Slow shuffle out the door for PS3 father

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 20 June 2007 09:01

Your IT - Entertainment

Ken Kutaragi has completed the expected departure from Sony after announcing his intention to retire earlier this year, the father of the PS3 has officially cleaned up his desk.

Although he is not out of the Sony clasp just yet, (officially in an advisory role for Sony Japan) Ken Kutaragi has officially retired as chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.  Former president and chief operating officer Kazuo Hirai has stepped up to the position.

Given Kutaragi’s legacy overseeing the Walkman and original PlayStation projects at the electronics giant it has been a shadowing last few months, with Kutaragi seemingly becoming the scape-goat for a perceived PS3 failure.

The PS3 pricing structure, and disappointment in grabbing a larger gaming demographic, which has been pirated by the Nintendo Wii has largely been levelled at Kutaragi, at least he seems to have shouldered the blame.

As the ‘father of the PlayStation’ – a moniker stretching back to the original game console in 1994- Kutaragi’s success had been overshadowed as the PS3 stumbled at many hurdles from production, through image and sales.

Kutaragi was accused of not pushing exclusive software deals hard or fast enough – as such AAA titles such as Assassins Creed were lost to multi-platform oblivion as far as Sony was concerned.

But pundits are wrong right off the PS3 so soon in its life cycle, for all that Kutaragi has given the gaming industry, lets hope his legacy is not marred by a couple of early PS3 stumbles out of the blocks.