Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper and SOCOM series of games. Under his leadership, SCEA continually managed to retain high profits throughout the sixth-generation era. On July 3, 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment announced that Hirai had been made a vice president of its corporate executive group. On November 30, 2006, just under two weeks after the launch of PlayStation 3, Hirai replaced Ken Kutaragi as president of Sony Computer Entertainment. While maintaining his positions at SCEA, Hirai also became chief operating officer of SCEI. Kutaragi himself was promoted to chairman of SCEI, and remained chief executive officer of the group. On April 26, 2007, it was announced that Hirai will be promoted to president and group CEO of SCEI, replacing Ken Kutaragi who would retire and instead take up the role of honorary chairman. On April 1, 2009, Sony's electronics and game businesses were merged and reconfigured as two major groups: the Consumer Products & Devices Group (CPDG) and the Networked Products & Services Group (NPSG). Hirai was appointed as corporate executive officer and executive vice president of Sony Corporation, concurrently serving as president of the NPSG. He has overseen all development, production and marketing activities at the NPSG, comprising Sony's game (i.e. SCEI & Sony Online Entertainment), personal computer (VAIO), mobile devices (including Walkman and Xperia) and network service (Sony Entertainment Network, including online distributions of music, video, games, eBooks, etc.) businesses and new business incubation projects. Hirai became chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment on September 1, 2011, and was replaced by Andrew House as president and group CEO. He retired as chairman of SCEI on June 25, 2012, but remains on the board of directors. Sony Corporation On April 1, 2011, Hirai was promoted to representative corporate executive officer and executive deputy president of Sony Corporation. He oversaw the Consumer Products & Services Group. Hirai was speculated to become the successor to Howard Stringer, the current sitting president and CEO of Sony Corporation, who was then expected to step down in 2013. On February 1, 2012, Sony announced that Hirai has been appointed as president and chief executive officer, effective April 1, 2012. He was appointed to the board at the annual shareholders meeting on June 27, 2012. On February 2, 2018, Sony announced that Hirai will be stepping down as president and CEO, effective April 1, 2018, to be replaced by CFO Kenichiro Yoshida. Hirai remained as the