Sony’s Hirai Suffers Delusion, Thinks PS3 Leads Market
By Ed Oswald | Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I think somebody’s off their rocker. In comments to the company’s official rag PlayStation Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Kaz Hirai made the unusual claim that install base numbers are worthless: the PS3 is still the official leader in the industry.
Pay no attention to the fact that the console is in third in overall console sales, that it was outsold by the Xbox by a 2-to-1 margin over the holiday, or that it still cannot attract decent exclusives. Because Mr. Hirai says it, we shall all bow to the PS3’s power.
Of course, Hirai’s comments are peppered with jabs at its competitors: that the Xbox is aimed at short term success while the PS3 is on a ten-year plan, and that Nintendo operates “in a different world.”
Nevermind that the console is difficult to program for because Sony did that on purpose, Hirai claims. His argument is this: if the console was easy to develop for, then developers would not take full advantage of the consoles power.
Okay, that makes sense. Make life difficult for the people who sell your equipment. That should work! I bet any game developer wants to spend twice the amount of time just to develop for a console that in the end has a smaller install base than its competitors.
I think its time for Sony to start realizing that the PS3’s business model did NOT work. I sure hope when it comes around to the fourth generation the company applies what it learns, but as stubborn as Sony is, I’m betting that won’t happen.
8 Comments
Read more:
8 Comments For This Post
January 20th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
seriously, this article blows. how is this even news? why am I even typ.. forget it.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Wow. Except for me, the people who leave comments on this site scare me.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Hey, Bob, most of us are pretty friendly. One of our stories was on Slashdot today, which brought droves and droves of visitors–most of them solid citizens. But also a few I’m not so sure about…
–Harry
January 20th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
@Harry – The same article was also on Engadget!
January 20th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
And Gizmodo, Relyt! Today was the biggest traffic day here to date. Lots and lots and lots of visitors…
January 21st, 2009 at 8:38 am
What a bunch of snarky nonsense. This isn’t news at all. It would have been nice to see the actual quote from the guy instead of someone else’s interpretation of it.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:29 am
Mr. Barringer, Hirai’s quote is plastered all over the Internet. I suppose it would be nice for it to be included here as well, but I, for one, am more interested in folks take on it, than in reading a bland regurgitated reporting of it again.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Guess the war of words is heating up.
My friends and I collectively own all 3 consoles (Xbox 360, Sony PS3, and Nintendo Wii). I would say that each has its own strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn’t dismiss Xbox 360 if I were Sony. It has come a very long way since the original Xbox and Microsoft put in a ton of work for the 360 version. I also recall somewhere I read that Xbox 360 outsold Sony over the 2008 holiday season.
On the note about having access to all 3 consoles, I recently picked up an Xbox 360 Pro (the 60GB version) along with Tom Clancy’s End War for around $270 total, which was awesome. (By the way, I got it at Dell through a deal listed at http://www.uberi.com.).
I wonder at what point we will see more motion sensor based games and control similar to Wii on Xbox 360 and PS3. Surely that will significantly increase the appeal of Xbox 360 and PS3, and take away Wii’s advantages. Perhaps it’s patent related or something. It would also be nice to know the features and plans for the next generation of game consoles.