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Ken Kutaragi

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Ken Kutaragi
Kutaragi with his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.
Born (1950-08-02) August 2, 1950 (age 74)
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Alma materUniversity of Electro-Communications
Occupation(s)President and CEO, Cyber AI Entertainment
External Director, Marvelous AQL
Known forPlayStation, Cellius

Ken Kutaragi (久夛良木 健, Kutaragi Ken, born August 2, 1950) is the former Chairman and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI), the video game division of Sony Corporation, and current president and CEO of Cyber AI Entertainment. He is known as "The Father of the PlayStation", and its successors and spinoffs, including the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and the PlayStation 3.

He had also designed the sound processor for the Super NES. With Sony, he designed the VLSI chip which works in conjunction with the PS1's RISC CPU to handle the graphics rendering. Kutaragi was closely watched by financial analysts who trace profiles of the losses and profits of the Sony Corporation.

Early years

Ken Kutaragi was born in Tokyo, Japan. His parents, although not wealthy by Japanese standards, still managed to own their own business, a small printing plant in the city. As Kutaragi grew into childhood, they actively encouraged the young boy to explore his mechanical abilities in the plant, and he worked after school there. Aside from his duties in his parents' factory, Kutaragi was a studious, high-level student; he was often described as a "straight A student."

Kutaragi always had the desire to "tinker", often taking apart toys as a child to see how they worked. This curiosity carried from childhood, leading him as a teenager to learn the intricacies of electronics. Eventually, in fact, his love of electronics led to him enrolling in University of Electro-Communications, where he acquired an Electronics degree.

Immediately after graduation, Kutaragi began working for Sony in their digital research labs. Although at the time it was considered a radical decision, Kutaragi felt that Sony was on the "fast track". He quickly gained a reputation as an excellent problem solver and a forward thinking engineer, earning that reputation by working on many successful projects - including early liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and digital cameras.

Career

In the late 1980s, he was watching his daughter play a Famicom and realized the potential that existed within video games. At that particular time, Sony's executives had very little interest in video games. Thus, when Nintendo expressed the need for a wave-table sound chip for its upcoming new 16-bit system, Kutaragi immediately accepted. Working in secret, he designed and built the chip, the SPC700. When they found out, Sony's executives were furious. Only with Sony CEO Norio Ohga's help was Kutaragi able to push the project to completion and keep his job.

Even while working with Nintendo, within Sony, gaming was still regarded as a fad and something looked down upon. Despite this hostile atmosphere to video games, Kutaragi managed to persuade Sony to fund his research into the Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter. These efforts resulted a device called the "Play Station", a console that would be compatible with both Super Famicom games and software released on a new format called the SuperDisc. Eventually, the partnership between Sony and Nintendo faltered due to licensing disagreements, but Kutaragi and Sony continued to develop their own console. Kutaragi later recalled staying up all night working on the console design for several nights in a row "because our work was so interesting."[1] Despite being considered a risky gamble by other Sony executives, Kutaragi once again had the support of Norio Ohga and several years later the company released the original PlayStation. The success of the PlayStation led to him heading up the development of more consoles like the PlayStation 2, and its successor, 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 PlayStation 2 extended Sony's lead in the following generation, at one point holding a 65% market share with 100 million units shipped.[2] Ken was recognized by many financial and technological publications for this success, most notably when he was named one of the 100 most influential people of 2004 in TIME magazine[3] and the "Gutenberg of Video Games".

Since 1997, Kutaragi had been favoured to become the next Sony president. He enjoyed a close relationship with Sony CEO Norio Ohga, who had backed Kutaragi on the Sound Chip and PlayStation projects.[4] Ohga's successor Nobuyuki Idei promoted Kutaragi to Deputy Executive President, Sony-Global chief operating officer, and Vice-Chairman in 2003.

On November 30, 2006, Kutaragi was replaced as President of Sony Computer Entertainment by Kaz Hirai, the President of SCE America. In addition to other management changes, Kutaragi was promoted to chairman of SCEI, and retained his position as chief executive officer of the group.[5] On April 26, 2007, it was announced that Kutaragi would retire and instead take up the role of Honorary Chairman. Taking over his position would be then SCEI president and CEO Kaz Hirai, who would eventually be promoted to president and CEO of Sony.[6][7][8][9] On June 29, 2011, following the reshuffling of management, Sony announced that on June 28, 2011, Kutaragi had stepped down as honorary chairman of SCEI. Kutaragi relinquished active management of the business he created and built in 2007, when he stepped down as executive Chairman and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.[10] He has remained at Sony as senior technology advisor.

