Tag Archives: howard stringer

Howard Stringer, board chairman and former CEO of Sony, will retire from the firm in June in order to pursue other opportunities such sitting on the board of companies in the “healthcare and education fields.”

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Sony Corp EVP and SCE chairman Kaz Hirai has said the PlayStation business will bring back profitability to the company, beginning with the western launch of PlayStation Vita. Hirai made the quote in a CES roundtable to a group of journalists, reported by Reuters, alongside Sony Corp president Howard Stringer. Stringer insisted on his part in the roundtable, where Hirai had already mentioned there’d be no PS4 announcement for E3, that the company’s TV business would remain its main focal point.

Vita launches in the US and Europe on February 22.

Sony has dismissed a recent report which claimed the company was planning to replace current president Howard Stringer with Kazuo Hirai.

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The embattled CEO of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer, spoke today at an annual Tokyo meeting. He took the oppontunity to apologize for the PSN attacks, and defend his position.
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Sony CEO Sir Howard has said Sony was hacked because it “tried to protect” its content from those who “want everything to be free”.

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Sony chief Sir Howard Stringer has said he wasn’t even aware of past attacks on the PlayStation Network.

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Two weeks ago, a Tokyo press conference found Sony to be apologetic and remorseful. Now though, the company has had enough of being the victim, and is striking back.

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Sony president Kazuo Hirai has said only a “very small percentage” of folks have called into the customer support centers in order cancel their PSN accounts over the recent hacking fiasco.

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Sony chairman, president and CEO Sir Howard Stringer has penned a letter to PlayStation Network and Qriocity members, assuring of the company’s utmost efforts to restore both services and ensure ongoing security.

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PlayStation boss Kazuo Hirai has been promoted to executive deputy president of Sony, and may take over as chief executive when current incumbent Howard Stringer retires.

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We have literally touched this man. That photo didn’t take itself, you know.

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Sony Corp head Howard Stringer has shrugged off threats from Acti Blizz boss Bobby Kotick that he may drop support for PS3 unless there’s a price cut.

“He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer told Reuters, speaking at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, Idaho this week.

“He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”

Kotick issued an eyebrow-raising warning shot to Sony last month, saying that unless the machine came down in price, “When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console.”

Asked about the logic of not cutting PS3′s RRP, Stringer added, “I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make – how’s that for logic.”

Full thing through there.

Sony “should” roll out the long-promised expanded version of PSN next spring, according to this Fortune report.

The updated service will bridge Sony devices, such as phones and cameras as well as PlayStation products.

From the piece:

While Sony executives are short on the specifics, Hirai says the new service will overlay the backbone of the PlayStation Network but will be broader and more open. The service would make easier such things as putting images from a camera on TV, displaying and editing video, sharing with friends, and storage. Brand loyalists would be rewarded with incentives like discounts and premium services.

Stringer has intimated that the company is in a position to make acquisitions that will accelerate the effort, and Hirai says the first glimpse of the new service should be seen by next spring. “It’s now a matter of what all the services need to look like for each device, and coming up with a rollout plan,” says Hirai. “It’s like city planning here, and we can start small. We don’t need to build New York City overnight.”

Thanks, Kotaku.

According to the AP, Sony has said it will be halving the number of parts suppliers it uses in order to reduce overheads.

It aims to lower buying costs by 20 percent, or 500 billion yen ($5.3b/£3.4b) throughout the year.

In order to achieve this goal, Sony will limit the number of parts suppliers it uses about 2,500 now to about 1,200.

Earlier this year, research firm iSuppli said that although Sony cut the cost of PS3 hardware from $690.23 to $448.73 due to a general decline in component costs, console production was still operating at a loss. This new move is likely to affect the gaming division and bring costs down even further.

“We are fundamentally transforming Sony into a more innovative, integrated and agile global company,” Sony CEO Howard Stringer said.

Thanks, Edge.

Sony corp head Howard Stringer’s told Nikkei Electronics Asia that PSN is to be found across hardware other that PS3, a move the exec describes as a shift to an “open” system.

“We developed brand new, absolutely incredible technology for the PlayStation 3 (PS3), but the cost was high. We’ve adopted a slightly different approach now, and are evolving the PS3 into a platform for web services,” Stringer said.

“A lot of people thought Sony’s content download service was doomed, but it’s in a pretty good place right now in the form of the PlayStation Network, available to PS3 users for network gaming, video, etc. The DRM is based on Marlin, an open scheme developed by consumer electronics companies and other companies.

“What does all this mean?” he added. “Very simply, it means that Sony has begun the transition from a closed system to an open one.

“Next we will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3, because the number of PS3 units sold puts a limit on the scale of the network possible. Sony has a vertical structure for each product line, an organisational structure that resists change, so it will take time to achieve this network growth. However, a large number of employees share my opinion on this.”

So. Which hardware are you talking about specifically, Howard?

Thanks, Edge.

Sony Corp. chairman Howard Stringer plans to implement a “company wide” reshuffle designed to make Sony more green, innovative and agile, writes PCWorld.

The restructuring will come into effect on April which will see Stringer become president of the company. Stringer will also retain his chairman and CEO status. Not bad.

“Consumers want products that are networked, multi-functional and service-enhanced utilizing open technologies, and user experiences that are rich, shared and, increasingly, green,” said Stringer in a statement.

“This reorganization is designed to transform Sony into a more innovative, integrated and agile global company with its next generation of leadership firmly in place.”

More through the link.

Speaking at the Sony keynote at CES 09 yesterday, CEO Howard Stringer said that PlayStation 3 and PSP now have an accumulated userbase of over 61 million units.

Stringer then gave the mic to Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai who proclaimed that $1m dollars of gumpf has been sold through Sony Home.

You can watch all of Stringer’s speech here.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to Die Welt, Sony boss Howard Stringer has admitted that Nintendo’s wacky idea of actually making money on hardware may be “superior” to the opposite.

“The major difference lies in the fact that Nintendo makes money with the hardware alone, which may be a superior business model,” he said.

“But the Wii is not succeeding at our expense – it is not hurting us. We decided years ago to build a game console that offers much greater functionality. The Playstation 3 has an enormous processor; it is gradually emerging as the central server in our users’ homes.”

There’s tons more through there. Must-read.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer has labelled Nintendo Wii nothing more than a “nice gaming device” – and an expensive one at that.

Speaking at the Allen & Co media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho last week, he said:

“I’ve played a Nintendo Wii. I don’t see it as a competitor. It’s more of an expensive niche game device. We’re selling a lot of PlayStation 3s now and it’s still the best way to buy a Blu-ray player.”

Thanks, Bloomberg.

By Mike Bowden

Missed this yesterday, for some reason. According to this Bloomberg report, Sony boss Howard Stringer told investors yesterday that the company’s top management priority is “to restore profitability in our television and game businesses.”

Tons more through the link. This probably translates as “don’t expect a PS3 price cut this year, bucko.”