When Ken Kutaragi resigned Thursday as head of Sony's gaming group, it marked the end of an era that began over a decade ago when Sony wowed the world with the original PlayStation. Here's a timeline charting the ups and downs in the life of Kutaragi's dream machine. - Rob Beschizza and Chris Kohler
1988: Ken Kutaragi, a young exec at Sony, convinces Nintendo to use the company's processors for a gaming sound chip for its Super NES.
1988-1990: Sony makes first plans to develop a CD-ROM drive add-on for Nintendo's SNES console. The project is codenamed "Nintendo PlayStation."
June 1991: Nintendo pulls the rug out from under Sony at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show and announces that it will instead partner with Philips. Sony decides to go ahead with its "PlayStation"
plans anyway, as a standalone video game system.
1994: The original PlayStation is released in Japan, following
10 months later in the EU and US. The entire text of the CES keynote speech given by SCEA vice president Jim Whims: "Two hundred and ninety-nine dollars."
1994-2000: Sony dominates game industry.
2000: PlayStation 2 is released.
Sega immediately makes plans to exit the hardware business. Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox trail in popularity.
2000-2005: Sonydominates game industry.
2004: Kutaragi, already called "Father of the Playstation," is anointed the "Gutenberg of Video Games" by TIME magazine.
May 2005: Kutaragi unveils a mock-up of the PlayStation 3 design at E3, but the demos run on high-end PCs. The plans describe the machine with two HDMI and three Ethernet ports, a Blu-Ray drive and Wi-Fi. It's to be powered by an IBM "Cell" processor similar to Apple's G5, but with multiple processor cores and an "RSX" GPU based on NVIDIA GForce
7000-series. The pre-rendered game footage leaves press hopeful but unconvinced. Sony promises backward compatibility with earlier
PlayStation titles and sets the launch for Spring 2006.
Sept. 2005: Sony condemns Microsoft's decision to release two differently-priced bundles of its XBox 360 console.
Nov. 2005: Xbox 360 launches worldwide at $300/$400.
March 2006: PlayStation 1 production finally ceases. It's Spring 2006, but there's still no sign of a PlayStation 3 launch date.
April 2006: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Vice President Georges Fornay lets slip that each PS3 will cost Sony $700 to build.
May 2006: At E3, Sony finally announces what everybody already knew: the PlayStation 3 is delayed until November 2006 worldwide. E3 press conference a slow-motion car crash. "Riiiidge Racer", "Massive Damage," and "Five Hundred Ninety Nine US Dollars" become the catch phrases of Sony's struggles.
Sony claims big shipment numbers: 2 million units at launch, 4 million by the end of the calendar year, and 6 million units will be shipped by April 2007. They announce a Microsoft-style two-SKU release. Pricing is announced at $500 for 20GB version and
$600 for
60GB version. Journalists explode. Kutaragi calls the machine "too cheap." PS3 model is changed from the 2005 version: the box is larger, and features only one
HDMI output and only one Ethernet port, but Wi-Fi remains on the high-end version. Low-end version announced to have no HDMI ports at all.
Aug 2006: Reports from Taiwan suggest Sony is taking delivery of consoles. Sony says production is yet to commence, and that only 2
million would be available by the end of the year.
Sep 6, 2006: Sony 'fesses up to production woes and blames Blu-Ray drive components. Results: first, the EU launch is delayed to Spring 2007. Immediately following, supplies for calendar year 2006 are cut in half, from 4 million to 2 million. Finally, launch-day supplies are cut by 75%, from 2 million to 500,000: 400k for the US, and 100k units for Japan.
Kutaragi admits that shortages and postponement of PlayStation 3's EU release will result in a decline in Sony's hardware lead. Sony still insists that 6 million units will still be shipped before April 2007.
Sep. 22, 2006: At Tokyo Game Show, Ken Kutaragi announces during his keynote address that Sony will pre-emptively cut the price of PlayStation 3 before it launches in Japan. But adds that HDMI will now come standard on both models.
