Sony's Ken Kutaragi steps down
By Paul Miller 
posted June 19th 2007 12:19PM
posted June 19th 2007 12:19PM
We knew it was coming, but we can't help but shed a tear at the retirement of the man who took consoles out of the cartridge era and into the extravagant and multi-billion dollar polygon war currently taking place in our living rooms -- for better or worse. Ken Kutaragi, father of the PlayStation, is calling it quits today at the ripe old age of 56. It was pretty clear he was on the outs when he left his post as president of SCE last year, with Kazuo Hirai taking his place in most operational duties. Ken announced he was leaving his positions as CEO and chairman in April, and now he's making good on his promise, with little more clarity if it's of his own accord or due to internal Sony pressures for a changing of the guard. As previously announced, Kutaragi will be sticking around in an advisory role, but from here on out the expectations of a struggling company and a few million fanboys will rest squarely on Kaz to steer the faithful through this console generation and beyond. And yes, this also means we're retiring the 'shopped PS3 pic to the right of this post. It will be missed most of all.
It may be too much for you to learn at once, but on top of not using the caps lock, I'd like to point out the little "reply" button at the bottom of each post, so we can know what the fuck you're talking about.
The best comments I have read in a long time...
@novelo : howd do you program on Blu Ray 4 layers ? Can you actually connect a keyboard ?
I'd better do it on a computer.
The GameCube has techinically, less graphical potential. (23 million polys vs the gamecubes 16 million) however, sony doesn't know what anti-aliasing is. now what is about to follow is the 100% truth.
GRAPHICAL CAPACITY DOES NOT MATTER.
Here is why: resident evil 4 STILL has amazing graphics. and why do you think that is? its because the artists at capcom made every polygon count. and remember a polygon only reefers to a 3+ sided shape. so theoretically, you could create a polygon (albiet a REALLY hard one to draw)that is the shape of a car or something. and with texturing the same deal, if you want to put alot of detail into your textures no one is stopping you. its just time consuming which is why you don't see that many game companies doing it. I played Gran Turismo HD concept and was blown away by the sheer beauty of the graphics (until I saw the edges, and realised that sony STILL doesn't know what anti-aliasing is) there is a very common way of rendering huge detailed environments its called normal mapping, you take a high res figure, and than create a low res figure, you store the difference in polygon counts in whats called a normal map. this does two things, 1: it saves a whole bunch of VRAM and it gives skin that plasticy look. What I'm trying to say, with all of this, is just because the playstation 3 has technically more capabillity does not make it any better graphically speaking than the Xbox 360 or even the Wii (yes I said it) as evidenced by the fact that gamecube can support near-next-gen graphics on its system. (also, take a look at Super Smash Brothers Brawl). they take care with each polygon and make sure none of the capacity is wasted.
A few commas and full-stops here and there wouldn't hurt.
Love him or hate him...he left his touch on the gaming industry...
I'm not trying to be a PS3 fan or Xbox or Wii..but can u tell me, why all people considering a 600$ PS3 is so expensive and will run all to buy the 600$ iPhone?? :D
cause I don't understand why!
Comparing apples to oranges again...
@Pentium: The iPhone is an Apple product, which means we know it isn't going to be a small price, everyone that knows Apple knows this. You know iPods (essentially 80GB USB drives with a nice UI and support) are going to run you over 300$. Going down to the 30GB model? Still expect to pay around 200-250$. Even the Shuffle is like 75$. Macbook Pros... expect 2000$+. Of course, these are all Apple products, so it isn't surprising. It's been this way for a while now, so why should the iPhone's price tag surprise you. Furthermore, look at how much most smartphones or even 'fashionable' phones cost at their release. The Razr V3 was 500$ with a service plan, 800$ without. Relatively speaking, the iPhone is actually priced more closely with competing devices than Apple PCs are with their counter parts. Of course, most phones' price dwindle over time and Apples prices generally do not until another model comes out to replace the 'oldest' one.
Anyhow, there are a select few comments on here that are worth reading, namely Captain Underpants's. I'm a computer technician/programmer and I can tell you that raw power and numbers (RAM, VRAM, HDD, MHz, etc.) do not mean that the games will take advantage of this. How each game is programmed and optimized for performance is just as important, if not more, than the system capacity itself.
Just as he [Capt Underpants] has said, Sony STILL hasn't learned what Anti-Aliasing is. It's absoltely horrid to see the game in such nice texturing and environmental effects... and then see the jagged edges of polygons. While I'm not saying that the PS3's graphics fail solely because of this, it is just the fact that a system that boasts such graphics power ought to have this feature implemented in most games, at least the higher end ones for sure.
