| Tachikoma said: But what choice would they have? you make a valid point but companies aren't going to try to balance out the situation when it's both impossible to and does not benefit them to do so anyway. The best they can do is be transparent about the information they do present, rather than hide the formula they used to attain the result, and for the most part, that's what they did. I think everyone here is in pretty much the same agreement that this is pretty much standard fare for PR best-casing, so long as theres enough details left alone for us to descern spin from outright lies, there's really no reason to be upset about it. Even if companies were willing to be objective towards each others performance and to the public, what would be the point in comparing marketshare for the ps4 with timescales that don't include it?, i wouldn't expect Nintendo or Microsoft to do the same, nor would I be surprised if they, as they often times do, seek the best possible outcome to release in a PR statement, because that, by and large, is why PR exists. PR isn't there to be your friend, it's there to paint the company and it's products in the best possible light. The only time this should ever be an issue worthy of discussion, is when it can be proven, outright, that the company is flat out lying. Customers are no different in that respect, if a customers console breaks and they call support, if the support staff asks how the console came to be broken, the owner is more likely to tell half-truths than be completely forthcoming, "it stopped working and does not turn on" and "i was messing about and knocked it off the table, now it isnt working" both relay the same message "the console is broken", but one paints the event in it's best light, while the other means risking trading complete honesty for a denial of assistance. |
Oh no, don't get me wrong, I completely agree with all that. :3 PR is simply a part of a business' strategem, and Sony's PR was no more 'evil' or 'unethical' or other big, scary words than any other use of it.
I just meant to point out to anyone who had been saying, in criticism of what Sony stated, that 'Well, instead they should compare THIS, it'd be all fair and whatnot,' that, no, it wouldn't actually be fair. Whether it's comparing current Wii U sales to current PS4 sales, or launch Wii U sales to launch PS4 sales, there's too many different circumstances to come up with the sort of 'unbiased measurement' some people are claiming would be ideal, because pretty much every comparison brings with it extrenuating circumstances that stack the chips in favor of one company or another. As the situation stands, due to the circumstances of both product launches, there IS no objective, fair, equal, etc way to look at the performances of both products in that market. So all Sony did was choose one of the angles that presented them in a positive light; even Nintendo discussing current Wii U sales in Japan against PS4 sales would be presenting themselves in a positive light, not 'fairly, objectively measuring' anything.
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