Oct, 2006: First clue to eventual $800 EU price: Sony torpedoes leading grey marketeer Lik-Sang. "Arbitrage" is the word of the day in British press. Japanese launch-day supply is cut again, this time by 20% to 80k units.
October 20, 2006: Sony hosts "Gamers' Day" in San Francisco and repeats the message ad nauseum that the $600 PS3 will include lots of things for "free": a free Blu-Ray copy of Talladega Nights, and free online gameplay. Not free: HDMI and/or component video cables, which will be sold seperately.
Nov. 11: Japanese Launch. PS3 is sold out on day 1. Shortages lead to thousands of dollars being paid on eBay to scalpers. Examination of the components suggests Sony pays as much as $850 to build each console, losing hundreds on every one sold. Critics laud technology, but slam high price. Nintendo Wii launches at under $300.
Nov. 17, 2006: PlayStation 3 launches in US. Scuffles break out between store-campers fighting over rare consoles. Some customers are robbed. Some are shot with BB guns.
Nov 29, 2006: Kutaragi demoted from Board of Directors and removed from active control of Sony Computer Entertainment. Ongoing struggles between Kutaragi and CEO Howard Stringer, coupled with criticism of Sony's aggressive pro-DRM policies and its use of proprietary technology, are seen as the reasons. Consolation prize:
he's appointed chairman of SCEI and retains CEO position. Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, takes Kutaragi's spot.
December 2006: NPD sales results for the US reveal that less than 200K PS3s were available at launch, half of the promised 400K.
Jan, 2007: EBGames begins a PS2 trade-in offer for PS3.
Analysts raise eyebrows at the differences between Sony shipment claims and NPD expectations.
Jan 25, 2007: The EU and Oceania launch date is announced as
March 23: only 60GB version will be sold. Prices are markedly higher than in U.S. and Japan., with Brits paying $700, and Eurozone more than
$800.
February 23, 2007: Sony announces that the PlayStation 2 chip that powered backwards compatibility in PS3 would be removed for the Europe version, switching to limited, software-powered backwards compatibility.
Feb. 28, 2007: Almost 1.4 million PlayStation 3 sold in North America, but 2 million shipped.
March 4, 2007: The Wall Street Journal publishes a telling, lengthy interview with Howard Stringer which paints the Kutaragi "promotion" of November as the "removal of an uncooperative executive."
March 5, 2007: The Middle East launch date is announced as March 22.
March 7, 2007: Sony has first good day in a while, announcing virtual-world Home and collaborative creative game LittleBigPlanet at GDC.
March 23: EU Launch. Few customers turn up to London launch party: get free HDTV and taxi ride home for their trouble. After one day, however, the PS3 is the fastest-selling console in British history.
March 27: Almost a million are sold in E.U. and Oceania: success. Unfortunately, Japan and US sales have dropped off by now. In particular, Japanese sales have not yet reached 1 million since November.
March 2007: Sony announces that losses for the PlayStation division would exceed predicted $1.7 billion.
April 2007: Sony announces that 5.5 million PlayStations 3 have been shipped, barely missing their 6 million target. Worse, only 3.5 million of them are actually sold; meanwhile, world still can't buy perpetually sold-out
Nintendo Wii. The Wall Street Journal says the PlayStation 3 cost Sony $2 billion in losses in the first quarter of 2007 alone.
April 11, 2007: 20GB PlayStation 3 is discontinued in U.S. due to alleged lack of public interest.
April 16, 2007: A Sony spokesperson announces that the company is considering the release of a PlayStation 3 with a larger hard disk.
April 20, 2007: PlayStation 3 has worst week of sales ever in Japan, selling only 11,948 units versus 75,759 Wiis – a difference of over six to one.
April 25, 2007: First warehouse spy-shots of the 80GB PlayStation box leaked to internet.
April 26, 2007: Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, calls it a day.
April 26, 2007: PlayStation 3 has its worst week of sales ever in Japan, again, dropping to 11,000 units even as Wii sales increase to 77,913.
