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Revision as of 03:29, 6 December 2005 by Doom127 (talk | contribs) ((organized and cleaned up))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Ken Kutaragi (久夛良木 健 Kutaragi Ken , born August 8, 1950) is currently the President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, the videogames division of the Sony Corporation. He is known as the "Father of PlayStation", including the succeeding PlayStation 2 and the upcoming and next-generation PlayStation 3.
Biography
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Kutaragi graduated from the city's University of Electro-Communications in 1975 with an electrical engineering degree, and immediately began working for Sony in their digital research labs. Here he gained a reputation as an excellent problem solver, and a forward thinking engineer. He worked on many successful projects including early liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and digital cameras.
In the late 1980s, after becoming interested in Nintendo's Famicom system, he persuaded Sony to fund his research into what eventually became the PlayStation. Despite being considered a risky gamble by other Sony executives, Kutaragi had the support of Sony CEO Norio Ogha. The success of that project led to him leading the development of its successor, the PlayStation 2, and he is currently working on the third in the series, the PlayStation 3.
The commercial success of the PlayStation franchise makes Sony Computer Entertainment the most profitable business division of Sony. Despite being an upstart in the console market against veterans Nintendo and Sega, the first PlayStation displaced them both to become the most popular console of that era. The PlaySation 2 extended Sony's lead in the following generation, at one point holding a 65% market share with 100 million units shipped . He was recognized by financial and tech publications for this success, most notably in 2004 when he was named one of the 100 most influential people in TIME magazine.
Executive Rise
Since 1997, Kutaragi had been favoured to become the next Sony president. He enjoyed a close relationship with Sony CEO Norio Ogha, who backed Kutaragi on the PlayStation project. Ogha's successor Nobuyuki Idei promoted Kutaragi to deputy executive president, Chief operating officer, and vice-chairman in 2003. Kutaragi was promoted by Nobuyuki Idei to Sony-Global Chief operating officer and Vice-Chairman in 2003. During a controversial management shakeup in 2005, Kutaragi was demoted from the Board of Directors and replaced as consumer electronics head. However, Kutaragi will remain as the head of the Sony Computer Entertainment gaming division and will also be given a new title: Group Executive Officer.
Controversies
Kutaragi is a target of many controversies in the press. His speeches attract heavily attention and repercussion.
- Many analysts believe that Kutaragi's demotion was surprising and indeed harsh, but his outspokeness (see below) did not win him friends in Sony's leadership: in all likelihood, his demotion was perhaps caused by his speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo wherein he criticised Sony's policy of using proprietary technologies and implicitly criticised the company's use of DRM technologies in reference to Sony's failure to offer a compelling strategy to answer the rise of Apple Computer's iPod . For an employee to make such frank criticism of a major Japanese corporation is rare, and it is unlikely to have gone down well with Sony's most senior executives at the time, particularly the then CEO Nobuyuki Idei, with whom he had a cool working relationship .
- Many analysts note that outgoing Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei had set up Kutaragi to fail, by assigning Kutaragi the tedious task of turning around the consumer division which had already been falling behind competitors such as Samsung. Kutaragi's rival for the top position, Howard Stringer, was given the less difficult assignment of the Sony's content business and his success at SonyBMG resulted in his promotion.
- Some analysts complain that Kutaragi is responsible for Sony Corporation loss $288 million in 2004 and this resulted in his resignation from the board of directors and being passed over for the top position in favour of Howard Stringer.Other people believed that Kutaragi deserved to be demoted due to the large losses Sony made in the consumer electronics market . One of Kutaragi's failures as head of consumer electronics was the PSX (DVR) which was said to hurt Sony's media convergence plans .
- Kutaragi is often blamed for Sony Computer Entertainment having a weaker year in 2004 after several years of solid growth. However, analysts attribute this mainly to oversaturation of the video game market which was the main factor in declining console sales. Sony Computer Entertainment loss $25 million in Q4 of 2004. During that same year, Sony’s game sales fell to $7.5 billion from $8.2 billion, and its operating income slid to $650 million from $1 billion .
- Kutaragi labeled the Xbox 360 as "just an Xbox 1.5" and that it was "only going after PlayStation2"
Perhaps for making the PlayStation a highly profitable business and because it has been the key source of profits for its parent, Kutaragi is close watched by financial analysts who trace profiles of losses and profits of Sony Corporation.
External links
- In April 2004, TIME magazine named Kutaragi one of the 100 most influential people in the world (and the "Gutenberg of Video Games" .)
- Playing His Way to the Next Level – By Jim Frederick, TIME (with reporting by Toko Sekiguchi), 2003
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