"Father of Playstation" steps down

Ken Kutaragi, the 56-year-old "Father of the PlayStation," will be retiring from his position as Sony Computer Entertainment chairman and CEO at the company's annual shareholders' meeting on June 19.

In a shocking announcement, Sony has revealed that the decision was made so that Kutaragi could "pass the torch on to the next generation," and so that he can "pursue his dreams beyond PlayStation and accelerate his network vision."SCEI president and COO Kazuo Hirai, will take over his position as CEO and will also be President.
Kutaragi said, "I am happy to graduate from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. after introducing four platforms to the PlayStation family. It has been an exciting experience to change the world of computer entertainment by marrying cutting-edge technologies with creative minds from all over the world. I'm looking forward to building on this vision in my next endeavours."

He will continue to "support" Sony Corporation chairman and CEO Sir Howard Stringer as a senior technology adviser for the company, along with serving as an honorary chairman of SCEI.

Kutaragi started his career at Sony immediately after graduation from the Tokyo University of Electro-Communications, and during the course of his long career at the company, he invented and launched the original PlayStation in 1994 and the PlayStation 2 in 2000.

However, during a management shake-up in 2005, Kutaragi was demoted from the Board of Directors and replaced as head of the home electronics division. Last year, another Sony reshuffle promoted Kutaragi from SCEI president and group CEO into the position of chairman and group CEO.

What about the PS4???