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Kaz Hirai says he often followed his own judgment while leading Sony’s PlayStation home-console business, even when senior executives directed him otherwise. In GameObserver’s account of a Nikkei XTrend interview, Hirai is quoted as saying, “What the headquarters says is irrelevant. We are PlayStation” (laughs). The line is an English rendering reported by GameObserver, not a transcript independently verified against the paywalled Japanese interview.
What Hirai reportedly said about PlayStation
GameObserver attributes the recollection to a conversation between Hirai and Takaya Awata, CEO of Toridoll Holdings, published by Japanese business outlet Nikkei XTrend. In GameObserver’s report, Hirai describes sometimes going his own way when Howard Stringer and other Sony executives gave him instructions while he led the PlayStation home-console business.
The reported line conveys a strong sense of independence: “What the headquarters says is irrelevant. We are PlayStation” (laughs). Because the underlying interview was paywalled and its Japanese wording and full exchange were not independently checked, the quotation should be understood as GameObserver’s English rendering of Hirai’s reported remarks—not a verified word-for-word transcript.
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Which part of Hirai’s career the anecdote concerns
The story is about Hirai’s leadership of PlayStation’s home-console business at Sony Computer Entertainment. It should not be read as a claim that he ignored orders throughout his later tenure as Sony’s corporate leader, or as proof of a particular formal directive, dispute, or business outcome.
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GameObserver also reports that Hirai said he visited locations in over 20 countries and close to 50 cities repeatedly during his six years as Sony president. Those figures are attributed to the same reported conversation and have not been independently corroborated here.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the PlayStation anecdote differs from his later Sony-wide message
As Sony president, Hirai later emphasized KANDO—Sony’s theme of delivering emotional impact through its businesses—as a shared company mission. In Sony’s 2018 corporate strategy speech, Hirai said, “The primary reason for this is that our mission of delivering KANDO has not changed,” referring to the transformation he had announced. Sony’s 2023 strategy materials also discuss KANDO as a company theme.
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In a Japanese-language McKinsey interview, Hirai discussed delivering KANDO across Sony’s businesses and said embedding the idea took six years. That is his later perspective on company-wide alignment; it does not establish that the PlayStation anecdote caused, or directly led to, Sony’s broader strategy.
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