Howard Stringer, new head of SCEI
- Thread starter Revolver Ocelot
- Start date
Sony needs to update their Corporate Info - Executives page because it's rather out of date at this point...
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/executive/index.html
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/executive/index.html
kaching said:
Interesting look at that page and look at Kens title... Executive Deputy President and COO
Well the COO position went away throughout the company wonder how the other COO's are gonna fare.... and Executive Deputy President... didn't his title get change to Group something or other?
Ugh we need more clarification. I want to know if I need to set aside some money for Ken just in case things get tight for him!
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
No question about it. Did he deserve it - I have no idea. He did say however that he plans to stay where he is now, that is unless of course this new bit of info actually means Stringer is replacing him even at his new (well basically old) position.
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Kutaragi is not very old. 50-something. His demotion and Stringer's promotion to CEO probably has to do more with KK's inability to properly manage Sony's electronic division (no profit increase, and his baby project for Sony electronics, PSX, pretty much flopped after probably lots of R&D money went into it). I really dobt anything is wrong with PSP or PS3. Well, PSP at least is an ace product for sure, and the best thing Sony has on the market right now, IMO.
Chittagong
Gold Member
Kutaragi better stay away from Ishikawa-ken
teruterubozu
Member
Maybe this is a swift reaction to PSP sales in the US??
Izzy said:
Why not? That CPU would still be quite a bit more powerful than Xenon's (and likely Revolution's too)
Losing Blu-ray would suck, though - I can't see that happening, however, it's of strategic importance to Sony at large.It'll make the wait till E3 that bit more tense, but I wouldn't assume there'll be cutbacks necessarily. Stringer seems keen on Cell too, for starters.
monchi-kun
Member
Yamauchi had Gumpei run over by a car after Virtual Boy....that's the truth behind his death
gofreak said:Why not? That CPU would still be quite a bit more powerful than Xenon's (and likely Revolution's too)
It'll make the wait till E3 that bit more tense, but I wouldn't assume there'll be cutbacks necessarily. Stringer seems keen on Cell too, for starters.
Keep your expectations low my friend - it's cut back time. (and that's probably why the March event was cancelled, and Kutaragi demoted)
Izzy said:
I'm not sure about that. But even with cutbacks, my point is that at least on the CPU side, there is a lot of wiggle room there without going into territory that would make it less powerful than the competition. Even a 2SPE cell chip would be more powerful on paper than Xenon's rumoured tricore setup.
I don't see cutbacks happening too much if at all though, especially on the CPU side. It'd be very disruptive at this stage - hardware is already with some developers. If significant changes were made now, you could forget about seeing PS3 at E3 - but it'll be there.
Guys, I haven't been following this too closely, but I'm a little confused as to whether or not this is actually new information.
Earlier when Stringer was announced to the position: while many people hoped Kutaragi would be promoted to it, he was not. However, it was still called a 'demotion' even in a headline at Gamespot, IIRC.
So is this just the demotion part that was always there, explicitly worded? Or was there never a demotion until today, and now there is (and people were just wrong to call it a demotion before)? Or is it--gasp--some sort of double demotion, where Kutaragi lost his responsibilities in two distinct events.
Hope someone can clear this up for me, as it's incredibly important. (Err..)
Earlier when Stringer was announced to the position: while many people hoped Kutaragi would be promoted to it, he was not. However, it was still called a 'demotion' even in a headline at Gamespot, IIRC.
So is this just the demotion part that was always there, explicitly worded? Or was there never a demotion until today, and now there is (and people were just wrong to call it a demotion before)? Or is it--gasp--some sort of double demotion, where Kutaragi lost his responsibilities in two distinct events.
Hope someone can clear this up for me, as it's incredibly important. (Err..)
Chittagong
Gold Member
This is the impression I have got:
early March 05: Kutaragi head of Consumer Electronics
mid-March 05: Kutaragi demoted from heading Consumer Electronics to heading Games
end-March 05: Kutaragi demoted/moved from heading Games to ???
Correct me if I'm wrong.
early March 05: Kutaragi head of Consumer Electronics
mid-March 05: Kutaragi demoted from heading Consumer Electronics to heading Games
end-March 05: Kutaragi demoted/moved from heading Games to ???
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Chittagong said:
I'm really not sure. Also, remember that with Kutaragi off the board, no one there was representing the games division. This "officer in charge of games" role may simply allow Stringer to represent SCEI at a board level, whilst Kutaragi is otherwise (and effectively) in charge. They probably couldn't have a board without representation of SCEI given its importance to the company.
gofreak said:
This is basically what Stringer's office told me -- with Kutaragi moving back to SCE (and being stripped of all Sony Corp responsibilities when the shakeup happened earlier this month), there is nobody representing SCE at Sony Corp. Stringer now steps into that vacuum. Why Sony only announced this today is a mystery, though.
Yeah, an "officer" is a board member. Chief Executive Officer. Chief Financial Officer, etc. So this just bring SCEI representation to the board. And who better than Stringer? This is, in a bizaare way, a good thing for SCEI - the most powerful guy on the board is also its representative. Even better if Kutaragi and Stringer enjoy as good relations as they suggest publically. I guess it's only fitting that the CEO also represent the SCEI at the board given its importance to Sony.
I guess it wasn't announced till today because perhaps they hadn't yet decided for sure who would represent SCEI. They could really take anyone from SCEI itself - if Kutaragi can't go, no one can. In a way, giving it to Stringer was possibly the only way to avoid snubbing Kutaragi (e.g. "only the CEO himself can fill your shoes at the board!").
