Trogdor1123
Gold Member
Crazy Ken or Kaz for me.
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Which past PlayStation CEO would you want back?
- Thread starter N1tr0sOx1d3
- Start date
bitbydeath
Member
The last Motorstorm entry (apocalypse) got recalled before launch because it was deemed offensive in light of Japan having some really bad earthquakes and tsunamis. That disrupted both sales and marketing.
Evolution were an amazing studio though, their turnaround was up their with Insomniac, and the first Motorstorm was one of PS3’s saviours.
They should have never been closed.
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FF:Enhanced_Reality
Member
Jack Tretton would have been a great head of PlayStation.
Thick Thighs Save Lives
Gold Member
Neil because I like to see the meltdowns here and on the rest of the internet lol.
Joking aside, I wish Kaz would come back to lead SIE; he salvaged the PS3 and then successfully revitalized Sony Corp when he was later appointed as CEO for the whole company.
Joking aside, I wish Kaz would come back to lead SIE; he salvaged the PS3 and then successfully revitalized Sony Corp when he was later appointed as CEO for the whole company.
Moriarty1889
Member
Kaz Harai or Shawn Layden for me.
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sachos
Member
What about Jack Tretton?
Mibu no ookami
Member
It's funny to see people who weren't actually around for the time periods wax nostalgic about the time periods.
Not knowing that Shawn Layden was never CEO. Not knowing that Ken Kutaragi wasn't group CEO of SCEI until 2006...
Not knowing that Shawn Layden was never CEO. Not knowing that Ken Kutaragi wasn't group CEO of SCEI until 2006...
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Well, he did cut a lot of the quirky BS titles that don't sell so we probably should credit him for that. Shawn Layden out here coddling developers that lose millions of dollars. Jim Ryan got a bunch of Shermin Tanks built.
AmuroChan
Member
He was President of SCE America.
nial
Gold Member
Fix some of that info, OP. Ken Kutaragi did not become CEO of SCEI until 1999, succeeding Teruhisa Tokunaka, who held that position since 1995.
sonyinteractive.com
Expanded Company Timeline – Sony Interactive Entertainment
sonyinteractive.com
Mibu no ookami
Member
That's because most people here are revisionists who weren't actually around back then.
Teruhisa Tokunaka was President and CEO of SCEI before Ken Kutaragi.
Ken Kutaragi got promoted to be CEO of SCEA in 1997. He was made President and CEO of SCEI in 2001 and Group CEO in 2004 or 2006.
He's referred to as the father of PlayStation, because he was very much in a Cerny like position for the PS1-3, but his maturation of controlling the entire company was a different path.
Buggy Loop
Member
This crazy sony of a bitch
Still memorable even before the meme generation.
Mibu no ookami
Member
I think a lot of people are unfamiliar with how PlayStation was organized originally.
kvltus lvlzvs
Banned
Kk, no doubt in my mind.
Insane Metal
Member
Crazy Ken.
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
That would have been House, Kaz become the CEO of Sony 2012 and eventually was replaced by House in 2013.
I suppose he was still involved
I think we're not seeing enough of Shuhei Yoshida theses days.
It's time for him to shine
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thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
TBF some of us were there back at the time but too young (referring to the Ken Kutaragi part here, myself) to care about CEOs in general, or following that side of gaming business. There wasn't really much social media, and rarely did CEOs make public appearances on TV (outside of E3) or in print media (maybe an interview once or twice a year, depending on the magazine. Some didn't even bother).
You had to actively go out of your way to learn who some of these business people at the companies even were. Nowadays, people like Phil Spencer make sure you see and hear from them virtually every single day, no matter how ham-fisted they are in the mix.
True. But, hey, when you got other parts of the company pinning everything on the mega-successful gaming sector, it was bound to happen sooner or later :/
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VAVA Mk2
Member
His arrogance basically fucked the PlayStation 3 for the first half of its life. Some of the shit he said was unbelievably cocky and foolish.
nial
Gold Member
The Shawn Layden love explains it all, he was basically Sony's equivalent of Reggie.
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I wouldn't call 2015 & 2016 not too long after.
