| Paul_Warren said: "Sony got cocky and got the attitude that they were infallible, that their gaming division could do no wrong. They got into the mindset that the Playstation brand-name would always reign supreme, no matter the cost." "They learned the hard way that brand name means a LOT less than they thought." They didn't get cocky. They just got dumped by a lot of their fans that preferred a console that had one "great" game instead of Great games in all genres like the PS2. Well going on four years later, the 360 has managed to come up with two "great" games. So, if current trends continue, in the next gen Microsoft will have a console with three "great" games, but the video game market will truely be cheated out of all of the Great games in every genre that it used to have which were on Playstation consoles. |
No, they got cocky. Let me tell you a story:
One day in 2005 Kazuo Hirai said "The PlayStation Portable will elevate gaming out of the handheld ghetto, and Sony is the only company that can do it. Dare I say, the baton has been passed."
Seems like Kaz was saying the PSP would outsell the DS. In fact, that's what most journalists, analysts, and gamers thought as well. Why? Because it was made by Sony and had the PlayStation brand. They believed it would sell off just brand name. BTW, read EGM issue 189 or 190 for Kaz's quote.
Now it's time for another story:
A few months later at E3 2005, Sony announced their succesor to the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 3. Ken Katuragi called the Xbox 360 "Xbox 1.5" as the 360's specs weren't as nice as the PS3's. Michael Pachter was quoted in EGM issue 194 saying "At the end of 2007, the Xbox 360 will have a 45% marketshare, the PlayStation 3 will have a 33% share, and the Revolution will have a 22% share... I think that Sony will eventually pass Microsoft."
Katuragi was being cocky about the PS3's hardware specs. At that time, Sony still had all those third-party exclusives to themselves. I added the Pachter quote in as a continuation of the brand name importance to Sony. He, like most people, believed Sony would win mostly off of brand name. Had he said " At the end of 2007, the Xbox 360's lead over the Revolution will be extremely slim and the PlayStation 3 will be in last place," he would have been ignored by everyone.
Moral of the story, being cocky can bite you in the ass someday.
