And Hirai is taking his place...

Sony Computer Entertainment America Elevates Jack Tretton to President and
CEO, Kaz Hirai Named President and Group COO of Sony Computer Entertainment,
Inc.

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Computer Entertainment
America (SCEA) today announced that Jack Tretton has been named president and
chief executive officer for the company, replacing Kaz Hirai who will be
appointed president and group chief operating officer for SCEA parent company,
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (SCEI) in Tokyo, effective December 1, 2006.
Tretton was formerly SCEA executive vice president and co-chief operating
officer.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061130/SFTH053
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020701/SFM066LOGO )
" Jack has been with SCEA since its formation and helped pilot the debuts
of the original PlayStation(R), PlayStation(R)2 (PS2(R)), PSP(R)
(PlayStation(R)Portable) and the successful launch of the recently released
PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) computer entertainment system," said Hirai. " Given
his experience and exceptional reputation in the industry, I can think of no
better person to assume the helm of the PlayStation brand in the US, Canada
and Latin America."
A member of the original management team chartered with launching
PlayStation in North America in 1995, Tretton brings more than 23 years of
consumer product experience to his new role at SCEA, including 20 years
dedicated to the computer entertainment space. He has managed numerous
departments within SCEA, including sales, business development, merchandising,
marketing and product development. Prior to joining SCEA, Tretton held posts
at software publishers JVC Musical Industries and Activision, as well as
Majers Corporation and Duracell, USA.
" I am determined to build upon the momentum that Kaz and the entire SCEA
staff has developed for the entire PlayStation family of products here in the
US over the years," said Tretton. " Moving forward, we will remain focused on
the continued market leadership of the PlayStation brand, driving consumer
demand for the new PS3, and existing platforms such as PSP and PS2, which
continue to excel in the marketplace."
Tretton replaces SCEA veteran Kaz Hirai who will be promoted to president
and group chief operating officer of SCEI. Hirai, who had been with SCEA since
1995, will oversee the global operations of SCEI, filling the role previously
held by Ken Kutaragi, who will be appointed chairman and group CEO for SCEI.
Tretton assumes the post of president and chief executive officer for SCEA
effective December 1, 2006.

So, Mr " Riiiiiiiiiiiidge Racer" has been appointed President of SCEI and Kutaragi has been shoved into a small dark office somewhere.

Sony are truly doomed!

Playstation.com

OMG.
I will actually miss Mr. Frog.
Kaz Hirai is kinda boring. Ok maybe not, he does have his " Riiiiiiiidge racer" but I doubt he' ll ever be able to outshine Mr. Frog' s amazing achievements .
Of all the Sony guys I like Phil Harrisson the most. He actually does a pretty good job IMO.

Kuteragi was there from the start. Wonder what the background *unofficial / true* story behind this move is.

It is not in relation to the hardware launch is it? Sega lost Bernie Stolar right before the DC launch in the US, that didnt help them very much!

Kutaragi has been hit in his weak spot for MASSIVE damage.

Sorry just couldn' t resist!

I think Kutaragi was a spy sent by Microsoft... It woulld explain everyting. He acts as if his one of Sony, but truth is he secretely sabotages whatever he can get his hands on. However he wasn' t the best of spies, as whenever he opened his mouth he maid it clear that he hated everything about Ps3. We should have seen the signs already, when he said something amongst the lines:

" The Ps3 is not a games machine, it' s a SUUUPA COMPUUUTA! ... Heil GATES! [:' (]"

And Sony where fools for not noticing either, they just figured it out when they caught mr. Ken red handed, on the copy machine, printing numerous images of his buttox with Kiss my big fat High Def ass, cockfags! written on it.

Edit:
Oh, and I' m not critizising either M$ nor Sony... just Ken (though I also admit, I' ll miss the little retard)

Kutaragi was the man responsible for starting the games division and leading them to worldwide success with Playstation. The thing is, Sony' s stocks have taken hit after hit after hit and it' s not stopping. Every time bad press hits (like say the guy in charge of EA saying Sony had only shipped 200,000 units in the US and will only ship 800,000 worldwide before January) their stocks and shares take another blow. I wouldn' t be surprised if this was down to the major shareholders losing faith in Mr " here' s another stupid quote"

Hirai taking Kutaragi' s place is a bad move. He' s the face of the unsuccessful launch and past 12 months of super bad press. Hirai has become little more than a laughing stock and even though Kutaragi lost his marbles long ago and spouts retarded yet hilarious rubbish in interviews, press briefings and keynote speeches - he' ll be missed. Not by me though, i despise the guy.

What are we supposed to make of it?

I don' t give a fuck

...me neither man... ....me neither.....

I' m not sorry to see frog-man going, i actually like Hirai, both him and phil actually. Ken is annoying and while he might have done some good in the past. Like on another thread... Sonic team used to make kick ass games, now... not really. Time to move on, mix it up. I hope hirai brings about a very solid ps3, and ps4 is everything people expect (with a lot of thanks to ms competition getting to sony)

it took them some time ..

To be fair he was once a visionary, the SNES CD he led the project for, and then the playstation brand would never have happened and well games could even still be being marketed to children.

Ok perhaps not that bad, but I' d be interested to hear where he heads off to.

Ok perhaps not that bad, but I' d be interested to hear where he heads off to.

The trash can.



Or the local pub.

Or the red lights district.

Or Wallmart.

Or the street between 7evenEleven and HeppFive.

Or hell.

Or the sewers.

Or he goes M.I.A.

Yeah, he' s removed from Playstation Boss but was pomoted to overseeing everything in their computer entertainment division. Technically he has more power than ever.

I busted out this news (Kaz taking over Ken' s spot) during my work meeting a few minutes ago and co-workers and my friend was quick to see that this just makes Ken even more of a powerhouse at Sony. It' s far from him getting " shoved into a small dark office somewhere." We' ll have to see how this really works out.

Now I feel like an idiot because I sounded like a dumbass with this iformation during my meeting.

Yeah, I heard he was promoted as well.

ORIGINAL: Joe Redifer

Yeah, I heard he was promoted as well.

That' s what it says on the press release. Anybody who thought he' d actually been binned needs to start reading posts thoroughly.

That' s really bad news folks, the last thing we need is someone as incompetent as Kutaragi even higher up in the corporation.[:' (]

Honestly, I sympathise for Kaz. He believes in his product, and is payed to push it as much as possible. He' s made quite a few stupid errors in the last year or so, but the public has pushed him as Sony' s " Face for Failure" when it comes to media bashing. He' s screwed up, but no more so than Kutaragi, or the other idiots up top.

Not to mention the fact that they could at least make a dry corporate " Riiiiiggge-Raaacccerrrrrr!" joke about themselves. Not too funny, but it' s a start.

ORIGINAL: Majikdra6on

ORIGINAL: Joe Redifer

Yeah, I heard he was promoted as well.

That' s what it says on the press release. Anybody who thought he' d actually been binned needs to start reading posts thoroughly.

Well aside from the actual article everything you wrote was extremely misleading.

Gets people into the thread, more traffic for the forum.

Sounds like bullsh*t to me.

All you had to do was read the actual press release. It states precisely what they are doing. Even i can read.

Majik' s post was correct (kind of) but it was still low to deliberately make it appear as Ken had been degraded just to make people read the post.
But whataver, it doesn' t change the fact that we won' t hear as much from Mr. Frog as before, right?