PS3 Fanboy

The father of the PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, has officially retired from Sony Computer Entertainment. Previously, following a corporate re-shuffle, Mr. Kutaragi stepped down as CEO of SCE, replaced by Kaz Hirai. Now, Ken Kutaragi is relinquishing his Sony duties further, stepping down as SCE's Chairman and Group Chief Executive while remaining on board with SCE in an advisory role. Perhaps Sir Howard Stringer can assist with Ken Kutaragi's early retirement by quickly issuing restraining orders against him on all things Sony PlayStation-related. After all, earlier reports show "Krazy Ken" Kutaragi clearly doesn't know "when to say when" as he proceeded to inflate the PS3's budget until it exploded in everyone's collective faces, causing fallout from a few layoffs to a huge quarterly loss. Except now without Kutaragi in the limelight, how are we going to get such beautiful mock-ups of the PlayStation grill?

As of June 19th, the man behind the Spider-Man font, behind the PlayStation 3's slick design, behind the massive damage control Sony is still trying to get a hang of will be retiring. Yes, Krazy Ken Kutaragi will be stepping down from his position as CEO at Sony Computer Entertainment. He will be replaced by the less krazy Kaz Hirai -- he doesn't get the capital letter yet.

The following are excerpts from a press release from Sony detailing the resignation: "Kutaragi has said that he has been considering this decision for some time. He stated that, in the six months since the appointment of Kazuo Hirai as President in December, the new generation of management, led by Mr. Hirai, has continued to develop...Sony and SCE will continue to seek Mr. Kutaragi's input and ideas from a broad perspective, while continuing to support him as much as possible in the realization of his dreams." He's passing on the torch to Kaz Hirai and the new, fresh, young management team! Good. It's a good thing to know what's best for the company, even at your own expense. We salute him for that. But... what are his dreams? The PS3 Grill?

While this is heartbreaking news for those who think Kutaragi was doing a stellar job with the PS3, recall that he was given a promotion recently that consequently took him out of most day-to-day operations of Sony and the PlayStation 3. As a parting farewell to all the shoddy promises given by Kutaragi, as well as a few things to make us giggle, we're sticking some famous quotes from the man, the legend, the mystery: Ken Kutaragi. Goodbye, Krazy Ken. You had a good run, but it's time to step aside. Have a great retirement!

• "[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."
• "The PS3 will instill discipline in our children and adults alike. Everyone will know discipline."
• "The PS3 is not a game machine "
  

[Via Joystiq]

Our two favorite people, Ken Kutaragi and Kaz Hirai, Krazy Kaz and Ken if I may, have moved up in the world! Maybe not the world as a whole, but the world of Sony. The two men, who have a tough time not making fools of themselves (a few exceptions, but they elude me), have indeed garnered new seats in Sony. Kutaragi, formerly the President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., is now the Chairman and Group CEO. Kaz Hirai was formerly President and CEO of SCE America is now President and COO of SCE Inc. At least he's not in charge of Sony America anymore? Whatever. You can check out other managerial movements if you'd like, but really, it's interesting how people more or less mocked by the public continue to move up in the world.

Kutaragi was recently asked whether rival consoles will hinder the success of the PS3 by MCV. Kutaragi, being a man not only of few words but of well-worded words (this was an excellent example, don't deny it!), he responded "We do not care." Yeah! Awesome. But... we do, don't we? Oh yeah, well, Mr. Kutaragi, how about you explain the difficulty of producing Blu-ray drives! "Right now, it is an issue, because we can't manufacture enough blue laser diodes for our PlayStation 3s. But we will resolve that." Good to know. We're counting on you.

Another head of Sony, Phil Harrison, was available to discuss launch titles, since Kutaragi wouldn't divulge any info on them. Phil, take it away. "Resistance: Fall of Man and Genji are definite PS3 launch titles ... We're at a fluid time when games are in final QA but not out of final QA. But we're close." Cool beans. So what does this prove? Sony is unmoved by the competition, have told us (not promised!) that they will resolve the diode issue, and have told us (not promised, though it surely sounds like one) two launch titles fo' sho'. Sounds good, eh?

Phil Harrison... Kaz Hirai... Ken Kutaragi... no, they do not comprise the three heads of the mythical Cerberus, but they do comprise the three heads of a real-life corporation that rivals such mythical beasts: Sony. Game|Life got to interview them all in one night and a couple of interesting tidbits came out. Here they are:

• Phil Harrison believes there's no North American price drop because the $599 is a "magic price point". Basically, it's the price people will buy at that gives Sony the greatest marginal profit (or if manufacturing costs are still more than the price, the lowest marginal loss).
• The Playstation 3 is region free for games, but not movies. So you can grab a PS3 from Japan if you really, really want, but you'll have trouble playing local movies. This is also good news for import junkies, especially among fighting game fanatics (less translation to deal with). Oh, this also includes downloadable games.
  
• Kaz Hirai and Ken Kutaragi both leaned towards "no" as to the inclusion of component cables in the box.

Alone, each point is kind of "meh", but add them together and you've got a bevy of PS3 common knowledge. It's surprising how these more common points are overlooked, so while many may have heard these, there will be some who were wondering about these and, well, now they know.

