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Ken Kutaragi officially leaves PlayStation family behind today

Posted Jun 19, 2007 at 09:04AM by Ryan A. Listed in: PlayStation 3, PSP Tags: Sony, Ken Kutaragi, PS2, Howard Stringer, SCEI

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Today is the day Ken Kutaragi leaves the PlayStation family behind. Back in April, the gaming industry was shocked with the announcement that the Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) will step down from his post to "pursue his dreams beyond PlayStation and to accelerate his network vision."

Kutaragi's previously held position will now be manned by SCE's former president and COO Kaz Hirai. The former's departure will also terminate his slot in the the company's board. Despite this, Kutaragi will act as an honorary SCEI Chairman and will be Senior Technology Adviser to Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation Howard Stringer.

This development could have tremendous impact to Sony itself and more importantly, to its consumer base. Ken Kutaragi is the architect of every single PlayStation console (PSOne, PS2, PS3, and PSP). It would be interesting to watch what exact changes this will bring to Sony's future endeavors.

But for what it is worth, we all know that Kutaragi did his job well throughout these years. We just hope and pray that he finds contentment in what he decides to do next.

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62 Comments

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by joe (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» ???

WHY?

Re: antaeus - 2007-06-19

» well

the guy is old and he needs time to relax after all this years its only natural that this is happening, oh and don't let the xbots convince you that they kicked him out they like to say that from time to time

Re: .. (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» ..

He knows Microsoft has won this generation and as hes old I guess it seems the right time to quit

Re: 3lawl (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» he left cause of phags like u

lol phag

Re: Mister Common Sense - 2007-06-19

» I'm going to miss his dumbass sayings

Maybe if the SOB wasn't so *****y he would realize there was competition this time. What was one of his quotes?

"I think Microsoft can come up with something great around maybe their third release."
not exactly, but something like that.

Oops! Second release there. You screwed up the third release Ken.

He also said the PS3 was "probably too cheap"

Yeah, lots of people agree with you there.

Re: 666 (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» 666

I agree with Ken! The PS3 is to cheap. There are to many poor people in this world.

Re: hahahaha (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» IF IT WASNT FOR KEN....

there wouldnt be an XBOX.

Re: $af100792 (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» Well

the XBOX blows anyway i had one but sold for $90 last year. Stupid thing just collected dust i was usprised it worked

Re: Advertising -

Re: gimazake (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» lol

OMFG this is funny, check everywhere on google, it's reported that many people have taken stocks out of Sony due to this hahaha, OMG need money to invest so a miracle happens and due to so many people getting stocks out I make big winnings, haha all or nothing

Re: mr toasty (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» man

mister common sense....just get a frikkin life and stop trolling the comments. Honestly.

Actions speak louder than words, and Bill Gates released Windows ME didn't he?

Anyways, I think that with Kaz Hirai in charge things will start looking up. Kutarugi knew how to make a powerful machine, and Kaz knows how to market it. (He got Wal-mart to stock the PS1 back in the day)

Re: asdfadsf (Unregistered) - 2007-06-20

» sdfasf

Well this is it the downfall of the of the Gaystation 3. It will be pwned by thew XBOX 360!

Re: chubs (Unregistered) - 2007-06-20

» peterson

WRRRRYYYYYYYYYY?

*fix'd*

by na2ru1 (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» This sucks

Playstation brand is doomed for future PSs. I 4ucking hate Phil Harison "errrrm" an i dno bout Kaz coz he's still Western.

Technology is always best left for the Japs, not the lazy Western ppl. (Im from UK and we are a lazy gen)

Re: XBOX LIVE (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» XBOX LIVE

Why the PS3 sucks? Because it doesn't have XBOX LIVE, it has sucky online, all my friends are on LIVE while in sucky online nerds with no friends play hahahahaha

Re: I dont see? (Unregistered) - 2007-06-20

» Dont see a difference?

I dont see a difference from xbox live and playstation online execpt xbox live u have to pay for?

