Kutaragi pledges to remain at Sony despite demotion snub

Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has told the Japanese press that he plans to remain at the company despite his surprise demotion earlier this month, saying that he's glad to see Howard Stringer promoted to the CEO role.

Speaking with magazine Nikkei Business in an interview partially translated by US website GameSpot, Kutaragi seemed keen to stress that there's no bitterness between him and either Stringer or new president Ryoji Chubachi.

"I was wondering who was going to become the next CEO, but I'm really glad that it's [Howard]," he told the magazine. "He works very hard. This will allow employees to focus on their jobs [without any worries]."

Kutaragi himself had been widely expected to take on the role of president at the company, but instead the reshuffle saw him being demoted from his position as executive deputy president and removed from his roles as head of the consumer electronics and semiconductor divisions of the company.

However, he remains in charge of Sony Computer Entertainment, the division of the company where he made his name, and despite this setback, he claims to have no intention of leaving the company - instead focusing on his ambitions for the Cell chip, the ambitious co-development with IBM and Toshiba which he has spearheaded.

"We're finally going to launch it, after more than four years of major development," he enthused in the interview. "I have the responsibility [of following up on the Cell launch], and I also have dreams. First, it will be placed in game consoles. Then, in the near future, I want to use it in TVs and home servers."

"There's much I want to do," he concluded. "I have been leading SCE [until now], and I will continue to be its leader. I will remain at Sony. I'm still young. It's my goal to keep moving forward."

Nikkei Business via Gamespot