Often labelled as being the 'father of PlayStation', the chief architect of Sony's successful line of consoles has now stepped down from his position as Sony Computer Entertainment's chairman and group chief executive. The job has been passed on to Kazuo Hirai, SCE's former president (who had already relieved Kutaragi of most of his day-to-day responsibilities last year), after Kutaragi announced his intention to retire in April. Kutaragi faced numerous problems during the production of the PS3, including shortages and extremely high manufacturing costs, and once the console was released it faced unexpectedly fierce competition from Nintendo's Wii, resulting in Sony achieving less than 50% of its target for PS3 shipments by March 31st this year. According to SCE, Kutaragi will continue to hold an advisory post for the company's gaming unit, although his involvement will certainly be much less than before.