Re: Kaja (Unregistered) - 2007-06-20

» you know why XBL is better...

one word... CONTENT

now i know "huehueheuh 360 has a year headstart"

and your point?
360 will always have a one year head start that's never going to change

cell +/+ flux capacitor

by asd (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» dasd

Riiiiiidge Racerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Re: Advertising -

Re: potat4o - 2007-06-19

» ,,

my head just blew up... why?? why did you have to?

by OnimushaGTA (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» NOOOOOOO

No!!!!!!!!!!
Not the father of playstation

Re: Noooooooooo (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» Nooooooooooooooooooooo

CAPTAIN PLANET!!!
SAVE US!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Re: asdf (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» adf

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

by Uzumaki-kun (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» YAY??

With this I could only hope for Great things like, more beat em ups, fighters, and more online games! Oh and lets not forget more b.s. kiddy games like nintendo has I love those. These are the things that sony consoles seem to be lacking in.

by PSheddy - 2007-06-19

» Well...

I wish him the best of luck. Watch out for those Giant Enemy Crabs!

by Anonymous (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» Okaay?

Lol Nintendo and Microsoft fanboys...

by Dodo - 2007-06-19

» ..

Well good bye to you Sir, and thank you for your contributions in making Playstation a success. May be not all the things you did or say had the right affect, but overall you've done a good job. Good luck in your next endeavours.

Re: Mister Common Sense - 2007-06-19

» ..

I tell you what, his idiotic sayings led me to get an XBOX 360.

I'm not joking.

Oh well, I don't have anything against him. He was a smart guy, but definately not the right guy for his position. He has no business sense. I mean, you don't just double the price of your last console that many people thought was itself kinda expensive and say it's too cheap. Many people take offense to those kinds of things.

by R Kelly (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» He was on a roll

Until phil harrison introduced him to synthetic barbituates and they both got stoned and decided to design the ps3.. because there was no competition its ok to sell a machine at a huge loss except nobody is buying.... i seriously wanted a ps3 until that e3 show then i quickly changed my mind.

Re: Advertising -

Re: metalspector (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» yeah lol

that helped in changing my mind and not buying it, the decicive moment were he says: 599 US dollars. Anyways I would like a ps3 but not only the price is high but all my friends play on xbox live, not on playstation network, and the ps3 is making tremendous losses and losing third party support, I'm not gonna dare buy a console that is doomed from the start :(

by zeka (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» yummy

can anyone make me some tacos im really hungry right now and have a taste for some tacos

Re: mr toasty (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» careful

you might get the taco sh1ts

by Azazil (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» Best of luck Ken!

Adiosu! Raibu seimei tame sono ippai!

Argh, my horrible horrible japanese.

Anyways, goodbye, Father of Playstation!

by pspuser (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» disgraceful

playstation is a disgraceful, tangled mess. if you look at how the ps3 is doing right now, all this bad press over viral marketing, unoriginality (motion sensors, "playstation network", spiderman 3 font), lawsuits from companies over any little disagreement (blu-ray, resistance), itd seem clear why kutaragi decided to leave. the money grubbing competitive bastards in the company clearly have no conscience and no dignity if theyre willing to pull all these stunts without giving a second thought to how the public responds to their nonsense, believing that people will always judge the company based on its strong past. well, now that kutaragi has left, they have nothing to base the company's reliability on anymore. the poor guy was probably unwilling to put up with the nonsense any longer, and I wouldnt blame him.

by martin (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» good bye

sony its the company that makes the best cosoles
and the ps3 wil sell more by the end of this year just like the ps2 when it came out every body thought it was expensibe and look at it now its selling more than all 3 next gen consloes

Re: some random guy (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» no subject

i agree

ps. farewell mr. kutaragi. i wish you all the best.

by ... (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» ...

Well, at least the PS4 has some hope now.

by Straight Up Hatin' (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» *****es!

