News Blog

Sony Computer Entertainment America on Thurs. announced that Jack Tretton has been named president and chief executive officer, replacing Kaz Hirai.

Tretton was formerly SCEA executive vice president and co-chief operating officer.

Hirai will be appointed president and group chief operating officer for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. in Tokyo effective Dec. 1.

The new leadership switch follows the shortage of Playstation 3 units to U.S. and Japan retail. Sony is estimated to have shipped half of its original target for the U.S. and 20% less than planned for Japan.

The shortage is said to be due to a delay in the blue laser diode production for the Blu-ray disc drive in the PS3.

Sony expects to ship 2 million PS3 units worldwide by year-end. However, analysts and publishers have lower internal estimates.

EA this week told Reuters that it expects Sony to ship between 500,000 to 800,000 units to the U.S., down from the 1 million U.S. shipment target.

Meanwhile, Nintendo is enjoying success of its new Wii video game console in the U.S. The motion-sensing machine has sold 600,000 units in its first eight days at retail. Nintendo is on track to ship 4 million units worldwide by year-end.