I guess it wasn't announced till today because perhaps they hadn't yet decided for sure who would represent SCEI. They could really take anyone from SCEI itself - if Kutaragi can't go, no one can. In a way, giving it to Stringer was possibly the only way to avoid snubbing Kutaragi (e.g. "only the CEO himself can fill your shoes at the board!").
Kleegamefan
K. LEE GAIDEN
WOW... and LMAO at the "Will work at gaming company for food" pix :lol
soundwave05
Member
If Stringer fucks the PS3 up ... Sony deserves to go down the tubes.
You don't cut corners on your biggest product and no doubt Playstation is easily now Sony's biggest product.
You don't cut corners on your biggest product and no doubt Playstation is easily now Sony's biggest product.
soundwave05
Member
Sysgen said:
I get the feeling Sony is headed down the slippery slope of losing marketshare then.
There is no "balance" between the two, if ain't broke -- don't fix it.
How do you get demoted when you've sold 100 million PSOne's and tracking another 100 million + PS2s? Playstation is Sony's most successful product of the last 10 years by a friggin' landslide.
I get the feeling Kutaragi has resigned or is on his way out the door.
soundwave05
Member
Mystery solved. The Role "Officer in charge of Game Business Group" is simply SCEI's representation at board leve (officers are board members - CEO, CFO, CTO etc.) - afaik Kutaragi is still managing the unit itself. Since Kutaragi left the boad, SCEI wouldn't have any representation at the board - which would be perverse given the game unit's importance to Sony. So they had to find someone else to represent SCEI at that level. They couldn't take anyone else from SCEI itself, since that'd be rubbing salt in Kutaragi's wounds, so they've given that role to the CEO himself. That's the clearest way to avoid insulting Kutaragi - having the most powerful guy on the board representing your unit can't be a bad thing either. Bizaarely, given the situation (i.e. Kutaragi can't be on the board right now), this is as good an outcome for SCEI as they could have hoped.
This would be more reasonable. Hopefully that's what has happened. That means the game division has even more power -- as it should be.
This would be more reasonable. Hopefully that's what has happened. That means the game division has even more power -- as it should be.
Chittagong
Gold Member
soundwave05 said:
Why?
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
It seems he just rephrased what he saw posted here by gofreak.
Because they decided to kick him off the board?
soundwave05
Member
vitaflo said:
Nintendo's console division is making as much as Sony's console division?
Really I doubt that.
Yeah Nintendo may be comparable, but that's because they've been selling millions of Game Boys uncontested, a brand reignited by the freak success of Pokemon (something you can't plan for).
Kleegamefan
K. LEE GAIDEN
As hard as it may be to believe, Nintendo is the most profitable of the big 3 game companies (SCEI, MS, Nintendo)....they are the most lean console company, by far....
Doom_Bringer
Banned
soundwave05 said:
Oh I see, that makes a lot of sense.
soundwave05
Member
The funny thing is if you take the sales of every Sony console competitior since they've entered the market and combine them ...
Saturn - 10 million?
N64 - 33 million
Dreamcast - 15 million
XBox - 22 million
GameCube - 19 million
They still wouldn't equal the sales of the original PSOne.
Saturn - 10 million?
N64 - 33 million
Dreamcast - 15 million
XBox - 22 million
GameCube - 19 million
They still wouldn't equal the sales of the original PSOne.
soundwave05 said:
Naw, I think it's all gaming profits. I read an article by Steve Kent several years ago saying that Nintendo made more in profit during the 32/64 bit era than Sony did. Not sure if that includes handhelds or what (it must), but regardless, profit is profit, I'm sure Sony has taken notice of it. Companies can be incredibly short sighted at times when they see their competitors raking it in hand over fist. Especially when you're supposed to be killing everyone in the market.
soundwave05
Member
vitaflo said:
Profit is profit I agree, but if you're going to as a Sony executive compare Nintendo's profits versus Sony's profits and use that against Kutaragi, it helps to place things into context.
Sony has only now released a handheld, so from here on out, perhaps a more direct comparision would make more sense.
The vice versa side of that comparision would be if someone at Nintendo looked at Sony (if they were making more profits company wise) and blaming the game division at Nintendo, even though Nintendo has no movie/music/electronics divisions.
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Yeah, pretty much what I thought.
soundwave05
Member
Phew. So Kutaragi stays. This might mean the game division has more sway within Sony now (although obviously not as much if Kutaragi were CEO, but still) because Stringer represents SCEI on Sony's board now. I don't mind the XBox, but the thought of Microsoft being the market leader in the game business makes me want to vomit.
soundwave05 said:
Well in the interviews I've read Stringer seems to agree that the Playstation brand is VERY important to Sony... have him be the direct link between Ken and the board definitely speaks to that... it doesn't demote Ken anymore... like the other post said... anyone besides Stringer in that position would be more of a demotion for Ken... guess this thread will now fade in to obscurity...
soundwave05 said:
You make it sound like if Kutaragi did leave that MS's dominance in the industry would be inevitable? Kutaragi is one man. For sure, he's been massively pivotal in the rise of Playstation, but Sony's game business would not collapse in his absence, no more than Nintendo's first party output would suffer if Miyamoto left etc. etc. There are many talented and brilliant people at SCEI, some budding Kutaragis I am sure.