Representatives of SONY, MICROSOFT, and Wii

[binary solo]

Majin-Tenshinhan said:

binary solo said:
I haven't seen Reggie take any cheap shots lately. And even his bet was done in a fairly gracious way "MW2 is a great game", I'll be playing MW2 for sure (I wonder if he has a 360, or PS3...he's probably a PC purits when it comes to FPS...except for MW Reflex of course).

I think Tretton likes to talk up his own system, and nothing wrong with that. I don't see what's wrong with the Tretton quote Mai has given. Actually if that's the best (worst) you can come up with it's pretty mild.

What I'm looking for is whether any of these company reps are making derogatory comments about the opposition. The 5 minutes on a shelf statement certainly isn't derogatory to the oppositon. Neither is Reggie's bet. Greenberg on the other hand was pretty disparaging about Sony/PS3/GT5 in that latest interview. In my view it was pretty unprofessional and unbecomming of a senior industry exec. I really hope we see less of it as time passes.

Sony's hands got pretty dirty early in this generation, with their attitude to both Wii and 360. But I think they've learned that to promote their machine they don't need to run down the opposition. Being humbled by the consumer in the way Sony has with PS3 was good for SCE's soul.

Nintendo have been pretty constant from what I've seen and they've mostly focussed on their positives in their PR approach from the beginning.

Here's a Tretton-quote for ya.

"I think the PS3 is the Surf 'n Turf, the PS2 is your favorite burger restaurant... [Wii] is a lollipop, and I'm too old for lollipops. And the [Xbox 360] I get sick from once in a while because the cook isn't always reliable."

That's certainly a better example for the purposes of this thread than the 5 mins on a shelf quote. Unprofessional and unbecoming without a doubt. I'd personally be ashamed to have my name next to a quote like that. Let's face it, if anyone on this site wrote that in seriousness they'd get a swift ban.

How old is that quote? It seems to be out of step with the image Tretton has been trying to convey in the more recent interviews of him I've seen/read (not that I've seen / read too many). I'd be very disappointed to hear that this quote was less than a year old, in fact I'd be disappointed if it was a quote from any time in 2008 (though I'm not sure exactly when Tretton decided to start on rehabilitating his and Sony's image). If it's more than 18 months old I say it's pretty poor form to be dredging it up from that long in the past, when I've said myself (and other non-blind fanatics have also acknowledged) that Sony was dirty early in the gen with their PR approach. People are allowed to redeem their public personas and shouldn't be beaten over the head for past indiscretions if they've made a conscious change in their PR approach.

I'm not so naive as to believe Tretton's change (if he really has changed) is anything other than reacting to the public response to past PR strategies. If bashing the opposition had actually worked in Sony's favour they'd still be doing it today.

Edit: Similarly if Nintendo playing "the nice guy" didn't work they'd have brought out the bash too. Personally I'm glad playing nice has worked. I absolutely loathe ads (for any product, including election campaigns) that are "this product / person is shit, therefore buy/vote for me", it puts me right off.