Kazuo Hirai

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since November 2006.

Kazuo Hirai

Born	1964 Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	President & COO, SCEI It should be possible to replace this fair use image with a freely licensed one. If you can, please do so as soon as is practical.

Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai (Japanese: 平井一夫 Hirai Kazuo, born 1964) is the current President and Group Chief Operating Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. He was ranked by Entertainment Weekly as one of the most powerful executives in the entertainment industry.^[1]

1 Early years
2 Sony Computer Entertainment
- 2.1 PlayStation
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Early years

Hirai was born in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. The son of a wealthy banker, Hirai often traveled with his father across the world to California, New York, and Canada and around Japan — a trait which Hirai said noted to be a major factor in his later multi-continental business success. As a child, he was quiet, often entertaining himself with various board games and puzzles.

It was this interest in games that later brought him into the entertainment business. After graduating from the International Christian University in August 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Hirai was hired at the then newly-formed CBS/Sony Inc. (now Sony Music Entertainment), where he was involved in marketing international music within Japan. His hard work and dedication allowed him to rise through the ranks, eventually placing him once again in New York, where he became head of Sony Music Entertainment Japan's international business affairs office.

[edit] Sony Computer Entertainment

In August 1995, Hirai joined Sony's computer and video game division, Sony Computer Entertainment America.^[1] Two years later, in 1997, Hirai was credited on his first completed video game.

[edit] PlayStation

Since heading up Sony Computer Entertainment America, Kazuo Hirai has been instrumental in Sony's success. He played a fundamental role in the rise of the PlayStation in the United States, and his methods of cross-promoting of the PlayStation brand took its advertising beyond merely "game" or computer oriented fields. PlayStation advertisements were placed in mainstream sports events such as the NBA, the NFL, the NHL and even NASCAR. This method of marketing has been credited with introducing large numbers of individuals to video games who would ordinarily have not considered purchasing a console.

With the release of the PlayStation 2 in 2000, Kazuo continued his success, utilizing both previous second-party franchises such as Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, as well as introducing new ones, including the Ico series of games. Under his leadership, SCEA continually managed to retain high profits throughout the sixth generation era.

On July 3, 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment announced that Hirai had been made a vice president of its corporate executive group on July 1, 2006.^[2].

On November 30, 2006, just under two weeks after the launch of PlayStation 3, Kaz Hirai replaced Ken Kutaragi as President of Sony Computer Entertainment. While maintaining his positions at SCEA, Hirai also became chief operating officer of SCEI. Kutaragi himself was promoted to chairman of SCEI, and remained chief executive officer of the group.^[3]