Kutaragi takes charge at Sony's home electronics, semiconductor divisions
"Father of the PlayStation" expands his domain at Sony Corp.
Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi is set to take top roles at Sony's home electronics and semiconductor divisions in addition to his current role at the videogames division, effective from late next month.
Kutaragi, who is referred to as the "father of the PlayStation" due to his key role in the genesis of Sony's home console plans and its subsequent success in the market, announced his new role at a Sony corporate strategy press conference in Tokyo.
As of June 22nd, the SCE president will be taking over at Sony's hugely important home electronics division, which recently absorbed the home storage and Blu-Ray (next generation optical disk technology) divisions that had been headed up by Kutaragi since January of this year.
The home electronics division is the sector of the company with overall responsibility for products such as the PSX, Sony's integrated PlayStation 2, hard disc video recorder and DVD recorder, which launched in Japan last Christmas but has reportedly been suffering lower than expected sales since then, despite having a significant price advantage over competitors.
However, Sony seems enthusiastic about future prospects for the PSX and similar devices, and Kutaragi hinted at the conference that the company may consider redesigning the PSX into a significantly smaller unit in the hope of stimulating sales.
Along with the home electronics division, the other division being added to Kutaragi's portfolio is Sony's massive semiconductor business - responsible for creating chips for a wide range of Sony's products, including work on the next-generation Cell processor which will be used in many different consumer electronics and commercial applications, including the PlayStation 3 console.
Kutaragi - who is widely expected to take the helm of Sony Corporation within the coming decade - plans to integrate the semiconductor divisions into a single unit, rather than the current fractured organisation which divides up manufacturing according to different types of products.