Tyler B fears Nintendo Wii will dilute PS3, Xbox360 quality

[Bodhesatva]

I can't find the article at the moment, SSJ, but here's a similar one:

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8085114&publicUserId=4561231

With the relevant quotation as follows:

"No, the real problem was that Kutaragi was a fantastic engineer, not executive. He had little interest in the politics that came with the job, and throughout his career made enemies within Sony -- early on nearly getting fired for working in secret with Nintendo on a sound chip for the SNES and more recently publicly lambasting Sony's electronics division for delays with crucial parts for the PS3. He also had a problem with communication -- Howard Stringer recently commented that Kutaragi didn't make him aware he was going well over budget with the development of the PS3. And as the pressure mounted, he became obsessive. Especially in the past year, he had to control all aspects of the business pertaining to PS3. Everything, from when specific PS3 software was to be revealed to the Spider-Man font on the box -- everything was decided by Kutaragi. Why were no PS3 games playable at last year's Leipzig Games Convention? Because Kutaragi didn't want any there. Why did it take so long for Sony to get debugs into the hands of the press before the PS3's launch? Because people were waiting on Kutaragi's approval. I'll be honest, it was more than a little concerning at the time; the president of SCE should not be preoccupied in such matters on the eve of a console launch. But that was Kutaragi -- surrounded by an increasing number of doubters, he listened no one. It was said that his failure to respond to publishers possibly resulted in the loss of exclusivity on such titles as GTA IV and Assassin's Creed.

No one doubted Kutaragi's vision or ability to create fantastic hardware, but his failure as an executive was holding the division back. This is why Kaz Hirai took his place. With the PS3 off and running at the start of a 10-year life cycle, Sony won't need a visionary for quite some time -- now, it needs someone to run the business. And Kaz is right for that. He's a team player and has great relationships with the publishers. He can take things from here. "