The late Hiroshi Yamauchi was Nintendo Co. Ltd's Longest standing President. Turning what was once a family-owned toy and card company, into one of the biggest players in the Video Game industry. Yamauchi was also a controversial figure, a brash and shrewd individual, Yamauchi cared about winning at all costs. He wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, use dirty tactics to maintain leadership, and terrify hardware and software developers into making the best products possible. While not everything he did was for the better, It's hard to imagine where Nintendo would be without his leadership. But one of Nintendo's contemporaries, also has a similarly shrewd and controversial leader at the helm.
Ken Kutaragi, Co-Founder and Former President of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. Also known as "The Father of PlayStation". He originally was a hardware designer at Sony Corporate, and designed the sound system for the Super Nintendo, giving it unrivaled sound quality compared to any other platform at the time. Impressed with his work, Nintendo asked Kutaragi and Sony to help make a CD-based add-on for the SNES to compete with the Sega CD. After Nintendo bailed on that deal due to a contract clause that gave Sony full licensing rights to all games for the add-on, an Infuriated Ken convinced the board at Sony (who weren't on board with the gaming industry to begin with) that the so called "PlayStation" can both be salvaged, AND destroy Nintendo. Sony approved, and brought in Sony Music to start up a new subsidiary solely dedicated to developing and marketing this new system and its games.
Much like Yamauchi, Kutaragi was a shrewd visionary who fought hard for products he believed in. He wasn't afraid say controversial stuff, or terrify his staff to get his vision made. His insanity would be truly shown with the PlayStation 3. A console designed around the Cell Broadband Engine, a complex architecture that he believed would be the future of computing, even outside of games. Unfortunately, this complicated development on the system for game creators, and inflated the system's price to $600, which Ken believed people should get 2 jobs to afford.
Between these two, who did you think was the more insane visionary, based on famous quotes, actions, and rise and fall of their respective brands at the time?
Ken Kutaragi, Co-Founder and Former President of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. Also known as "The Father of PlayStation". He originally was a hardware designer at Sony Corporate, and designed the sound system for the Super Nintendo, giving it unrivaled sound quality compared to any other platform at the time. Impressed with his work, Nintendo asked Kutaragi and Sony to help make a CD-based add-on for the SNES to compete with the Sega CD. After Nintendo bailed on that deal due to a contract clause that gave Sony full licensing rights to all games for the add-on, an Infuriated Ken convinced the board at Sony (who weren't on board with the gaming industry to begin with) that the so called "PlayStation" can both be salvaged, AND destroy Nintendo. Sony approved, and brought in Sony Music to start up a new subsidiary solely dedicated to developing and marketing this new system and its games.
Much like Yamauchi, Kutaragi was a shrewd visionary who fought hard for products he believed in. He wasn't afraid say controversial stuff, or terrify his staff to get his vision made. His insanity would be truly shown with the PlayStation 3. A console designed around the Cell Broadband Engine, a complex architecture that he believed would be the future of computing, even outside of games. Unfortunately, this complicated development on the system for game creators, and inflated the system's price to $600, which Ken believed people should get 2 jobs to afford.
Between these two, who did you think was the more insane visionary, based on famous quotes, actions, and rise and fall of their respective brands at the time?
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