VG247

One time Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division head Robbie Bach has said the Xbox 360 was well positioned to profit from the PlayStation 3′s struggles.

Speaking at a Northwest Entrepreneur Network event, as reported by GeekWire, Bach offered a piece of advice for new ventures: capitalize on your competitors’ mistakes. Bach seemed to suggest that this is what Microsoft did when major rival Sony dropped the ball.

“Some of the success of Xbox was due to the fact that Sony did some really not so smart things,” he said.

“They mismanaged their 70 percent market share. It’s a long conversation. The transition to PlayStation 3 was really, really bad. And really hard.

“They mismanaged their partners, they mismanaged their cost structure. They made their next platform so complicated that developers couldn’t develop for it.”

Bach held executives roles at Microsoft throughout the rise of the Xbox and launch of the Xbox 360, including the RROD disaster.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/15/former-xbox-boss-sony-did-some-really-not-so-smart-things/

It is the fact. I dont think anyone can dispute this. I mean 70%? Really Sony?

What's missing from that article:

"It turned out we were able to convince retailers and publishers like Activision, Electronic Arts and others, that it was a good thing for Microsoft to be successful, because if we were not successful, the only game in town was Sony. Being dependent on somebody else was bad for them, and so they supported us disproportionately to what they should have"

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/347440/sonys-ps3-mistakes-helped-xbox-360-succeed-says-former-ms-games-boss/?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

But yeh,  the premier problem was Sony themselves. 

Durrrr. A pay-to-play box that burns down your house wouldn't have succeeded otherwise.

Launch was plain bad, delayed by blue laser diode shortage, too expensive with too much new tech packed in, too complicated to program for initially which delayed game after game.
MS screwed up too by launching too early with a faulty system, but at least it was easy to program for and they secured a lot of third party support with the head start. Is that what he means by capitalizing on their competitor's mistake?
Launching next to a much cheaper wii with Zelda at launch and tons of hype surrounding the new motion controller didn't help either. I wonder how much the Wii profited from the RROD fiasco and the ps3 launch dud.

The question now becomes will we read in 7 years how MS dropped the ball with their Win 8 Kinect Live entertainment box, expecting every 360 owner to blindly follow?

All I can say is that Sony were lucky that the 360 got a bad rep for the RRoD.

“They mismanaged their partners, "

Ithink that would fall under mis managed their partners.

Thats Microsoft own fault for rushing to release the 360 ahead of its competitors.

Yes, some not so smart things from MS meant they didn't completely bury Sony / PS brand, which was quite possible. Though MS couldn't have done it alone, Wii's success was pivotal to the potential total downfall of the PS brand. Sony certainly pulled off an almost miraculous recovery, it wasn't totally miraculous because MS left the door slightly open.

I don't think EA / Activision would have paid much attention to MS's arguments about Xbox brand needing to be strong if Sony had aced the launch of PS3.

Nintendo was really the only one who really aced it with their console, though it aged fast and it's end of generation performance has fallen away.

So no one really had the perfect gen.

I don't know if it gave them a bad rep per se. They made good by extending warranties for years. Putting out the slim also shut people up.

If anyone was lucky its MS and Nintendo. They benefited greatly from Sony putting out a $600 console. That gave their competition a huge advantage.