Erik Aston on 31 March 2007
I always felt that Microsoft was luring Sony into a dangerous game. They are playing a industry-wide game of chicken & double-dog-daring Sony to cross that line. And Sony's taking the bait everytime.
Oh yeah. MS is totally waiting for the time when they can go "surprise! We've got a mass market console," and Sony goes "Whaaaa???"
However, I think MS are following their hardcore fetish a little too far... They've got that customer... Now its time to stop playing Sony's game, stop spending so much time and money answering every feature and every spec PS3 has, and aggressively pursue the wider user base. "Elite" goes after an even more ellusive, higher-end customer... MS needed to make the 360 a little big lighter at launch, to get to this point on the edge of profitability soon after launch, and then be in a position to cut the price right now, before Wii totally steals the mass market from under them.
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