Ken Kutaragi later became president and CEO of Cyber AI Entertainment, Inc. He also serves on the boards of Kadokawa Group Holdings, Inc., Nojima Corporation, and Rakuten, Inc. In 2009, he became a visiting professor of Ritsumeikan University.[11][12]

Assessment by industry analysts

Although Kutaragi's leadership of consumer electronics was not successful, analysts also suspect that outgoing Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei had set up Kutaragi to fail, given that both men had a cool working relationship. Idei assigned Kutaragi the tedious task of turning around the consumer division which had already been falling behind competitors such as Samsung in the LCD market.[4] Kutaragi's rival for the top position, Howard Stringer, was given the less difficult assignment of the content business and his success at Sony BMG Music Entertainment resulted in his promotion.

Sony Computer Entertainment, which Kutaragi had been heading since its inception, had a weaker year in 2004 after several years of solid growth.[13] 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, losing $25 million in Q4 of 2004. This can be attributed partially to the over-saturation of the video game market and price wars which caused the PS2 to lose the top sales position for a time.[14]

Seventh generation game consoles

Kutaragi has labelled the Xbox 360 as "just an Xbox 1.5" and stated that it was "only going after PlayStation 2".[15][16] However, SCE Executive Tetsuhiko Yasuda did not consider Microsoft to be a competitor, and has said that they might consider working on games together.[17] In September 2006 Kutaragi admitted that the shortage of PlayStation 3 consoles to North America and Japan as well as the postponing of the consoles debut in Europe put Sony's strength in hardware in decline.[18]

References

  1. ^ "75 Power Players: Back at the Lab...". Next Generation (11). Imagine Media: 73. November 1995.
  2. ^ "playstation 2 breaks record as the fastest computer entertainment platform to reach cumulative shipment of 100 million units" (PDF). Sony Computer Entertainment. November 30, 2005. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
  3. ^ "TIME 100: Most Influential People 2004". Time Magazine. April 26, 2004. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
  4. ^ a b "Mr. Idei's Kurosawa Ending - The Rise of Howard Stringer at Sony is More Properly the Fall of Ken Kutaragi". PBS. March 10, 2005. Retrieved October 12, 2006.
  5. ^ Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (November 30, 2006). "SCE Announces New Management Team" (PDF). Retrieved November 30, 2006.
  6. ^ "Kutaragi to retire from executive role at Sony". gamesindustry.biz. April 26, 2007. Retrieved April 26, 2007.
  7. ^ "Farewell Mr Playstation". mvcuk. April 26, 2007. Retrieved April 26, 2007.
  8. ^ "PlayStation creator Kutaragi resigns". CNET News.com. April 26, 2007. Retrieved July 23, 2007.
  9. ^ "Farewell, Father". GamesIndustry.biz. April 27, 2007. Retrieved July 23, 2007.
  10. ^ "PlayStation 'father' Ken Kutaragi retires". Los Angeles Times. June 29, 2011. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  11. ^ "客員教授 - 教員紹介 - 経営管理研究科（経営大学院） - 立命館大学". Ritsumei.jp. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  12. ^ "ソニーの久多良木氏、立命館大の客員教授に : J-CASTニュース". J-cast.com. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  13. ^ "Sony hit by drop in games sales". BBC. April 27, 2004. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
  14. ^ "Xbox officially outsells PS2 in US". GameSpot. March 26, 2004. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
  15. ^ "Xbox 360 = Xbox 1.5? Kutaragi trashtalkin'!". Engadget. May 25, 2005. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
  16. ^ "Broken Promises: A Closer Look at the PS3". GamePro.com. Archived from the original on June 19, 2006. Retrieved November 20, 2006.
  17. ^ ""Sony would consider working with "non-competitor" Microsoft"". Joystiq. February 25, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
  18. ^ "Kutaragi: Sony Hardware 'In Decline'". BetaNews. September 8, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
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