PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi Gives Up and quits !!!!!!!!

[albsilk1]

Sony says sayonara to father of PlayStation
Ken Kutaragi was a gaming innovator, but his company will make do without him as it struggles to compete with Nintendo's hot-selling Wii.
By Daniel Terdiman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: April 26, 2007, 1:16 PM PDT
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news analysis It appears the disappointing PlayStation 3 has claimed its first executive victim inside Sony.

Sony and PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi made a joint statement Thursday saying Kutaragi would retire from his position as chairman and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment as of the company's next shareholders meeting on June 19, and that he has "been considering this decision for some time."

"I am happy to graduate from Sony Computer Entertainment after introducing four platforms to the PlayStation family," Kutaragi said in a statement.

Kutaragi is one of the most celebrated figures in consumer electronics history, having shipped more than 200 million PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles, as well as the PlayStation Portable. Some analysts believe that had the PS3 been perceived as a hit or even a mild hit, there's a good chance he would be sticking around for the full 10-year lifecycle Sony gives its consoles.

But the PS3 is widely seen as a commercial flop, given its third-place position among next-generation video game consoles, trailing Microsoft's second-place Xbox 360 and the surprising leader, Nintendo's genre-busting Wii. The PS3 is even trailing sales of the venerable PlayStation 2 at this point.

The "PlayStation 3 has been a huge disappointment, No. 3 out of three in terms of console sales," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "It's been a huge embarrassment for the firm, and a huge hole that money has been pouring into."

Console sales in March
Number of next-generation video game consoles sold in March in the U.S.
Nintendo Wii 259,000
Xbox 360 199,000
PlayStation 3 130,000
Source: NPD Group
Enderle said despite Kutaragi's massive success with previous iterations of the PlayStation, he probably couldn't survive the very public drubbing the PS3 has gotten in the market so far.

"When you go from superstar to walking disaster, there are few executives that can survive that," Enderle said. "You're only as good as your last financial report, and while he was given some leeway (with the PS3) there were obviously some huge mistakes."

Enderle said the biggest of those mistakes--the pricey inclusion of the Blu-ray player in the PS3--may well have been forced on Kutaragi by others at Sony.

The Blu-ray player added hundreds of dollars to the console's cost, making it, at a top price of $599, far more expensive than the $399 top-end Xbox and $250 Wii--and also making it much later to market than planned.

"It really is Blu-ray that killed him," Enderle said. "As a result, the product was too late and expensive, and that did a huge amount of damage to their sales volume."

At the same time, Nintendo's Wii has stolen the video game industry's thunder, leading the next-generation console wars with 259,000 sales in March, according to The NPD Group, largely on the strength of its innovative motion-sensitive controller. By comparison, the Xbox 360 sold 199,000 units in March, and the PS3 trailed far behind, with only 130,000 sales.


http://news.com.com/Sony+says+sayonara+ ... =cnetfd.mt

[$0 R3@L]

bwhahahahahaha!!! i knew they'd try and flip this to look bad for sony. He was planing to step down from the role for two years now so that he could take a different role within sony.His job titles changed and someone has filled his old role,whats so hard to belive that this doesnt mean its due to suppose 'lack of intrest in the ps3 causing stress' lmfao

do you people not understand that PLAYSTATION 2 is still the biggest seeling console ever even compared to the next gen consoles more people are still buying the ps2

Sony vaio screens has sold more tv's in 2006/07 then any other year in history and has made billions in profits via this.

also the blu ray discs are outselling dvds and hd dvds by millions.

so how can they claim he left because sony is flopping due to lack of ps3 sales,thats just silly talk.

[,-,'-{Bar}-',-,]

PS3 is flopping...hard

[DrRapid]

a girl in ma class bought the ps2 on christmas 2006!
xbox 360 had come out a year b4 and the Wii has already come out!

[pawel]

these things anoy me so bad just get the console you wanna get it's not just the console itself, but it's also the games coming out on the console. lol. it's true tho that without the blu-ray it wouldn't be so fucking expensive and way more people would buy... but who gives a fuck. my parents gonna pay

[AspirinE]

struggles to compete with Nintendo's hot-selling Wii.

lol thats like a sports car competing with some shitty motorbike in sales.

[Nu Syd]

bad news,Kutaragi has done alot of great things, and lmao @ the wii comment,thats funny,wii is in a lower class compared to the ps3, its really ps3 vs xbox360

[Global]

PS3 Last playstation?

[Nu Syd]

na i remember sony already registering names for ps4 and ps5