should seeif we can get him to sign up on here!!!

Just a thought!

 

i can imagine him wondering the streets of tokyo, selling prototype devkits for a piece of bread :lol:

 

Now all Sony have to do is fire Phil Harrison publicly and get someone on board who doesn't speak via their neither regions. Sony have managed to balls up and annoy people, so they need to work on sorting this out.

Although people keep going on about the PS3 being expensive, lack of software, a blu-ray player and forget that the PS2 had the same problems when that came out (although like the PS3 is the cheapest Blu-Ray player, the PS2 was the cheapest DVD player).

The PS3 hasn't exactly sold by the bucket load and I don't see the Nintendo Wii as it's main problem, it's main problem is the PS2. Unlike the Gamecube which is still available but barely selling or the Xbox which has been dropped completely, the PS3 is being outsold by the PS2 infact the PS2 is doing better then the Xbox 360 and outside Japan is selling well on par with the Wii. Sony can't drop the PS2 as it is a large cashcow and they know that probably for a year the PS2 will have more top ten selling titles then the other consoles and with the poor PS2 compatability of the PS3 they can't drop the console. Nintendo and Microsoft don't have this problem, the Gamecube and Xbox being dead in the water.

So Sony need to do a few things...

1) Get a killer app onto the market as soon as possible, the PS3 really lacks one and although there are one or two good games on the machine (Virtua Fighter 5, Motorstorm, er that Gundam game, er...) there isn't anything that people want to go out and buy.

2) Get a team of programmers and lock them in a room until they get software PS2 compatability to at least 95%.

3) Drop the price of the PS3, make it a machine that people want to buy.

4) Start thinking about phasing out the PS2 before Christmas.

People keep going on about how well the Wii is doing but if you look at specific genres, the PS3 even with it's smaller base is outselling physically or by installed base. If you want a fighting game then the PS3 is your machine, driving game? Again PS3, proper baseball? PS3. Mahjong (stop laughing at the back, in Japan the sale of a Mahjong or Pachislot game shows that an older male target audience is buying the machine)? PS3. Mech games? PS3.

I bought a PS3 and I currently have 7 games for the machine and I can quite honestly say that I think it was one of the best machines I have bought. I've played the Wii and I've played a number of titles and currently there are 3 titles I would consider buying but so far I've resisted buying the machine.

BTW, what's with the advert on the message? Assembler branching out?

 

I saw that, too. An advert started appearing in the top right corner of the initial post. Appeared to be from googlesyndication.com & theledger.com. [edit: fixed typos, looong day...]