Ken Kutaragi officially throws in the towel, retires from SCE

by Peter Vrabel { Jun 19th 2007 at 3:00PM }

The father of the PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, has officially retired from Sony Computer Entertainment. Previously, following a corporate re-shuffle, Mr. Kutaragi stepped down as CEO of SCE, replaced by Kaz Hirai. Now, Ken Kutaragi is relinquishing his Sony duties further, stepping down as SCE's Chairman and Group Chief Executive while remaining on board with SCE in an advisory role. Perhaps Sir Howard Stringer can assist with Ken Kutaragi's early retirement by quickly issuing restraining orders against him on all things Sony PlayStation-related. After all, earlier reports show "Krazy Ken" Kutaragi clearly doesn't know "when to say when" as he proceeded to inflate the PS3's budget until it exploded in everyone's collective faces, causing fallout from a few layoffs to a huge quarterly loss. Except now without Kutaragi in the limelight, how are we going to get such beautiful mock-ups of the PlayStation grill?

Tags: kaz hirai, KazHirai, ken kutaragi, KenKutaragi, krazy ken, KrazyKen, playstation, sce, sir howard stringer, SirHowardStringer, sony computer entertainment, SonyComputerEntertainment

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

massive_98 @ Jun 19th 2007 3:06PM

He has made millions of dollars at the expense of Sony 's Playstation. Bye.

Mr. Nevelo S. @ Jun 19th 2007 3:14PM

well deserved millions though

massive_98 @ Jun 19th 2007 3:16PM

Not this generation.

borland502 @ Jun 19th 2007 3:24PM

@massive_98

Yep, he screwed up in many ways with this generation. BUT...he isn't called "The Father of the Playstation" without reason. 2 out of 3 proven successes is a better track record than most trilogies.

And this round is still in progress. So keep his number Stringer, but don't let him speak again in public =-.)

Popfrogs @ Jun 19th 2007 3:30PM

At the expense of the Playstation? This man *is* the Playstation. It was his risky baby from the PS1 to the PS2 and now the PS3. If it weren't for him and his devil-may-care attitude the PS3 would be sporting a DVD drive and lacking any amount of grunt. Sony sure wouldn't be touting a 10 year lifetime on it if Kutaragi hadn't designed it the way he envisioned it.

Most of us gamers owe this genius a debt of gratitude. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it is to be a maverick inside the corporate beehive of Sony or any other giant company.

mccomber @ Jun 19th 2007 3:31PM

As an engineering mind, he was great. As an executive and PR person... not so much. This is an old article, but with this becoming official it's pretty relevant. http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=75805
We have no idea right now exactly how this generation will end. So, I'm going to say his choices as an engineer have always been strong, and don't see that changing with the ps3. It's an incredible piece of hardware for sure.
Here's to his final official project at SCEI also proving to be his best when it's all said and done.

WebMaster @ Jun 19th 2007 3:40PM

Alot of gamers owe "krazy ken" a debt of gratitude. Yes, he was a PR nightmare, but he has accompished a great many things, and for that I will honor him.

My issue with my PS3 is the BR player. The games truly, imho, don't need that level of storage yet, and I often wonder if it was Ken pushing the BR or someone else in Sony wanting to use the PS3 as a sacrafice to penetrate the HD market, at the expense of the PS3 as a gaming machine. Lets face it, at this time the PS3 has saved BR, while BR has victimized the PS3's potential install, and developer support due to the initial price point. HD-DVD has been killed by the PS3, not BR in general.

miguelon918 @ Jun 19th 2007 3:58PM

Playstation 2, 120 million consoles sold period

WhackMushroom @ Jun 19th 2007 4:03PM

yay now everything will return to normal .. good old by the book stuff .. yay!

say what you want to say about kk. not one of our armchair quaterback blog commenters can even hold a candle to what this guy has done in his life and with his life.

trust me if you could do better you wouldnt be commenting here ...

massive_98 @ Jun 19th 2007 4:17PM

Ok I was wrong. But I only own a PS3 not a PS2 or PS1 so his legacy doesn't help me.