While I'm not terribly old (21 years old), I have played console games since I was about 3 or 4 and PC games since I was about 7. I've always looked at games as simply that, games. Before, there were really only two major competitors, Sega and Nintendo. I really don't see the Sega Master System having nearly as much of a competition to the NES, so I tend to focus on the more popular battle: Genesis and SNES. I always thought this was such a great battle, as the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo both had an awesome collection of games and their hardware was similar. I'd say the SNES had better graphics and the Genesis had better sound (the Synth was much better in my opinion); however, they both had killer games and not just a "one-hit wonder" (ie; Halo).
I had a Genesis and my cousin had the SNES. It was a great balance, he had Chrono Trigger, Super Mario, Final Fantasy VI, Super Metroid, Rival Turf, Super Mario RPG, and the works. I had Phantasy Star IV, Streets of Rage 1-3, Gunstar Heroes, Sword of Vermillion, MK II, every Sonic game, and all the other classics. These games didn't have the best graphics ever, hell, the players on Madden for the Genesis looked like 8x8 pixel blobs. The point being that these games kicked ass.
Ok so now nearly two decades ahead, we've place too heavy an emphasis on graphics. While it is only natural for us to want to raise the bar, let us not forget that games are not meant to be movies, they are meant to be fun to interact with and play. Of course many games have accomplished this balance of gameplay and graphics, but I think too many people get drawn in by the latter instead of the former. Who cares if the PS3 or XBOX 360 have downright killer graphics? The question really is are the games worth playing or not.
For example, Prince of Persia for the Wii (I never played the other versions of this semi-'remake') is a pretty fun game while the graphics seem like they are from the late PS1/early PS2 era. Mario Party 8 even still is lacking in 'next gen' graphics, but it is really fun. Zelda:TWP has pretty decent graphics but they are still no 360/PS3, however the game was simply killer.
I'm no fanboy, like I said, I just enjoy games for what they are, regardless of provider/system. For this reason I've bought a Wii, right after my Xbox (not 360) [un]forunately died from a HDD failure. Was it worth it? I definitely think so. Not only are a good few of the Wii games fun (I admit I don't care for many of them at this point in time), but the Virtual Console is so great. True, you could say 'go by the systems for 20$ off ebay and the games for 5$ each and just play them instead,' but I already want a Wii for the future Wii games as well as some of the classic GC games. I never owned a GC, I always borrowed my friends' to play Metroid, SSB Melee, or Ikaruga (which I even bought) so now this is great. The Virtual Console also allows me to consolidate all those old games into a single system I can bring anywhere. The classic controllers are pretty inexpensive, so I don't mind shelling out 20$ each. The remotes are pretty reasonable as well, 40$ each. True, when you factor in the nunchuck it can come to 60$ per 'set,' but you really only need two instead of four, as I have yet to really see the need for all four at once. As a side bonus, I can use the Wiimotes with my laptop via Bluetooth and create some pretty interesting uses such as controlling my iTunes playlist (when my computer is hooked up to my stereo system) from the couch and like.
I'm also a gadget/technology freak (hence my near constant visiting of this site), so the whole innovative motion technology of the Wii controllers really drew me in. Sixaxis really has nothing on the Wiimotes in all honesty (oh yeah, http://gaming.engadget.com/2007/06/17/battery-life-proving-problematic-in-adding-rumble-to-sixaxis/ =p).
Anyhow, game on!
With this kind of publicity, it makes one wonder why Ken didn't retire sooner.
See those two dots in your alias? Use them in speech please.
wow these comments just made my headache 10X worse. So help me if I ever have to read the word "xbot" again.
he left because he knows playstation will fail, smart little guy. good bye playstation.
Love the comments! Personally I'm planning to buy the PS3 when it comes down a couple hundred and has a more extensive library. Plus I plan to buy the XBOX 360 when they finally preinstall the HD drive in it. But for now I'll settle for waiting to buy a Wii.
SiLo, I'm not surprised about iPhone price and I was expecting that (I know Apple very well) but I was thinking...is the PS3 that much expensive? that's my point...!
I'm not so old either (24 years) and I played almost every game u mentioned and also I'm a Tech freak too so to be honest I liked the PS3 from the first time I read about it specifications...so I think it's not expensive!
I think Sony did one BIG mistake...not about the pricing tag..it's about the games...Sony lost big exclusive titles..that's my point! now everybody is thinking why? I can pay less and play most of the Games..!
so Wii will be my hero for the time being :D but when MGS, Final Fantasy are here...I'm on my to PS3 zone!
hey, the gamecube DID have better graphics than the ps2. the emotion engine is a piece of underperforming shit, and makes the ps2 the weakest of all the last-gen consoles.