PlayStation Father Kutaragi Retires

Ken Kutaragi, father of the PlayStation video game console, has retired as chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment.

Sony Computer Entertainment announced today that Ken Kutaragi, widely known as “the father of the PlayStation,” has retired from his role as chairman and group chief executive at Sony Computer Entertainment. The group will now be headed by Kazuo Hirai, most recently the group’s president and COO. According to spokesperson Sayoka Henmi, Kutaragi will retain an advisory role with the company, but will no longer serve as a board member or officer.

The announcement follows Kutaragi’s departure as chief operating officer of Sony Computer Entertainment in April; that announcement, in turn, followed Kutaragi stepping back from day-to-day company operations in late 2006.

Ken Kutaragi is a legendary figure among the video gaming community, and his final departure from Sony Computer Entertainment punctuates the end of an era at the company. Sony is currently struggling to maintain its once-mighty dominance of the video game industry, facing poor sales of its powerful PlayStation 3 console against Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the less capable—and much cheaper—Nintendo Wii. Sony also incurred significant losses developing the PlayStation 3 console under Kutaragi’s leadership, with the result that the game unit currently doesn’t expect to bring in a profit until its fiscal year ending in March 2009.