After busying himself over several years with the business of introducing PlayStation to the World, Ken Kutaragi has announced that he is taking a step back from the frontline, retiring from his position as Sony Computer Entertainment chairman and CEO, and assuming a more behind-the-scenes role as technology adviser.
He leaves behind an incredible legacy, having played a pivotal role in the creation and launch of PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and PSP. Make no mistake, without Kutaragi today's gaming landscape would be very different indeed.
Besides being eternally grateful to Daddy PlayStation for delivering his revolutionary games console into our homes, we also want to thank him for being one of the most consistently quotable industry figures. Whenever Ken started waxing lyrical you were always guaranteed a solid gold news story.
So, in no particular order, here's our 10 favorite Ken Kutaragi quotes from over the years. If you're hungry for more, just type "Kutaragi quotes" into Google. There's plenty of them out there...
On backwards compatibility: "The current Xbox will become antiquated once the new machine comes out this November. When that happens, the Xbox will be killing itself. The only way to avoid that is to support 100 percent compatibility from Xbox 360’s launch date, but Microsoft won't be able to commit to that. It's technically difficult."
On the competition from Microsoft and Nintendo: "We do not care."
On the price of PS3: "If you consider the PlayStation 3 a toy, then yes, it is an expensive toy. However, it is more than a toy. It is a PlayStation 3. And it is the only PlayStation 3. I hope that those who understand this will gladly purchase it."
On the definition of PS3: "The PS3 is not a game machine. We've never once called it a game machine...With the PS3, our intentions have been to create a machine with supercomputer calculation capabilities for home entertainment."
On the price of PS3 again: "It's probably too cheap... If you can have an amazing experience, we believe price is not a problem."
On Microsoft: "Beating us for a short moment is like accidentally winning a point from a Shihan [karate master], and Microsoft is still not a black belt."
Ken hints that PS3 might be a tad pricey: "We want consumers to think to themselves 'I will work more hours to buy one.' We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."
On the potential of PS2 (yes, PS2): "You can communicate to a new cybercity... This will be the ideal home server. Did you see the movie The Matrix? Same interface. Same concept. Starting from next year, you can jack into The Matrix!"
We're also including the following two quotes because - although they were fabricated by industry blog Kotaku - the fact that nobody could tell they were fake illustrates the caliber of craziness that we've come to expect from the man:
On Microsoft again: "Microsoft shoots for the moon. Sony shoots for the sun."
On discipline: "The PS3 will instill discipline in our children and adults alike. Everyone will know discipline."
April 27, 2007
