Sony’s PlayStation visionary launches a new company

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kutaragiKen Kutaragi, father of Sony’s PlayStation business, has launched a new Japanese startup called Cyber Ai Entertainment.

The name “ai” is a combination of the Japanese word for “love” and a pun on the English word “eye.” Former Sony executive Takashi Usuki is one of the board members. The venture is vaguely aimed at developing next-generation Internet services.

Kutaragi owns about 90 percent of the company, while Usuki has 10 percent. The startup has $223,000 in capital. That’s all the details out so far.

Kutaragi retired in 2007 after more than 30 years at Sony. He started an earlier startup, Cellius, in January 2007 with $821,000 in funding. The venture was 51-percent owned by Namco Bandai and 49-percent owned by Sony’s game division. That startup was aimed at making apps for Sony’s Cell microprocessor, which is used in the PlayStation 3 and other computing platforms.