Speaking to MCV, Hirai said the PS3 continues to evolve over time, and that as PlayStation Network content expands, Sony wanted to offer more storage capacity without raising prices.

“We brought in the 80GB because we wanted to make sure we continued offering the value proposition to consumers in the true fashion of PlayStation," Hirai told MCV.

"We heard a lot of response from the consumers basically saying 40GB is nice, but with a lot of additional download products were offering via the PlayStation Network, consumers were looking for a higher capacity hard drive."

"We thought it was a great time to introduce it at E3, but also make sure that we continued to keep the pricing the same.”

Hirai reassures 40GB PS3 owners [MCV]

Hirai said MGS 4 is "the first title to fully utilize the capacity of dual layer Blu-ray disc.... Metal Gear Solid 4has created a world of gaming entertainment that can only be realized by PS3."

He also said MGS 4 drove console sales. "In the first week of the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, sales of PS3 in the Japanese market grew significantly, [an] eight times increase as compared to the week before, proving that Metal Gear Solid 4is a platform driver for PS3."

Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst, doesn't really see Ken Kutaragi's promotion as a way to remove him from the game, but rather as a way to prepare him for heading up the entire company.

Speaking to GameDaily BIZ about the management shuffle, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter said, "I think it's prudent succession planning. Kutaragi is the visionary, and his work on PS3 was done at launch. They need to groom him to replace Stringer. The rest of the guys are competent, experienced, and loyal. I think each of the other moves made sense. In time, I think you will see Kutaragi given responsibility for other functions, like Blu-ray."

As Sony President Ryoji Chubachi explained it to the Nikkei, "Mr. Kutaragi's strength is his knowledge of technology. His position is, of course, chief executive, but this means he will especially be looking closely at the area of technological development."

I've come to realize that Sony uses the volcano school of management, heat from bad decisions and poor management builds until a key person involved in the decision-making process is pushed up and up and up and finally ejected entirely from the company.

I'm going to patent that shit, Brian's School of Volcano Management.

Kutaragi Being Groomed to Replace Stringer - Pachter [Game Daily]