You xbox *****es really need to shut the f*ck up, i mean seriously so you like your loud, crashing, burning, disc scratching piece of *****, Ho-god-damn-rah!
If PS3 fans wanted to brag all they would need to say is, I OWN A SYSTEM THAT WORKS!

Now enjoy yourself *****es, it's a celebration!
Straight up hatin'

Re: Mister Common Sense - 2007-06-20

» .

My system has worked just fine since I got it 15 months ago.

Sounds like you're doing plenty of your own hating.

You can shut up now.

by droopysp (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» Job well done

You made the sony brand a huge success. for those crap-box fans out there stay in your section, not ours, if you always have something bad to say

by xman (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» haha

and as soon as a game look better on the 360 they say that developers still havent tapped the piss s 3's potential. well look at the games. if they look the same the ps3 version will have frame rate problems. thats why the 360 versions always look better. the developers have to lower the games graphics in order to make the ps3 version run smooth. face it the ps3 is MAXED OUT! there is NOTHING more a developer can do to make it better! hahahahahahahahah

Re: today (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» You don't know ***** what you are talking about

Hey dumba.s.s of course ports of games are going to look worse on the PS3. When porting a game from the Xbox360 to the PS3 it requires additional coding. Which is why the 360 version stays superior. But if a game were to be developed for the PS3 and then the 360 then both would be look identical because it is fairly easy to develop for the 360. If you want to know how powerful a console really is take a look at exclusives not some half assed port. Oh and if any console has already reached its maximum potential it's the 360 buddy not the PS3

by Ichigo (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» ......

WILL MISS YOU .....................

well i dont have a ps3 i have a 360 ut i im a proud owner of a ps1 ps1 slim ps2 ps2 slim psp AND psp homebrewXD

by i_like_games (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» playstation game over

I will remember Kutaragi as the man who both gave birth and killed the PlayStation brand. PS1 and the PS2 were good systems, but the PSP and PS3 sucked. I still have hope for the PSP, but not while it was under Kutaragi's thumb.

The PS3 is done for. Sony created a vicious cycle that will be its own end:
1) Price the console so high that people choose competing consoles instead.
2) As a result fewer PS3s are sold, so fewer people will buy games.
3) Game companies will shy away from PS3 exclusives because the venture won't be worth the profit because of the small PS3 install base.
4) Gamers will continue to steer away from the PS3 because the console will always be more expensive than the competition and the games won't be there.
5) Even fewer game companies make exclusives...
6) etc...

by i_like_games (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

by lol (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» lol

Microsoft aint won nothing if anything i think it will loose wait a year or so for good game then the PS3 will rule even though i have a Wii tho they rely need to lower the price to atleast
£350-375

by HumanIce (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» read my comment

what ever people say, if Xbox is the best, playstation..
nintendo will ALWAYS win. I like nintendo, and nintendo's games.. and I don't like sony's games, and sony's best friend, rockstar.. I buy playstation because there are some games only made for playstation, like resident evil, metal gear solid, tekken.. and... STUFF. but nintendo has fun games.. and I like nintendo, but their consoles are *****. nintendo just made "wii" and the graphics are awful.. but still, I bought the wii first because I like nintendo more than sony..

by badboy_br (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» pwned evry 1

dude u rule...lol

12 yr old pwned every fanboy here...lol
this guy should get a medal of honour for this
this has been the ultimate pawn i've everseen

you all have been OWNED hahaha

by cody (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» what i heard

i heard that hes going to nintendo

but the source i heard it from dosen't want to reveal too much

Re: skyler (Unregistered) - 2007-06-20

» lol

was the sauce apple?

by PS3 Defender (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» Face the truth

ps3 will never fail its soooooooo powerful just wait until they
use its full power until then go here to face the truth
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats
NOW THROW YOUR PC OFF THE WINDOW

by Maxi Power (Unregistered) - 2007-06-19

» hahahaha SONY

haha he left cause he just releised how sucky SONY are, get a Wi