The girly slapfight between Microsoft and Sony continues, with Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai stepping into the fray to asset that, somehow, PlayStation is still the official industry leader. Quite how he works that out is through spin so silky you’d think he was a spider.
“I’d like to think that we continue official leadership in this industry,” states the polygonal Sony man. “It’s difficult to talk about Nintendo because we don’t look at their console as being competitors. They’re a different world and we operate in our world – that’s kind of the way I look at things.
“And with the Xbox – again, I can’t come up with one word to fit. You need a word that describes something that lacks longevity.”
I think most of us use the term “red-ring” to describe the Xbox 360’s lack of longevity, but you take your time, Kaz. The man who looks a bit like a Quake character model from the nineties had even more to say, of course: “Last time I checked, they’ve never had a console that’s been on the market for more than four or five years and we’ve committed to a ten year life cycle, so you do the math.
“And unless things go really bad,” added Hirai, “there’s no way that at the end of a life cycle our competition is going to have a higher install base.”
So basically, Sony’s argument right now is that they’re still winning because they say the PS3 will last ten years and they’re also pretending Nintendo doesn’t exist. Wow, that’s a great way of looking at things. By the same token, I have now decided that I am the games industry leaders with my own console, the Sterliplex Duo. I have won the console war via the gift of pretending, just like Sony.
