Sony Video Game Guru Gets Zapped

April 26, Ken Kutaraji the inventor of Sony's PlayStation Video game consoles has called it quits. It was announced he will cease being the CEO of Sony's game division effective June 19. Sony (SNE - NYSE) whose star has been fading for some time now despite numerous attempts to right the ship, keeps looking for the holy grail. The company made a surprising change over two years ago with its CEO and Chairman when the board chose an outsider, Sir Howard Stringer to be the company's leader. Stringer, a well-known former TV and news executive was an out-of-the-box appointment for a Japanese company. Many people at the time expected Kutaraji to be the heir apparent to the CEO and Chairman spot, not Stringer.

Throughout the last few years, Sony has made a number of executive changes in its consumer product and entertainment divisions. At one point, despite numerous product disappointments, many experts thought Sony's future might brighten with the launch of the firm's newest video game console, the PlayStation 3 (PS3). The predictions, however, came up a bit short. The new PlayStation has not done very well against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and more significantly, has been overwhelmed by the huge success of Nintendo's Wii console.

Kutaraji will become honorary chairman of Sony's Computer Entertainment Inc. In his place, Sony promoted Kas Hirai, the unit's current president and COO. Hirai will become president and group chief executive in charge of the PlayStation business.

Sony needs to come up with a real consumer winner and it needs to do it soon. Despite reasonable performance in the stock there continues to be concerns for the company long-term.

For more:

Associated Press
Bloomberg
Business 2.0 Magazine
Reuters Article
Business Week
Gamespot
Daily Tech