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Kaz Hirai recalled that, while leading Sony Computer Entertainment’s home-console business, he sometimes ignored directions from Sony headquarters. GameObserver reported his English-rendered remark: “What the headquarters says is irrelevant. We are PlayStation” (laughs). The line comes from a Japanese interview whose original wording and full context were not independently verified.
What Kaz Hirai said about Sony headquarters
GameObserver reports that Hirai made the remark in a conversation with Takaya Awata, CEO of Toridoll Holdings, published by Japanese business outlet Nikkei XTrend. In GameObserver’s English rendering, Hirai said: “What the headquarters says is irrelevant. We are PlayStation” (laughs). The original interview was paywalled in the material available, so the Japanese phrasing and surrounding exchange could not be checked. The quotation should therefore be understood as a secondary outlet’s translation and report of Hirai’s recollection, not as a verified transcript.
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The account concerns Hirai’s leadership of PlayStation’s home-console business at Sony Computer Entertainment. It does not establish a particular formal directive, a specific dispute with Sony leadership, or the outcome of any disagreement. GameObserver also says Hirai recalled visiting more than 20 countries and close to 50 cities repeatedly during his six years as Sony president; those figures are likewise attributed to the reported conversation and were not independently corroborated.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsHow the PlayStation story differs from Hirai’s later Sony-wide role
The anecdote is about a business leader describing his approach within PlayStation, not a general account of how Hirai ran Sony as president. In that later corporate role, Hirai spoke publicly about aligning Sony’s businesses around KANDO, a Japanese term often rendered as deep emotion or emotional impact.
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Sony’s stated KANDO mission
In Sony’s 2018 Corporate Strategy Meeting speech, Hirai said, “The primary reason for this is that our mission of delivering KANDO has not changed.” Sony’s strategy materials from 2023 also discuss KANDO as a company theme. These official statements document the broader corporate emphasis; they do not show that it arose from, or was caused by, the PlayStation episode.
Hirai’s retrospective view
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, distinct from the reported PlayStation management anecdote.
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What the anecdote does—and does not—show
- It identifies Hirai’s reported stance: he recalled prioritizing PlayStation’s identity and direction over what headquarters said.
- It is not a documented Sony order: the report does not specify the instruction he ignored or provide a formal company record of a conflict.
- It is not proof of a causal link: Hirai’s later KANDO initiative is a separate aspect of his Sony presidency, not a demonstrated consequence of the PlayStation approach.
- Its wording has a translation caveat: the memorable English quote is GameObserver’s rendering of a paywalled Japanese conversation.
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