Some of Sony's current problems have finally come to light: Kutaragi is an ass

[Dead of Knight]

I mean, we all already knew this, but as The Dude would say, "New shit has come to light," which perhaps sheds some light on some of the current problems of the company.

Roger Ehrenberg's business/stocks blog has dug up a Wall Street Journal article about Sony boss Sir Howard Stringer, which has some Kutaragi-related content that's of some interest. The WSJ article itself is subscribers-only, but Ehrenberg has lifted large portions of it (he's attacking Stringer's tenure as boss), and a lot of it concerns Sir Howard and his relationship with Ken Kutaragi. Or lack thereof. And Kutaragi's "relationship" with some of his colleagues. Or lack thereof.


" Mr. Kutaragi was notorious within the company for his reluctance to communicate with his bosses or other units. In 2005, Mr. Kutaragi hosted an event at a big electronics conference in Las Vegas to celebrate the U.S. launch of the PlayStation Portable handheld game machine -- one of the company's biggest products that year. He didn't invite executives from Sony's electronics division, which provided the parts."


Take that, electronics division.

"In developing the PlayStation 3 console, the device's latest iteration, Mr. Kutaragi went over budget on development costs without informing Mr. Stringer, according to a person familiar with the situation. When Mr. Stringer urged Mr. Kutaragi to have dinner with the heads of the electronics division, he did so just once a year, this person said. A spokeswoman for Mr. Kutaragi declined to comment."

The PS3 over budget? Well I never. Note the second snub to the electronics division.

"In September, Mr. Kutaragi announced Sony was halving shipments of the new PlayStation to the U.S. and Japan and was pushing back its European launch. At a news conference, Mr. Kutaragi blamed Sony's electronics group for failing to produce enough of a critical component, exposing his tense relationship with the division."

That sound you hear is the electronics division's poor little heart breaking.

Ehrenberg is highly critical of Stringer, and thinks Kutaragi should have been removed much sooner:


"I don't care how legendary or historically successful a manager might be - if they are unable or unwilling to adapt to the culture, the vision you, as leader, have clearly communicated, they have to go. But not two years later, after the corrosive effect of doing things "their way" has already sunk in. Having a senior manager blame other groups for his group's woes? Raising concerns of investors, suppliers and customers alike? Unacceptable everywhere and at any time in any culture."
http://kotaku.com/gaming/sony/sonys-problems-start-at-the-top-241418.php

[daroga]

It's always amazing, in any job, how good management can make all the difference, and bad management can sabotage everything.

It's amazing how my productivity differs in different jobs I've had when I have a boss who is cool and a boss who is a total jerk.

[daphatty]

This boils down to one simple problem, poor communication, which is something my Sony US friends have been complaining about for years. The right hand (SCEA) never knows what the left hand (SCEI) is doing. And, it just so happens that the left hand is responsible for most of the major decisions that will affect Sony Computer Entertainment as a whole (Blu-Ray anyone?).

This has been a problem for many, many years. The severity of Sony's screw-ups should be a clear indication of that.

[CoffeeEdge]

Now, now, ladies and gentlemen. While this is noteworthy information, we must never fail to overlook the MASSIVE assitude of Phil Harrison.

I would add Kaz Hirai to the asslost, but I actually think that's he's really just dense and amusingly stupid and clueless, rather than an asshole.

[vasco]

If the head doesn't work, niether will the rest of the body.

[ViolentLee]

It's always amazing, in any job, how good management can make all the difference, and bad management can sabotage everything.

It's amazing how my productivity differs in different jobs I've had when I have a boss who is cool and a boss who is a total jerk.

That's why being your own boss is best, IMHO.

Also, I was at that PSP launch party during CES. :)

All this mudslinging about Kutaragi makes me think, "How does Miyamoto stay so humble?" I mean, I saw him berating his staff after an E3 press conference when Wind Waker had problems with a key falling through the floor, but the guy seems to be so laid back and happy with his position in the company -- a company whose success largely rests on his shoulders.

[Puffa469]

There was an article in one of my game mags a few months back, about the total lack of communication between US based offices of Japanese companies. Literally no communication at all.

[mykevermin]

Someone's complaining about Sony?

Oh, I see the guest list on this thread. The usual suspects, mostly.

