Ken Kutaragi ( Jap. 久 夛 良 木 健 Kutaragi Ken , born August 2, 1950 , Tokyo , Japan ) - former chairman, chief executive officer and founder of Sony Computer Entertainment . Known as the “father of the PlayStation, ” thanks to which Sony received a large sales revenue.
| Ken Kutaragi | |
|---|---|
| 夛 良 木 健 | |
| Date of Birth | August 2, 1950 (68 years) |
| Place of Birth | Tokyo , Japan |
| Citizenship |  Japan |
| Occupation | Founding member, former chairman, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (also known as the creator of the PlayStation ) Former employee and deputy executive director of Sony Corporation Founder, President and CEO of Cyber AI Entertainment |
| Awards and prizes | [d] ( 2013 ) |
Until that time, he had developed a sound processor for the Super Nintendo console . With Sony, he developed the VLSI chip, which works in conjunction with the PlayStation's RISC processor to handle 3D rendering.
Kutaragi closely watched financial analytics, tracked losses and profits of Sony Corporation. This explains the high profit of the PlayStation franchise in Sony reports, it was the main source of profit for the company [1] .
Ken Kutaragi is currently president and CEO of Cyber AI Entertainment . He is also a board member of companies such as Kadokawa Group Holdings , Nojima Corporation and Rakuten .
Content
Early years
Ken Kutaragi was born in 1950 in Tokyo . His family owned a small printing house. As a child, Ken often disassembled toys to understand how they work. As a schoolboy, he begins to study the features of modern electronics. Thanks to this, Ken, in his father’s printing office, was quicker than all the other workers to understand the specifics of machinery, easily mastered the repair skills and began to improve them.
After finishing school with excellent grades, he entered the University of Electronics in the city of Choufou .
Jobs at Sony
After graduation, Ken Kutaragi was hired by Sony , where he saw his great potential. He was one of the developers of the first LCD screens and digital cameras .
In the 1980s, he watched his daughter play Famicom and saw the enormous potential of electronic entertainment. At that time, Sony executives showed little interest in video games. When Nintendo announced the need to create a sound chip for a new 16-bit system, Kutaragi’s help was accepted. Secretly from his bosses, he created a chip known as the SPC700 . When company leaders found out about this, they were frantic. Only with the help of Sony CEO Norio Og, Kutaragi retained his work and completed his work on the creation of the chip.
Even when working with Nintendo, Sony viewed computer games as a fad and looked down on it. Despite his hostile attitude towards video games, Kutaragi was able to convince Sony’s executives to fund his development by creating a Super NES CD (a device that will eventually become a PlayStation ). Despite the fact that other executives considered the development risky, Kutaragi again received support from Norio Og. The success of PlayStation led to the creation of other consoles like the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 . PlayStation won a large market share in the field of computer games, displacing Nintendo and Sega , and Ken Kutaragi was named one of the 100 most influential people of 2004 in Time magazine [2] .
Since 1997, Kutaragi could become the next president of Sony. He had a close relationship with Sony director Norio Og, who supported Kutaragi during the creation of the sound chip and the PlayStation project. The new director of the company, Nobuyuki Idei, made Kutaragi the Deputy Executive President of Sony, as well as the Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman in 2003 . Ken Kutaragi also relies on control over the development of new household appliances. However, on November 30, 2006, Kutaragi resigned as president of Sony Computer Entertainment, transferring the position to Kazuo Hirai, then president of SCE in America. Kutaragi was appointed chairman of SCE, but retained his position as chief executive officer of the group. On April 26, 2007, it was announced that Kutaragi would resign and take on the role of honorary chairman.
Pension
In 2009, he became a professor at the University of Ritsumeikan [3] .
After retirement in 2011, Ken Kutaragi became the honorary chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment .
Evaluation of industry analysts
Although Kutaragi’s leadership in consumer electronics was not successful, analysts also suspect that under Sony’s former CEO Nobuyuki, Kutaragi’s career career began to decline, given that both employees had a cool working relationship. Sony Computer Entertainment started losing profits ($ 7.5 billion in 2004 against $ 8.2 billion in 2003 ) and losses grew ($ 25 million in 4th quarter of 2004 ). This is partly due to the glut of the video game market and price wars, due to which the PlayStation 2 began to lose its leading position in sales [4] .
Evaluation of competitors' products
During the events dedicated to the new generation 7 consoles, Kutaragi sharply criticized the products of his competitors. So, the Xbox 360 console called its architecture as "Xbox 1.5" [5] [6] . However, SCE Executive Director Tetsuhiko Yasuda does not consider Microsoft a competitor and said that they could consider cooperation in the gaming industry with each other [7] . Kutaragi also sharply criticized the Wii [8] .
But at the same time, Ken Kutaragi praised Apple products, which in 2005 launched the iPod and iTunes service, and also praised the Samsung monitor and television series [8] .
Notes
- ↑ Sony profits plunge 98% . BBC (July 24, 2003). The appeal date is February 22, 2012. Archived September 13, 2012.
- ↑ Ken Kutaragi (English) . Time magazine. The appeal date is February 23, 2012. Archived September 13, 2012.
- ↑ List of professors of the University of Ritsumeikan (Not available link) . Ritsumeikan University. The appeal date is February 22, 2012. Archived September 13, 2012.
- ↑ Xbox officially outsells PS2 in US . GameSpot (March 24, 2004). The appeal date is February 24, 2012.
- ↑ Xbox 360 = Xbox 1.5? Kutaragi trashtalkin '! Engadget (May 25, 2005). The appeal date is February 24, 2012. Archived September 13, 2012.
- ↑ Broken Promises: A Closer Look at the PS3 . GamePro . The appeal date is May 24, 2012. Archived June 19, 2006.
- Would Sony would consider working with "non-competitor" Microsoft (not available link) . Joystiq (2006-2-25). The appeal date is February 24, 2012. Archived September 13, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 Denis Krivitsky. Ken Kutaragi - PlayStation Path . GameTech]. The appeal date is February 24, 2012. Archived September 13, 2012.
Links
- The article about Kan Kutaragi and the PlayStation (rus.) On the GameTech site
- Kutaragi, Ken - an article in Lentapedia . year 2012.
- Sony Computer Entertainment website (eng.)