[FYI: if the link to Game|Life doesn't work, just hit refresh. That worked for me!]

Leave it to a well-known Japanese reporter to squeeze the best information possible out of our lovably affable laughable bearable er... our Ken Kutaragi. Twin-K (you may pronounce this as either Twinkie or Twin-Kay) gave the reporter two things, count 'em, two, that turned the audience into a massive clapping orgy.

1. The basic PS3 will retail for around 49,800 yen... that's about $425. Will North America get it at said price? Translation was rough and it remains a mystery, but chances are... no.
   
2. Sony is including HDMI in the console. Kutaragi preceded this with saying that HDMI was unheard of in most TV's at the time of E3, but has become more available and so it is being included with the console... we're assuming he means that the lower-end PS3 will now have HDMI abilities.

There is most certainly going to be more Playstation 3 news as the night and day and night and day drag on, so we'll do our best to keep you informed! Now is the time to make any, any requests about things we should hunt out and gather information on. We'll do our best to bring it to you... but, uh, keep it oriented towards Sony and/or the PS3.

[via Joystiq]

While the original article can be found at the Associated Content site, our pals at Joystiq have summed up the pros and cons of the PS3 in such an easy to peruse way. This list will highlight the most important, albeit opinionated, pros and cons. Feel free to check out the original or Joystiq's for this game of internet telephone.

Pros:

• Backwards compatibility
• Standard hard-drives
• Web browsing
• Cell processor potential

Cons (roll your eyes now):

• Cost
• No more rumble feature
• Game prices may be high

The other cons seem to be there simply to make the list in comparable length to the pros. System size? Ken Kutaragi? Okay, but they seem fairly... lame. Who cares if a system is larger than a lunchbox (GameCube)? Ken Kutaragi isn't going to be popping out of our PS3's anytime soon, so he shouldn't be mentioned. He may be a concern to developers, but not us. He's a source of humor and silliness. What of Blu-ray? Well, the storage size doesn't quite seem necessary and it's expensive, but judging something before we can actually see results is unfair. So it's been left off of this condensed list. Same with the online service. Since none of us have been able to utilize it, we can't rightfully say anything about it. Make of it what you will.

[via Joystiq]

Normally, rumors should be treated just as rumors and taken with a couple dozen grains of salt, but every once in a while one comes along that is, at the very least, fun to debate. According to Kotaku.com, a reputable source recounted an off-the-record conversation with Ken Kutaragi regarding his motives. He is said to be interested "only in consoles and technology. He does not care about the market." There's internal strife at Sony, since many disagree with Kutaragi in that respect. Not to mention twin-K's stance on the PS3 being for a "specific customer" and not a machine for all people (a la Wii's angle).

Another point of noticeable dischord is an inability to agree on what the PS3 actually is. Some say a game machine, some say a movie player. But no one is saying it's akin to a PC? Hmm. I thought that was a Sony angle, but apparently it wasn't even mentioned. The split in what the PS3 is causes a rupture in the market as well. People wanting a game machine will be put off by the Blu-Ray inclusion and people wanting a movie player aren't interested in a game machine.

Development costs were also mentioned. The source claimed that "many small and medium-sized developers are not making PS3 games, because costs are astronomical. Instead, they are switching to the Wii, the DS and the Xbox 360." More or less, but the last statement from the source claiming everyone thinks the PS3 is a risk is a bit off, since we've mentioned quite a few supporters now and then. Again, grain of salt. What does everyone think?

Ken Kutaragi, the big man at Sony, will be delivering a keynote address at the TGS entitled "Next Generation Entertainment Made By The PS3". In a sort of debate, without the actual arguing, Square-Enix head honcho Yoichi Wada will deliver a type of counter-speech entitled "The Game Industry's Potential and Problems". While being able to sit in on these speeches would be awesome, they're being given the day before the TGS opens for the public. Oh well.

What could Krazy Kaptain Ken Kutaragi (not to be confused with the non-kaptained Krazy Kaz and his silly mouth) show the press? Last year Nintendo unveiled their Wiimote. That's a tough act to follow. Showing game previews is all well and good, but, isn't that what the actual TGS is for? Perhaps there's something else we overlooked about the PS3 that will be explained, (memory card saves, please! Well... some people have a lot of memory cards with a lot of data... some people.) or we could just forget about last year's big deal and let Kutaragi roll on his own. This show might just showcase some of the more coveted titles coming out for not only the PS3, but every next-gen system. Better late than never.

Imagine you're in one of the most premier developing houses around, and you've suddenly been asked to ensure the showing of a historically impressive franchise at the biggest videogame gathering in the world. And you've got three weeks to do it.

This is what was going through Polyphony Digital's Kazunori Yamauchi when he was personally asked by Ken Kutaragi to have something ready for E3 concerning Gran Turismo. So with three weeks to go before the big event, the staff set to work. The magic happened thanks to hi-res car models from the Photo Mode in Gran Turismo 4.

Now if only every developer had that kind of work ethic (Duke Nukem Forever anyone?).