User talk:Brazil4Linux/Sandbox
Controversial Man
[edit]Kutaragi is a target of many controversies in the press. Their speeches attracts heavily attention and repercussion.
- Some analists complain that Kutaragi is responsible for Sony Corporation lost $288 million in 2004 and this result in a direct effect in the remove of him in the board of directors and substitution of Howard Stringer. [1]
- Many Analysts believe that Kutaragi's demotion was surprising and indeed harsh, but his outspokeness (see below) did not win him friends in Sony's leadership: in all likelihood, his demotion was perhaps caused by his speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo wherein he criticised Sony's policy of using proprietary technologies and implicitly criticised the company's use of DRM technologies in reference to Sony's failure to offer a compelling strategy to answer the rise of Apple Computer's iPod [2]. For an employee to make such frank criticism of a major Japanese corporation is rare, and it is unlikely to have gone down well with Sony's most senior executives at the time, particularly the then CEO Nobuyuki Idei, with whom he had a cool working relationship [3].
- Many analists complain also that Kutaragi was assigned the difficult task of turning around the consumer division that he was placed in charge of, whereas Stringer was able to successfully turn around Sony's content business. Other people believed that Kutaragi deserved to be demoted due to the large losses Sony made in the consumer electronics market. [4] RedHerring website says that with Kutaragi, Sony Computer Entertainment loss $25 million in Q4 of 2004. "During that same year, Sony’s game sales fell to $7.5 billion from $8.2 billion, and its operating income slid to $650 million from $1 billion" they says.
- Kutaragi labeled the Xbox 360 as "just an Xbox 1.5" and that it was "only going after PlayStation2" [6]
Perhaps for making the PlayStation a highly profitable business and no recognizing competion (and to disdain them) Kutaragi is close watched by financial analysts who trace profiles of losses and profits of Sony Electronics Corporation. Despite this, the PlayStation platform continues being a success. PS2 reached recently 100 milion units shipped worldwide with 65% marketshare [7]. And the PlayStation 3 is the most wanted video game console for the next-generation. [8]