Sony's PlayStation 3 evangelist steps down

Posted Apr 27th 2007 5:14PM by Brian White
Filed under: Management, Microsoft (MSFT), Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Ken Kutaragi, the chief mind behind Sony Corporation's (ADR) (NYSE: SNE) enormous PlayStation empire, will be leaving the Japanese electronics giant in June at the company's next annual shareholder's meeting. According to many industry pundits, the failure of the PlayStation 3 to almost immediately become world dominant was the impetus that made Kutaragi step down (more than be asked to leave).

The PlayStation franchise has been enormously popular for Sony and has led to the sale of 200 million gaming consoles worldwide. The decision to include a next-generation DVD player (Blu-ray) into the PlayStation 3, though, was a mistake that added hundreds of dollars to the console's price. In effect, the $599 price (for the upscale model) was out of reach for many and the console's sell-through has been a tad dismal to this point because of it (and possibly other reasons)

Meanwhile, Nintendo Co., Ltd's (ADR) (OTC:NTDOY) "lowly" Wii gaming console has taken the gaming world by storm, outselling both the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 by a wide margin. It comes down to engaging customers (players) emotionally instead of having the highest-tech onboard, and Nintendo knows this. While Kutaragi will go down as Sony's most important executive (possibly ever), his latest creation may continue to flop and die a slow death. Although, it's only been six months since the PlayStation 3's release -- is the market (as always) just looking for instant gratification here. But, if Sony can't recover from the PlayStation 3 mess, will CEO Howard Stringer be the next one to "step down"?

Tags: Ken Kutaragi, KenKutaragi, PlayStation 3 sales, Playstation3Sales, SNE, Sony, Sony PlayStation 3, SonyPlaystation3

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-27-2007 @ 8:30PM

M. Jones said...

And to think...this actually made it to the public? Come on people...get off of it. This article must have written when the unit first came out because as of today...not only has Sony broke record sales in Europe it's first week but it continued to break sales carts by selling $800,000 or so units in 3 weeks time. And in the U.S the sales of the PS3 is the only system that is still on the raise in sales per week while the 360(who by the way does have a high dollars system themselves WITHOUT a High Dif drive inside(??), but yet you don't mention how stupid that was) and the LAST GEN WII(that's right, Last Gen because a new controller doesn't make your system Next Gen..it's the same old graphics,same sound and it can't do anything that the ps2 can't do in fact in reality that is what it is really compared to and in comparison the ps2 still is the #1 selling system even today over every system..past or next Gen. Now that is worth talking about)sales have dropped in sales. Check latest info before putting out past info. This will help!