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RIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDGGGGGGGEEEEEEEE Racer!

couldn't resist.

The article seems like its overly pessimistic on Kutaragi and fills the explanation with speculation. If anything, it looks like he's getting a promotion. From President of a smaller group to CEO of a larger group? I don't think Sony has even admitted that the launch was anything short of spectacular.

Ouch... window seated... i feel sorry for the guy... he will never touch anything important again...

failing upwards
why cant corporations fire anyone?

For anyone that thinks this sounds like a promotion, as someone else pointed out, this is basically a career death sentence in Japanese business.

yeah he got a promotion all right....to sit out the rest of the game on the pine.

Aw bless. He should have gone sooner actually. I think the (massive) damage is done.

I wish I could be "removed" from my job and put into a higher paying position where I have to work less

Makes perfect sense. Sony, not content to allow Kutaragi screw up just the Playstation division, had made him chairman and group CEO to allow him to more-completely screw up more of the company.

Executives don't retire, they become chairman of the board. I thought that was common knowledge. Whether they want to retire (Bill Gates) or not (probably Kutaragi).

Being removed from day-to-day operations, even if he gets a huge pay bump and a great new office and a swanky new yacht, etc., means that, sure he'll still have influence in the background in SCEI, but he won't be the guy calling the shots anymore.

Imagine if Sony had done this back in 2001. The PS3 might have had a Blu-Ray accessory drive, cost only $400, retained game exclusives, and actually upscaled! It could've been a contender! LOL

Haha, well I didn't see this one coming, but the reasons behidn the move seem pretty clear. All fanboyism aside, Sony honestly didn't handle the PS3 very well at all, and it's time someone accepted responsibility for the mistakes.

Pfffft... promotion? You really think he got a promotion? You guys apparently have no understanding of Japanese culture. They're saving face. To demote him would be admitting something was wrong. They just need to get him out of the way and save face. I'm positive he has no real power. I'll wager he didn't even get a bump in pay or if he did, it was very, very minor. In fact, I'll bet in a few months he will "retire" if the PS3 doesn't succeed.

You'd think you'd learn to see through the Sony spin by now. But I suppose people will see what they want to see.

I want to work at Sony. With my everyday failures I can be chairman in no time!

What the people commenting dont realize is that in Japanese business a promotion is the ONLY way to demote someone. A firing of someone would lead to suicide and there is no way to actually demote anyone. Instead you promote them to a point where they can no longer have influence on the area that they are screwing up in.

Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Elaine keeps promoting that creepy mailman to get him out of her hair.

You kids don't seem to understand the subtle implications from a change in position at this stage of a project launch. This is a bad thing, it is a dishonorable thing for it to happen under any other circumstance than massive success. Not only does it implicate something is wrong with the corporate machine, but it draws attention in a negative manner. It's not a pat on the back, its a slap.

Guess Kenny couldn't handle all that RAW POTENTIAL

This was a forced promotion. No it is not a good thing.

You screw up, you move up.

Rather than have him running the daily ops, and technical aspects of their division, they'd rather put him somewhere where they can keep a good eye on him. I bet he gets the corner window desk (apparently reserved for failures in Japanese companies).

Basically, he's done well in the past, but screwed up with the PS3. That alone doesn't warrant an immediate firing. They can't demote him, and probably didn't have a lateral position for him. So, he moved up.

Hey I saw some of Shogun the other day. Isn't he supposed to lay down and have someone pee on him?

This story reminds me about something that happened at work... I work in a call center and there was this girl who was really nice but she sucked on the phone, almost to the point she was about to get fired. Since she was really nice no one wanted to fire her, so what they did instead? they made her a trainer.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/0160180702.html

"In Japan , companies dole out “window seats” to long-time employees. Window seats, which support senior, unneeded employees until they retire, require little or no productive work. Most older workers view the window seat as an entitlement, a reward for long years of hard work and loyalty; others see it as demeaning, or loss of face. This practice of maintaining unproductive workers at full pay is a very costly one, which some companies have sought to reduce or eliminate. By providing dull, humiliating types of work some companies hope window sitters will be encouraged to retire voluntarily (Ono, 1993)."

Hey, it's better than having to commit honorable seppuku to cleanse his shame.

Real time executive changes!

If Ken Kutaragi were a mafia boss, he just got the kiss of death.

Criticize him all you want but YOU guys try to achieve 4D and see how easy it is for you. The problem is we're all aiming for the moon and Kutaragi aimed for the Sun...it's not easy to aim for the Sun.

Pwned.

Reggie got promoted because Nintendo needed a strong spokesman/evangelist for the brand. I think that's the way American business works. You do good for the company you get a promotion.

The dynamic duo of Kuturagi and Hirai, need no introduction. They're at least pulling Kuturagi out of the trenches since they can't trust him to botch up the next "big thing". Anyone else remember the tight leash they put on him when talking to the press after the big E3 snafu? If anyone thinks they're doing him a favor they're not at all. As people have pointed out, this is obviously him getting a "window seat". Or to Americans, it's just another reinforcement of the "Dilbert principle".

Let's put it this way. If you were building a bomb, and you couldn't fire your employees, where would you rather have the incompetent workers?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f6728ed8-8095-11db-9096-0000779e2340.html

“The appointment of Hirai could be the start of a shift from hardware to software,” said Yuta Sakurai, an analyst at Nomura. “I cannot now imagine a PlayStation4.”

Haha, it'd be funny if Sony became the next Sega in terms of their videogame department, making games for a company once their rival.

Sorry if this has been posted up there before, dig me down if so, just wanted to leave my 2 cents before heading to class.

I wonder if Kaz will do any better.

Wow, I think this REAL TIME seat change got MASSIVE DAMAGE (to Ken) at this WEAK POINT (PS3 screw-up).
Ok, enough of this jokes, already.
How long people will forgot this jokes :)

I hope I face the same ill fate as Kutaragi, and get removed and be placed as head of the company for which I work...