The man behind the wonderful fake Kaz Hirai Twitter parody account has finally revealed himself – and it turns out he’s a scouser.
The @KazHiraiCEO Twitter account, which for a number of years parodied roasted Sony while being followed by 128,000 accounts that include top PlayStation executives such as Shuhei Yoshida, retired this E3 with a charity blowout for SpecialEffect.
With that done and dusted, the person behind the account took to Twitter to explain himself.
Hello, I?m Mark. I?m also @KazHiraiCEO. pic.twitter.com/26AxBPZES8
— Mark Doherty (@dohertymark) June 15, 2018
@KazHiraiCEO is in fact a man called Mark Doherty, someone who does not work in the video game industry. Rather, Doherty works in insurance. “That’s why nobody ever knew who I was,” Doherty explained. “It wasn’t because I hid my identity; it was because my identity simply wasn’t worth knowing.”
What was worth knowing were the authentic bangers @KazHiraiCEO came out with over the years. Here are some of my favourites:
Fans have been asking for a new Street Fighter Alpha, so Capcom decided to release Street Fighter V while it is still in Alpha
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) February 15, 2016
Microsoft says it will take up to 3 years for Xbox to stream games, which is slightly worse input lag than PlayStation Now
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) November 7, 2017
Mario Kart 8 has a mode where you can play with everyone who owns a Wii U. It is called ?single player mode?
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) May 15, 2014
You asked for Triple-A PS4 titles on PS+ and we?ve delivered. Hardware Rivals and Grim Fandango Remastered both have three As in their title
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) December 30, 2015
We are confident that the end of #NetNeutrality will not have any impact on download speeds for PSN users, because they can?t get any slower.
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) December 14, 2017
Nintendo has its new solution for Switch Voice chat pic.twitter.com/WOdSKt1eBG
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) January 17, 2018
Jose Mourinho photographed with a PS4 controller ahead of today?s match. He might be playing on it to develop tactics, but I don?t think Bus Simulator is on PS4 yet.
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) January 20, 2018
This week we announced PlayStation branded shoes, another portable device that we won?t be releasing any games for this year. https://t.co/Pi4EhSTupZ
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) January 24, 2018
The @KazHiraiCEO Twitter account is of course a parody of the real Kaz Hirai, ex-PlayStation boss and current Sony chairman. In his statement, Doherty thanked the real Kaz Hirai for not shutting down the fake Kaz Hirai Twitter account. “They could have killed this account at any moment but they chose not to, despite all logic,” he said. “I will always be thankful for that.”
Now, for the biggest revelation, for me: Doherty is from Liverpool, but he lives in Manchester. That’s right, fake Kaz Hirai is a scouser.
Who knew?