Ken Kutaragi, founder of PlayStation and architect of the first three PlayStation consoles, said people upset about Sony discontinuing game discs was probably a “mindset problem.” He understands that, he noted, but that doesn’t make it “economically reasonable” for Sony to continue printing them.
Kutaragi was speaking to Video Games Chronicle at the Game Republic New Horizons event, where he said: “I understand that physical discs have become a metaphor for ‘owning’ games. I really understand that mentality… But no one thinks that (physical media) is necessary for a networked device like a smartphone, for example, because people feel like they will keep their content. So it’s a mentality.
“I really understand (why some people are upset),” he added, “but I don’t think it’s economically reasonable. Maybe it’s a mentality problem.”
Kutaragi retired from PlayStation in June 2007, shortly after the European release of the PlayStation 3, so he left the company for a while. Two console generations have passed since he left, although I’m sure he still maintains close ties to Sony and the people who work there. “I’m no longer the CEO of PlayStation,” he noted in the interview, “but we still have common (views).”
Perhaps Sony is moving toward an all-digital device, he noted, the same way we see smartphones and other devices. “Maybe that’s what these people think,” he said. “But it caused friction with video game enthusiasts.”
Kutaragi, who is currently CEO of Ascent Robotics and owner of Cyber AI Entertainment, also expressed concern about the price of hardware in the current market plagued by component shortages. He said the machines are “very expensive and it’s not a healthy situation”; comments backed up by reports over the weekend that the PlayStation 6’s memory and storage alone would cost more than $680.
Kutaragi’s advice? Harness AI and cloud computing to their full potential and “we won’t need any consoles.” I don’t think this will go very well, Ken.
Gn tech