Kaz definitely greenlighted The Last Guardian because it was originally a PS3 game.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
How was Ken Kutaragi arrogant during PS3 gen? Overly ambitious with Cell to some extent? Yeah. But that infamous "two jobs" quote is actually not the way people remember. The way he actually said it was more in the way of someone seeing buying the system as worth doing even if it meant working harder to get a bit more money to buy it. He never said it in an arrogant way like, how, Don Mattrick did about military people on submarines without internet access. That was an arrogant response.
Outside of that, there are quotes of Kutaragi being a bit blunt with Hayao Nakayama at Sega before the PS1 & Saturn launched, but IIRC they were golfing buddies and I guess the words were exchanged in a way a friend talking a bit of smack would say them, but now pretend these are middle-aged men. Honestly outside of the Blu-ray stuff I don't understand why people call PS3 the 'Arrogant Sony' era; there are no quotes actually said by Kutaragi & co. belittling gamers, and the PS3 itself was packed with a ton of tech making it better value for money than the 360 (considering all the add-ons you had to buy for a 360 to provide the same experience as PS3. Even then you lacked some things like a SD card reader).
Sony got overly ambitious and paid for it, but I don't think any of their choices with PS3 were just them coasting off PS2's success.
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thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Kutaragi is the only answer. Just imagine him working with Mark Cerny on PS6
Breaking News: Terrorists groups reportedly using PS6s to power a Dyson Sphere around the Sun. More at 11.
LavitzSlambert
Member
No denying there was some Sony arrogance to start the PS3 era. The PS2 was so dominant, and Microsoft really brought the heat with the 360 to start that generation. I can't really blame him after two wildly successful consoles taking the market by storm. I don't think Kutaragi's arrogance alone resulted in the PS3 - that was the company blinded by success across the board. Even if it were, I would still take Kutaragi over any of the others - the man had a vision and drive that none of the other CEOs have had since.
ElCasual
Member
Those (House and Tretton) have a big argue, that's was the cause of Tretton leave PS.Andrew House with Jack Tretton in the mix
Kaz too, again with Jack Tretton…. Hey its Jack Tretton!
Unknown?
Member
Is that true? I didn't think we ever found out why he left.
Majima Everywhere System
Member
Kaz, it ain't even close. Playstation was real shit back then, not pandering Hollywood me too. Product diversity, free online. What an absolute mad man.
Mibu no ookami
Member
Not sure that is true. I think we heard plenty from senior leadership back then. Maybe some as you said were too young, but I recall it pretty well.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Maybe it was around, sure. But I don't think it was a priority among enthusiasts spaces...though TBF, I didn't frequent gaming forums back in '05 or '06, either. Closest was GT Planet and Tekken Zaibatsu but only for info on those games. Didn't frequent online gaming sites that much either, probably only started to like in '07 once I was moving on from gaming magazines.
So basically I guess, it wasn't a priority for me, neither was the sales talk and Sony LOVED doing that at their E3 conferences back then. I probably would've gotten wind of names like Kaz Hirai or whoever ran NOA pre-Reggie (I think it was a woman), or been more familiar with names like Peter Moore, if stuff like Twitter and Youtube were prominent and mainstream during that era or earlier.
Mind, I definitely recall seeing people like Peter Moore or Kaz Hirai on TV or such at the time, but I didn't keep up with stuff they were doing.
SegaSnatcher
Member
I respect Ken, but he made devs lives difficult with some of his hardware design philosophies.
Andrew House was the GOAT.
Killjoy-NL
Member
None in particular.
Idc who runs Playstation, tbh. As long as they do their job.
Edit:
Jim Ryan didn't fuck up, btw.
Idc who runs Playstation, tbh. As long as they do their job.
Edit:
Jim Ryan didn't fuck up, btw.
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TheTony316
Member
The OG Playstation meme lord, Kaz Hirai and Shu as head of first party.
![L*][*N*K](/data/avatars/m/842/842515.jpg?1696510303){kind=avatar}
L*][*N*K
Banned
Ken Kutaragi, let's give this man 5 billion to create a processor that no one wants or can work with and bump that PS6 price to 900$ and watch it all burn to hell.
PS5 will sell 200 Million easy.
Get this guy in there
existensmaximum
Member
Might be a stupid question but does this one guy really have THAT much power and influence, personally? Does it make that much of a difference?
Dirk Benedict
Member
Kaz or Jack. Enjoyed both for different reasons, but both boosted PlayStation, especially, Kaz, he turned the entire ship around, after taking the helm from, Howard Stringer.