The Father Of The Playstation Is Stepping Down - The Loss Of Ken Kutaragi
Born in Tokyo, Ken's upbringing was very traditional. His parents ran a small printing business and he was a studious child. Always eager to learn and to experiment with toys to see how they worked.
After graduating from High School. he went on to University, where he earned a degree in Electronics. He was hired by Sony and immediately went to work in their digital Research labs, where his love of thinking ahead and excellent problem solving skills helped him to give sony a strong early market share with LCD displays and also digital cameras.
In the late '80's, Ken was watching his young daughter play a Famicom console at home and realised that his company could get into the video game market. Sony executives at the time felt video games were not an appropriate field and any development was generally looked down upon. Thus, when Nintendo requested Sony to provide a wavetable sound chip for the in-development console at the time, Ken took on the role pretty much on his own. He developed the SPC700 sound chip in secret. And was nearly fired if not for the direct intervention of Sony's CEO who saw Ken's potential.
Ken convinced Sony to fund development of the joint Nintendo-Sony video game console, and when Nintendo dropped out of the deal, Ken convinced his CEO to approve funds for a singular development for what would become the Playstation console.
Since it's inception, the Playstation has propelled Sony into the top position for video game consoles worldwide. A position it has held up till this year, when it's position has begun to erode due to lengthy delays in production and distribution as well as the high costs of the Playstation 3 console.
Ken has also had his position altered over the years, ranging from President of Sony Computer Entertainment to Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment International, and after his retirement, will be Honorary Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment.
Under Ken's tutelage, SCE pushed profits within it's division to highs of more than .2 Billion US$ in a calendar year. However, due to PS3 development costs and distribution losses, the year-end profits for this year are down more than billion dollars.
It appears to us at Morristreet that Ken's decision was not his alone, but pressed upon him and that he has gracefully accepted. In any case - the world is losing a visionary, the man who brought us the Playstation series is stepping down. What a legacy he has left us.
Tim Morrison is a founding member of Morristreet.com, a technology company developed to bridge the gap between virtual and real worlds in the realm of 3d. Our goal is to be able to produce a 3d image on the computer and then produce it as a physical object - no matter what the complexity or detail involved. In this vein, we keep track of anything in relation to 3D imagery that can bring our goals closer, be it gaming consoles that can do more than play games, hardware imaging solutions, or software that can make our lives easier. Real World 3D is coming, Morristreet is in the lead!