If you consider the logic that Sony's only profitable division for years has been its gaming division, then it makes sense to favor them. The PS3 is a big gamble for them, because it is attempting to use its power and position in the gaming market to make them profitable elsewhere (including the electronics division).

Now, does that excuse the way a CEO acts? Of course not. If you think that Kutaragi is any different than any CEO of any major corporation, then I've got something to tell you. But it will have to wait until later, as I'm meeting up with Jack Welch to pick up those Knicks tickets he owes me.

Daphatty, I can understand how a lack of communications can make for major problems, and that it's probably a far more pervasive thing in the industry than companies care to think (while it may matter to us for games and game quality, poor communication means harm done to the sacred *bottom line* for many of these companies). Sony gets the brunt of the blame because people such as DoK scour everything they do with a fine-tooth comb and immediately attribute their behavior to being a poorly organized and failing organization, rather than assuming that this is what a lot of companies genuinely are like.

[daroga]

That's why being your own boss is best, IMHO. I couldn't agree more. But that takes a lot of discipline that the majority of people do not have. I can usually stay pretty motivated on my own, but it is always nice to have someone to be held accountable to in order to push you do what you need to do, even if you don't feel like it. :)

Sony gets the brunt of the blame because people such as DoK scour everything they do with a fine-tooth comb and immediately attribute their behavior to being a poorly organized and failing organization, rather than assuming that this is what a lot of companies genuinely are like. I don't think anyone is saying that this only happens to Sony. This is a problem everywhere. The issue is that usually the lack of communication is hidden behind the facade. Yet, a lot of Sony's recent and large blunders can be more-or-less attributed to this. I actually took this as being a bit of news in Sony's favor. It's not that the whole company is completely clueless about what is good and what should be done, but with no or poor communication, they're having a hard time getting in-sync, which is causing a lot of issues.

[Dead of Knight]

I don't think anyone is saying that this only happens to Sony. This is a problem everywhere. The issue is that usually the lack of communication is hidden behind the facade. Yet, a lot of Sony's recent and large blunders can be more-or-less attributed to this. I actually took this as being a bit of news in Sony's favor. It's not that the whole company is completely clueless about what is good and what should be done, but with no or poor communication, they're having a hard time getting in-sync, which is causing a lot of issues.

QFT. Yes, I am pretty anti-Sony at this point, I'll admit. But I'm not stupid enough to say that this doesn't happen at every company in the universe. I am a business/accounting major after all. These problems at Sony are more pronounced than most though because, like you said, gaming is their only profitable division. If THAT's going downhill, people are going to notice. And gamers with really anal opinions on anything to do with gaming, like me, are going to bitch and laugh about it.

[Roufuss]

Someone's complaining about Sony?

Oh, I see the guest list on this thread. The usual suspects, mostly.
.

Q to the F to the mother fucking T.

Sony's current problem is that I don't own their system, but that will change soon (hopefully). I don't really give a shit what their CEO or PR guy does because it dosen't impact the games or my experience playing the games.

"Lair is a great game, but Kutargi is an asshole, fuck this game and system!"

And wait, the OP is a Kotaku article? Wow, who could have guessed THAT :roll:

[lokizz]

it really does make you wonder if someone was trying to destroy the sony gaming side of things with the ps3. in theory its a great system but the high price and questionable choices for things to be left out and added makes you wonder wtf is going on with them.

to say rumble isnt important is a joke and laughable since its so much a part of gaming liek memory cards or analog controls. and then the blu ray disk istself is cool since the amount of space it has on it could be used to make amazing games but the tech itself i think should have just focused on the gaming side of things and left movies for later on.

it sucks to see the next gen of gaming as a financial annoyance instead of somthign to be excited about and somethign you cant live without and this is the first time i havent been excited for the next gen of gaming ever. mostly due to the ps2 still having legs under it but also ude to high prices of games, consoles and exploiting downloadable content for games .

youd think with as much money as they expect you to shell out to get extra game content the games themselves would be cheaper or at least they should let you use game money in the game to buy downloadable stuff.

i dont think sony is completly screwed but they will need to stop take a look at all those within who are fucking thigns up and kick them out fo the equation and start again from square one. i guess its too late or too soon to reconfigure the ps3 but a price drop would go a long way to getting people into their systems again. that and some of those fancy games theyve been yammering about for ages.

i find it hard to believe that everyone in sony thinks peopel will eat up anything they put on a plate so they have to sut up all th assholes who are talking out of their asses and put some people at the front who know what gamers want and need and can communicate that effectively.

