Sony has announced that their current CEO, Kaz Hirai, will be stepping down from the company in April 2018. He will then be appointed as a chairman of the company, while chief financial officer Kenchiro Yoshida will be replacing Hirai as CEO. This news follows after Sony Interactive Entertainment's (PlayStation) CEO Andrew House stepped down at the end of last year, as well. Though this will certainly shake things up at Sony/PlayStation, Hirai states that Yoshida is more than able to succeed him at the company, and that his transition into CEO will be smooth.

The Board is grateful to Kazuo Hirai for his outstanding contribution over the past six years, taking leadership of the company amidst an extremely challenging business environment in 2012, and making great progress in revitalizing Sony’s business. Given these achievements, we were initially surprised by his proposal to step down from the role of President and CEO, but over time and following extensive further discussions we ultimately reached a decision to respect his wishes. The Nominating Committee had been regularly discussing potential management succession plans, and after receiving the proposal from Mr. Hirai, we engaged in renewed discussion, leading to the conclusion that Mr. Yoshida would be the ideal candidate to succeed Mr. Hirai as Sony President and CEO, and lead Sony into the future. The Board also unanimously supported this proposal. Together with Mr. Hirai, the Board will offer their full support to Mr. Yoshida and his new management team, while also closely observing their progress from a shareholder perspective.

For those that might not know who Kaz Hirai is, some may remember him from PlayStation's E3 2006 conference, where many jokes spawned from his awkward on-stage line of "Riiiiidge Racer".

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[ThoD]

Very sorry for bringing the cringe to this thread even worse than the "Riiidge Racer" thing, but seeing as nobody has done it so far, I just have to do this! Kaz Hirai actually left and now he Haz Kirai!

Alright, kill me


On topic and a serious note now though, I doubt much will change with how the scene is right now. The PS4 has a clear advantage over the XBox1 when it comes to the Asian market, but seeing how it's been so far, Sony will either start getting more developers to develop exclusively for them and try to separate itself from Microsoft and Ninty (eg: no cross platform or cross platform IPs) or will do the exact opposite and instead of trying to lock down it's market it frees it up in a gamble to gather more favor after everything that has happened on the scene, while still retaining it's existing IPs so the PS can have an extra selling point...

 

[wurstpistole]

Will he topple the 599 USD? Well, we'll find out as he takes the banner./

What's that about 599$? Ps4 pro is 399 isn't it?

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

No mention of Giant Enemy Crabs? I am ashamed of our community! lol

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/e3-sony-2006-giant-enemy-crab

Awesome!

 

[Geezerdorf]

What's that about 599$? Ps4 pro is 399 isn't it?

Really? maybe you weren't there when it happened, but allow me to show you a glimpse of what happened that fateful day, on May 8th, 2006:

No mention of Giant Enemy Crabs? I am ashamed of our community! lol

Whilst this originated in that E3, he wasn't the one that said it, AFAIR. I could be wrong. Been 12 years since that already.
ADDENDUM:Checked the video linked, it was Bill Ritch the one talking about the feudal "Giant Enemy Crab".

 

[wurstpistole]

Really? maybe you weren't there when it happened, but allow me to show you a glimpse of what happened that fateful day, on May 8th, 2006:

Well I certainly was around but last gen I played 95% of Games on the 360 and didn't care much about the PS3, must have missed that.

 

[anhminh]

So what next? Bill Gate gonna step down or may god bless him, follow Iwata too?