This is actually old news. That report is just that this has becomd effective, but it was announced a while ago.

I'd just like to note for all the people who keep saying "that promotion is just the Japanese way to fire him," that the same thing happens in America more often than you'd think.  My high school's first principal had a "marketing" position for the last three months of my Sophomore year.  Which had nothing to do with the fact that he was the main reason at least four really good teachers quit.  Or that students didn't like him.  Or that parents didn't like him.  Or that everyone thought he was a douche for riding a horse through campus that one time.

Japan just uses this technique more often because respect is a big deal over there, but it isn't something that's limited to over there.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Yamauchi and Kutaragi are very comparable in their roles... Though Kutaragi had a bigger hand in the actual hardware specs, while Yamauchi let Yokoi and Miyamoto run that (to his credit.) But they were both one time visionaries who eventually ran their company (or division) into the ground.

Its good for Sony that they got rid of Kutaragi now, instead of waiting a whole generation like Nintendo. Though Ninty were always profitable, so they had some time to sit around deluding themselves during the N64 generation and GC launch. Its always necesary to fire the old exec who drove you into the ground (even though he brought them success, too), in order to revive the brand.

The downside for Sony, is that while Kutaragi is comparable to Yamauchi, Kaz is not comparable to Iwata and Phil is not comparable to Shiggy.

Edit: No disrespect to Kutaragi. He has a place as one of the top 5 most important figures in gaming history, for the way the PS brand created the European market and especially for how it rewrote the rules of third-party relationships.

"I have a full respect for Kutaragi. He is the one who provided a new direction in gaming with PS1. I think everyone should keep in mind that he has a great contribution in vg entertaiment. If not him we would moulder in Mario's mushrooms world."

the real contribution is of the 3rd party developers, GTA, Resident evil, tekken, final fantasy, devil may cry, metal gear, kof,ace combat, silent hill, kingdom hearts, tomb raider, dragon quest, etc, all are a 3rd properties.

the only AAA games developer by sony are Gran turismo and god of war

i think the playstation only have lucky, if the playstation dont exist,all  those games go to the console of the moment, that is all.

i think that the good thing about the ps1 is that avoided the nintendo monopoly, this was good, for that i think the wii good moment in the world and the 360 US moment are a good thing for the videogames, i dont want a monopoly of sony, nintendo , microsoft, nokia, samsung , toyota, hp or any company that want join to this industry.

I don't think Yamauchi was fired, I think he just got too old, and there was pressure so he decided 'fuk it'.  He left Nintendo with one last idea, which was the Nintendo DS.

Yamauchi's arrogance was the reason for Nintendo's drop from the lead quite honestly, so I can see so many great things since Iwata has turned things around. 

Old news.

 Hes a hardware guy, they never should have given him so much power.

Yokoi was a genius of hardware design. Kutaragi was not. Though Virtual Boy was a disaster, DS and Wii both come from the Yokoi school of hardware design, and even GC and GBA owe far more to Yokoi then Kutaragi. More expensive hardware which is less powerful and never acheives its multimedia ambitions--that is Kutaragi's hardware at its BEST.

I think Kutaragi and Yamauchi both deserve credit for revolutionizing the business side of things. For changing the established business strategy and permanently widening the audience videogames could reach. They both established a major new market for home consoles, they both increased penetration in the established markets, and they both revolutionized third party relationships--Yamauchi being the first to embrace third parties, and Kutaragi the first to rely on them nearly exclusively for sales.

 LOL what a joke.

 Well he mostly managed the hardware parts of SCEI anyway. It was that they shouldn't have given him so much leeway this time.