[Roufuss]

to say rumble isnt important is a joke and laughable since its so much a part of gaming liek memory cards or analog controls.


I didn't read past this, because well, it was a bitch to understand what you wrote, but yea, memory cards aren't important at all anymore, and are a thing of the past for the most part.

I will never own a memory card for my 360, or for my PS3... only the Wii because Nintendo was shortsighted in that regard.

[Dead of Knight]

Q to the F to the mother fucking T.

Sony's current problem is that I don't own their system, but that will change soon (hopefully). I don't really give a shit what their CEO or PR guy does because it dosen't impact the games or my experience playing the games.

"Lair is a great game, but Kutargi is an asshole, fuck this game and system!"

The problem is the games on PS3 currently suck for the most part IMO. Except for VF5. But I'm not going to pay ~$700 for one fucking game, and neither is anyone else with a sane mind. Sony doesn't seem to realize this.

[Dr Mario Kart]

I don't really give a shit what their CEO or PR guy does because it dosen't impact the games or my experience playing the games.

Eh? People care about marketshare because it has an influence on 3rd party developers. So do development costs. When the top management makes a decision that may affect one or both of these things, it has a very REAL impact on games.

[lokizz]

I didn't read past this, because well, it was a bitch to understand what you wrote, but yea, memory cards aren't important at all anymore, and are a thing of the past for the most part.

I will never own a memory card for my 360, or for my PS3... only the Wii because Nintendo was shortsighted in that regard.

well what about rtransferring game saves and characters from one system to another youd need a memory card fo rthat wouldnt you ?

[johnnypark]

So they exceeded the budget but still only put in 256MB of RAM? Since they're in direct competition w/ Microsoft, you'd think they would have paid closer attention (perhaps attribute that to the lack of communication between divisions?). All the extra horsepower the PS3 has may not even be fully accessible with such a small amount of memory...they (probably) could have easily spent less elsewhere
and matched 360's memory, which would have given them a much better upper hand power-wise.

[Puffa469]

I will never own a memory card for my 360, or for my PS3... only the Wii because Nintendo was shortsighted in that regard.

The only thing you need a memory card for on the Wii is for Gamecube saves no? And doesnt the PS3 need a memory card for PS1&2 saves? I dont see how Nintendo was shortsighted any more than Sony was.

[Dr Mario Kart]

eh? 512mb of internal flash should be more than most consumers will ever need, ever.

I just now filled up my PS2 8mb memory card. 8 MB!

I'll never own a memory card for the Wii either

[D_Icon]

Are people still hating on the PS3.

[tholly]

wow....great article....really hits home for me (an Industrial / Organizational Psychology grad. student)...

who would have thought that communication, or lack there of, and the creation of "silos" within an organization could be a problem (sarcasm)

[Vinny]

This is probably something Stinger should have kept quite about. This'll just fuel even more anit-Sony media and fanboys.

Negative press is the last thing Sony needs right now.

[trq]

I didn't read past this, because well, it was a bitch to understand what you wrote, but yea, memory cards aren't important at all anymore, and are a thing of the past for the most part.

I will never own a memory card for my 360, or for my PS3... only the Wii because Nintendo was shortsighted in that regard.

I'll say this: as someone who's had his 360 die on him twice in six months, hard-drives aren't the end-all be-all of storage solutions, either.

[Kaijufan]

So they exceeded the budget but still only put in 256MB of RAM? Since they're in direct competition w/ Microsoft, you'd think they would have paid closer attention (perhaps attribute that to the lack of communication between divisions?). All the extra horsepower the PS3 has may not even be fully accessible with such a small amount of memory...they (probably) could have easily spent less elsewhere
and matched 360's memory, which would have given them a much better upper hand power-wise.
The PS3 has 512 MB of memory, it's just that half of it is used as RAM and half of it is used by the GPU. The 360 has unified memory, so developers can allocate memory how they want.