WhackMushroom @ Jun 19th 2007 4:34PM

massive_98 .. your the reason i wake up hating the internet every other day.

massive_98 @ Jun 19th 2007 4:36PM

What a nice cheerful comment.

Vincent060 @ Jun 19th 2007 4:42PM

@massive_98

You don't own either of them yet?!!! What are you doing here? Go get them and see what you've been missing out. They are the reason we have so much faith in Sony and the PS3.

WebMaster @ Jun 19th 2007 4:43PM

"trust me if you could do better you wouldnt be commenting here ...Posted at 4:34PM on Jun 19th 2007 by WhackMushroom"

Oh the irony of this statement.....

Aysir @ Jun 19th 2007 5:00PM

"You don't own either of them yet?!!! What are you doing here? Go get them and see what you've been missing out. They are the reason we have so much faith in Sony and the PS3."
Surely that's the point of Backwards compatability. He shouldn't need a PS1 or 2 as most games will work.

mmcomber, Nice link to that eurogamer article. I was going to post the same thing :) It's amazing how quickly people turn on someone for saying a few silly things, even when they have a past as rich as Ken Kutaragi's.

Vincent060 @ Jun 19th 2007 5:14PM

@15 Aysir

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. BTW, I think massive_98 is a girl, under 18 too, if I'm not mistaken.

Jared @ Jun 19th 2007 6:03PM

Don't go too deep with the metaphor here, but it's sad to me that the PS3 was to Kutaragi as Waterloo was to Napoleon or the Virtual Boy was to Gunpei Yokoi(I know, the PS3 is actually worth owning as opposed to VB, that's not my point). It is a fine piece of hardware. Someday, I will be grateful to him when I can afford to get my hands on one (I work in the non-profit industry and don't exactly make fat bank). I think a lot will smooth out for the PS3 in the next few years of the industry, which will make it something even greater than what it is now.

If 'n nothing else, we owe him BIG TIME for the PS2 and PSOne. He changed the face of gaming between 1996 and 2006. The man owns a decade of video gaming. This is coming from an honest Nintendo fanboy. Those years weren't exactly Nintendo's greatest in the home console market (taking home a distant third once the XBox got in on the action).

I wish Ken well and I hope he finds himself back into engineering another system soon (you never know, he could leave Sony for green pastures at another company...). I certainly give it up for all he's done for gaming over the last decade.

pete @ Jun 19th 2007 6:20PM

time to retire kraaaazy ken, your loaded, live the life, a ton of prostitues and pounds of coke. get the party started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 for all your kraaaaaaaaaaaazyyness you did a lot. i guess. so give props where props are due. i guess.

massive_98 @ Jun 19th 2007 6:29PM

"I think massive_98 is a girl, under 18 too, if I'm not mistaken."

Are you a stalker? PS3fanboy is stupid. I am never coming back!

Andir3.0 @ Jun 19th 2007 7:08PM

@Webmaster, you truly are clueless, aren't you? Games today not needing the extra space? Have you installed a game recently on your PC? We are talking Gigs of data. Not 1 or 2, I mean 10-20. Art and assets alone are the reason that space is prime on discs. If your name has any bearing on your occupation, I can understand the utter lack of knowledge on what it actually takes to put a game on a disc and have it successfully run. Web designers have to keep pages light to reduce loading times. Hell, they even resort to "side loading" with Ajax and Flash-like content to reduce the initial page face time, but game developers now have the ability to use this space AND present it to the users as evident by the titles out now. Your either jealous that you don't have the "bandwidth" for it or you simply don't understand. I hope it's the latter and your not here on some kind of personal issue.

By your previous posts and attacks at me, I can only assume your a completely clueless anti-Sony fanboy here to raise fits whenever you can. I will never understand why this kind of stuff gets your type wet in the pants.