Kutaragi Admits All Is Not Well

Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, says that things are not as they should be at the mega-company.

The delay of the PlayStation 3 in Europe, big as it is, is not the only hardship Sony is navigating at the moment. The company is also dealing with a widespread notebook battery recall, with around 5 million Dell and Apple computers affected. These and other incidents have made people wonder whether Sony is losing its touch, if only slightly, and it's something PlayStation boss Ken Kutaragi hasn't denied.

Speaking last week at the announcement of the PlayStation 3's delay, Kutaragi admitted that manufacturing has been more of a problem lately for Sony than in the past.

"If you asked me if Sony's strength in hardware was in decline," Kutaragi said, as reported by Reuters, "right now I guess I would have to say that might be true."

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Sony is under pressure to deliver with the PlayStation 3, which will be trailing the Xbox 360 by around 10 million units by the time it launches in the US and Japan in November, according to Microsoft estimates.

Europe, which had been slated to get the console around the same time, will now have to sit out until March. Sony's excuse for the delay was that it is having trouble getting enough blue laser diodes, which sit at the heart of the Blu-ray drive inside the PlayStation 3 and other next-generation DVD products.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games