Ken Kutaragi, the “Father” of the Playstation, is intending to step down June 15. Known as the black sheep of Sony, in 1994 he helped manage to turn video games into a billion dollar market. Although Sony has sold over 200 million units worldwide, the Playstation has had to compete with both Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox. It is estimated that Sony has taken a $1.7 billion loss for the business year that ended on March 31.

Kutaragi said that he had been considering the move for some time, and that his decision has nothing to do with the slow debut and rising costs of the PS3. SCE spokesperson Satoshi Fukuoka says that he will be working with other fields related to the PS3 such as the Cell microchip, which drives the game console.