This isn’t so much game news (though it does concern the gaming industry) as it is business news concerning Sony as a whole. In a new article by Fortune they talk with the Big Cheese of Sony, Welshman at Heart Howard Stringer. The article makes note of how even though Stringer became CEO of Sony in 2005, it wasn’t until the global recession hit hard that the old guard of Elderly Japanese Men finally started to let him make the changes he’s been wanting to make for years now.

You know how conspiracy theories always have this cabal of old men trying to keep their traditional ways the ones that rule the world? That’s how Sony’s been run for a long time. It was their kind of mindset didn’t even want Kutaragi to go ahead with developing the Playstation more than fifteen years ago because that wasn’t what Sony was about. Sony wasn’t about games.

Among the reforms Stringer’s been trying to get going is the whole conglomeration thing going on. The Fortune Article asks the usual questions concerning this topic. Ones such as “Why hasn’t Sony made a PSP that’s a games machine and a phone?” and “Why didn’t Sony lead the music game genre revolution with Sony Music Entertainment?”. These questions have been asked for years and the answers given have always been “Yeah they’re all part of the Sony family, but each of them is like an adult sibling who doesn’t care about how well the other is doing.” So it looks like it’s going to take the parent company to get sick before the siblings all come together and work with one another. That’s the type of change Stringer’s been trying to put into place for years, and it may just come together soon.

I only wonder how things would have gone in a parallel universe where Ken Kutaragi was given the CEO seat and full reign over the Sony Empire. – The Ben