The change, which came as part of a reshuffle of many elements of Sony’s top management in Japan, leaves Kutaragi in charge of the game business group within the company, and he will now also head up the Broadband Network Co., a new subsidiary of Sony.
Several news sources have linked this move with the broadband content features which it is believed will form a core part of the PlayStation 3; however, the Broadband Network Co. actually isn’t quite what it sounds like, and its main business is not broadband networks at all – in fact, it’s responsible for next-generation DVD technology, known as Blu-Ray.
This technology, which is starting to arrive at the high end of the consumer market at the moment, allows vast amounts of content to be recorded or played back off a DVD-size disc, and it is expected that the PS3 will utilise it as its main storage medium.
Kutaragi’s promotion is a further step towards the top of the company; following the stellar success of the PlayStation and its successor even while several other departments within Sony have struggled, he has been regularly suggested as a future leader of the corporation.
To games fans, however, the effusive SCE president will almost certainly always be best known for his infamous claim, prior to the arrival of the PlayStation 2, that playing games on the new console would be like jacking in to the Matrix. Oh well – you can’t win ’em all.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz, Forbes
