Three Unappreciated Demon Slayers

[Spanner]

Three Unappreciated Demon Slayers

"Placed in a position designed to fail, the outcome of the disastrous PlayStation 3 launch begins to seem more understandable, as does Ken's sad decline into confusion and contradiction. His fall from grace, both within and without of Sony, is the result of an unswerving devotion to an ultimately false idol."

Spanner tells the tales of three men gamers love to hate: Bill Gates, Jack Tramiel and Ken Kutaragi.


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[pairunoyd [deprecated]]

All I can say is, "Excellent!"

 

[joecassara [deprecated]]

Thanks for the article. Gamers have no business hating Jack Tramiel -- he may have been at the root of trying to halt the release of the Amiga, but it was under his leadership that the VIC-20 and best selling Commodore 64 were created. Name me any popular game studio or publisher today. Their existence can be mapped somehow right to the C64.

Just one thing: Your account of Jack's departure makes it seem like he ended his rein by ruining the company then high-tailing it out. Jack turned Commodore into a billion dollar company. The price war was not only a personal vendetta against TI, but an attempt to establish the C64 as a de-facto standard. Speculation is a dirty business, but I'll be bold enough to say, had Irving Gould (aka Goa'uld) not forced Jack out, the computer industry would have a different face today.

 

[Bongo Bill]

Oh, that was wonderful.

 

[Graffiti Writer]

Just one thing: Your account of Jack's departure makes it seem like he ended his rein by ruining the company then high-tailing it out. Jack turned Commodore into a billion dollar company. The price war was not only a personal vendetta against TI, but an attempt to establish the C64 as a de-facto standard. Speculation is a dirty business, but I'll be bold enough to say, had Irving Gould (aka Goa'uld) not forced Jack out, the computer industry would have a different face today.

Aye, that's a fair point. Commodore must have had balls of steel to push old Jack out the door like that. Actually, they probably had balls of steel that got ripped off and shoved down their throats by the Tram-man, but your point stands - he made Commodore big and clever all on his own.

 

[Darkpen]

Great read.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Its a shame ken got to full of himself if sony was able to see ahead of the curve and setup a buffer to take 2 or 4 billion in losses head on they could have minized the PS3 launch and sold the 60GB version alone for 400-480$(no 20GB units,saves on production costs) and laid a solid foundation for the PS3 and BR, as it is now the multi headed demon of Sony is trying to off set losses and do everything they can not to get the PS3 in as many homes as they can....Sony seems to have arrogance issues running throughout it, they still think the PS3 carries enough brand power to sale like the PS2 did....

As it is now the PS3 is in a for a shaky 2 years until most of the games run well on it,even then without a price cut the PS3 is not going to make it too 012-014 without a overhaul....

 

[kittenbot]

Thanks for the article. Gamers have no business hating Jack Tramiel -- he may have been at the root of trying to halt the release of the Amiga, but it was under his leadership that the VIC-20 and best selling Commodore 64 were created. Name me any popular game studio or publisher today. Their existence can be mapped somehow right to the C64.

Valve so far as I know, but I digress, a great article with the important point; you may not like em, but they got the job done and everythign you do like is probbaly owed to them.

 

[NSGrendel]

Shouldn't this be titled, "Three unappreciated philanthropists"? The current title doesn't really make any sense.