Topic: Kaz Hirai gives Kutagari a Run For His Money! Accuses MS of copying them!

[Kairon]

Leave it to Kaz Hirai to take our attention off of Ken Kutaragi.

OMG He just didn't!

Quote
PSM: Sony and Microsoft seem to be taking the exact same path.

Hirai: We seem to. Every time we go down a path, we look behind and they're right there - we just can't shake these guys. I wish that they would come up with some strategies of their own, but they seem to be going down the path of everything we do. If you look at their strategy in other business areas as well, they tend to do that.

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~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com  

[Mario]

Sony invented videogames! MS actually did seem to be a Sony-Lite last generation, but now that's a good thing as it means their system is hundreds of dollars cheaper. MS seems to care more about gamers now.

[couchmonkey]

Well, I thought Microsoft was actually a Sony-Heavy.  Harddrive, bigger system, most power.  But I do agree they seemed to be going down the same path overall.

This generation I think Microsoft has already found the thing that makes it stand out: online.  If Microsoft was really shadowing Sony, they would have announced HD DVD support and delayed the system forever and priced it way too high.  In fact if anything, Sony is copying Microsoft by including a harddrive with every system...something that Microsoft discovered might have been an iffy decision for the original Xbox.

Edit: Though let's face it: at the end of the day, their strategies are the same because neither company is putting any imagination into it.  What Microsoft and Sony are doing is basically the same strategy any 14-year-old fanboy could have come up with: HD support and better online topped off with the usual graphical improvements.

[Ceric]

And some magic innards that are technological marvels that can be easy to pump on paper but are in practice actually more hinderance than help.

[KDR_11k]

Oh, he means like how MS introduced an organized online service, four years later Nintendo announced they would do the same and no three months after that Sony announced that they will offer a centralized service whereas previously they stated they werwe against that? Or how MS introduced two versions of their console and Sony ridiculed them while saying the PS3 will have only one version available and now Sony has announced two versions and is talking about custom configurations? Or how MS introduced a tilting controller sometime around 1999-2000 and now Sony made that their main controller?

[Famicom]

I'll believe it when I see a game with real-time weapon change on the 360.

[JonLeung]

Sony's saying and doing some stupid things rather consistently, it's almost to be expected at this point.  Soon it won't be funny anymore.

The thing is, most casual gamers are probably still truly believing the PS3 will be hot stuff.  The only one to own.  The weekly stupid comment from a Sony exec doesn't sway them one bit.

It'll be a different story if they keep saying/doing silly things after the PS3 comes out, when it does.  Maybe Sony's delaying the PS3 mostly so that they can say all the stupid things they can say, get it out of their system, so they don't seem as stupid after it comes out.

Though I guess then it's really a question of what third party developers do or don't, not Sony themselves.  Don't want to give Sony too much credit.  They're already claiming they come up with more than they have.

[nemo_83]

Sony is just now realising MS is only out to eat them for lunch.  Right now, Sony is like the deer, he is running faster than the beast behind him but eventually the deer has to slow down and then the beast walks him to death over a period of time, no strategy needed, no advanced weaonry required; just run the animal that is dumber than you to death.