Ken Kutaragi, Former Sony Honcho, Joins Marvelous AQL

The "father of the PlayStation," Ken Kutaragi, will be joining Marvelous AQL as an "External Director." A big step away from designing the SNES sound chip and holding the reins of Sony Computer Entertainment, Kutaragi-san will officially assume his new role in June. The role of external director is usually one of advising and policy making, not day-to-day management, so it's unknown what impact this announcement brings.

"Crazy Ken," so named for some of his more outlandish quotes (e.g. "(PS3 is) for consumers to think to themselves, 'I will work more hours to buy one,' 'It's probably too cheap,' in response to the PS3's $599 price tag, and 'The PlayStation (3) is not a game machine. We've never once called it a game machine'), will be joining a company that releases a notable number of titles on Nintendo systems. Harvest Moon and Rune Factory are their chief Nintendo franchises. Marvelous also developed the recent Soul Sacrifice for the PlayStation Vita.

No word yet on whether this marks any sort of shift in platform focus at Marvelous AQL. More likely it is an honorary position for Kutaragi, who both brought Sony to video game prominence with the popular PlayStation 1 and 2 and oversaw the less successful PS3 and PSP launches. It should be noted Kutaragi also serves on the boards of several other entertainment companies in a similar fashion.