The father of the PlayStation says gaming platforms have become "super expensive"

Middlesbrough is probably the last place we expected to meet Ken Kutaragi, widely known as the father of the PlayStation. He admits he hadn't heard of the northern UK town before he was invited here to give a talk at the second Game Republic New Horizons event on October 15.

But speaking to GamesIndustry.biz after his keynote, he says he's warmed to it. "I am very amazed. It's a very, very strange city," he says. He comments on the town's industrial past and its newly emerging tech sector, home to studios like Double Eleven, Dink, and Behaviour Interactive. "It's getting on to be a very exciting new industry. Not yet, but small studios are now gathering."

Kutaragi led the development of the original PlayStation and later went on to become CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, before stepping down into a non-executive role in 2007 after being replaced by Kaz Hirai. Since then, the 76-year-old has gone on to head Cyber AI Entertainment and Ascent Robotics, as well as becoming dean of the Faculty of Information Science at the University of Kindai.

Given all that, he doesn't have time to play video games these days. "I have two companies, and I have to manage a very big organization," he says. "I [had to] give up something. That duty was finished."

He does keep one eye on the industry though. When asked what he thinks PlayStation should do next after many of its live-service investments failed to pan out, he says it's not just PlayStation that faces a challenge, but the games sector more widely.

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