Former Microsoft Exec Credits Sony For Xbox Success

[oldtaku]

Hard to disagree. The PS2 was so amazingly dominant that the game business was theirs to lose. And they did.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

Microsoft screwed up a lot with everything but their consoles. WinMo, Windows Vista, Zune, Kin, and Internet Explorer.

 

[I-Protest-I]

"Thanks, competition, for FAILING SO HARD and showing the world how superior we are. No really, thanks!"

Wow, how smug can you get?

He follows it up saying the Zune falls into how he messed up and how well apple has done, I think he knows his downfalls.

 

[Andronicus]

"Thanks, competition, for FAILING SO HARD and showing the world how superior we are. No really, thanks!"

Wow, how smug can you get?

Yeah, to be honest, I didn't really see smugness in this, rather a statement of facts, and as far as I can see, he's right on the money. I mean, Sony really did screw up pretty badly. As far as technical specifications are concerned, Sony has the best console of this generation, but their game library was extremely small and sub-par, buy-in price was astronomical, and the architecture made programming a nightmare for devs, scaring them away. Even with the terrible RROD issue, the 360 had a massive library by the time the PS3 was released, it was cheaper and it had a headstart in establishing its fanbase.

Based on my observations of the industry, I think the most important thing here in making a console is first and third-party support. Make sure developers can develop and distribute their games as easily as possible on your console, make sure your console has a large and diverse selection of games, especially at launch (but not the detriment of quality) and advertise games, rather than the console itself. Ordinary people see the value of software, not expensive hunks of plastic filled with circuitry.

 

[blueb0g]

"Thanks, competition, for FAILING SO HARD and showing the world how superior we are. No really, thanks!"

Wow, how smug can you get?

There's no smugness at all, read it again. Perhaps also read the bit where he concedes defeat to Apple, saying the part of Microsoft HE controlled fucked up and lost to Apple who made "remarkably few mistakes."

 

[bluegate]

Wow, the PS3 was too expensive and too hard to program for, as if we haven't heard this enough the past six years... mind telling us something new there, captain obvious?

 

[Dr. Octogonopus]

Huh....a forum discussion about Sony Vs. Microsoft as well as Microsoft Vs. Apple and not one instance of flamming. Well done internet, we have evolved.

 

[Danzavare]

<.<;

I know I shouldn't be, but I'm always surprised by the dire hatred directed toward consoles in these types of threads. What puzzles me is that they always seem surprised, like they didn't expect an article header with a console name in it to talk about consoles, and then just suddenly explode! ;

I think the article is fair. The original Xbox was extremely limited in its game collection compared to the PS2 (I had a PS2 briefly but for the most part I only had the Xbox). I've never felt the 360 to be limited in terms of its game collection, so much so that I never showed any interest in buying a PS3 (Which is strange considering I pined for a PS2 long enough to buy one recently). Whether these differences carry on into the next generation remains to be seen.

I agree with his comment about Apple, I just don't like hearing it. xD

 

[Antari]

Ya thats roughly what it took. Sony completely screwing up and Microsoft not screwing up quite so much. Xbox360's still have some of the highest hardware failure rates of any electronic device ever sold.

 

[esperandote]

Only someone that doesn't work for a comapny anymore speaks honestly about it competition and its mistakes.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

What a massive twat.

"Compared to this pile of shit, my pile of shit tastes better."

Thanks for the words of wisdom, Robbie.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

"Thanks, competition, for FAILING SO HARD and showing the world how superior we are. No really, thanks!"

Wow, how smug can you get?

I like to think it's more,

"Thanks, competition, for FAILING SO HARD , that our mediocrity looks better by comparison."

Ninja'd.

Yes, Sony made their console too expensive and more difficult to develop for and the software at launch was pathetic. At the same time, Microsoft rushed their product out the door with faulty half-ass manufacturing. It's not surprising, considering it's coming from a former Microsoft employee, but this perspective is extremely biased toward the one side. Both sides made mistakes in different areas and I believe the only reason that the 360 "won" is because it was cheaper; at the same time, well, "you get what you pay for." The 360 hardware at launch was ridiculously faulty.

 

[grigjd3]

Sony has had a very hard time understanding the digital era. Microsoft was ready for it but Apple really ran with it. I think Google and Valve, though, will prove far ahead of the curve.

 

[PrototypeC]

"Thanks, competition, for FAILING SO HARD and showing the world how superior we are. No really, thanks!"
Wow, how smug can you get?

There's no smugness at all, read it again. Perhaps also read the bit where he concedes defeat to Apple, saying the part of Microsoft HE controlled fucked up and lost to Apple who made "remarkably few mistakes."

I read the article entirely before posting like always, but hey, thanks for assuming I'm a hasty idiot. It's the first thing I thought as soon as I read it, so I typed it in. That's how posts work. You seem to have read the entire article back to front, front to back, upside down and backwards, did you notice that he only conceded defeat on the Zune, a product that is pretty much universally reviled already? To say the Zune didn't meet expectations is to say the sun is a little bit warm.

 

[PrototypeC]

Based on my observations of the industry, I think the most important thing here in making a console is first and third-party support. Make sure developers can develop and distribute their games as easily as possible on your console, make sure your console has a large and diverse selection of games, especially at launch (but not the detriment of quality) and advertise games, rather than the console itself. Ordinary people see the value of software, not expensive hunks of plastic filled with circuitry.

I was just posting my first impression, I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other. I find it smug because it's just not his place to comment on the competition at this stage, especially when his company is in the lead. I'd like to hear him be so diplomatic if Sony had shamed Microsoft...

 

[Lunar Templar]

lol.

learning from mistakes, yours or not is good.

to bad in this case they still suck, took em how long to figure out the RRoD?
yeah, nice level of success there, least until the next console launch and THAT one bricks 50% of the time to

 

[thespyisdead]

in retrospect, the ps2 had awful graphics compared to the xbox (DirectX anyone?), and whenever i say this to a ps2 fanboy, they are quick to say "but the mount of games it had."

personally i think that the xbox was the superior console in it's gen, but then again i will never outargue those ps2 fanboys