As head of Sony's games division, Kaz Hirai has built a reputation for arrogance after making disparaging remarks about competitors like the Nintendo Wii. Bloggers had a field day with comments he made at a time when PlayStation 3 was struggling to launch and being heavily outsold by the Wii. Gamers were therefore surprised to hear an admission of mistakes at a PlayStation event in London. Customers were "underwhelmed" by the range available for the PS3, and he apologised for again delaying the launch of "Home", a virtual world Sony plans for gamers.

people@ft.com