True true. Out of all the companies MS were the only ones to react as fast as they have.

Sony and Nintendo have been very slow to react to mistakes and failures.

The arrogance from Sony back in 2006 was pretty unanimous from any sony person doing PR.

With MS i only associate the arrogance with Don Mattrick and Yusuf Mehdi really. So yeah MS have been less arrogant overall imo.

The problem is MS lacked leadership and direction with the X1 release...

The importance of quotes here is paramount. What some people remember as arrogance could easily be considered overeagerness.

e.g the difference between telling consumers that they should get another job and saying that consumers will want to get another job to afford it (something worth the money)

This

Microsoft. Sony was still pretty bad though.

It wasnt just that statement...Sony was genuinely arrogant back then and they had good reason to be.

Well...until PS3

I strongly think that what defines Sony right now is not arrogance and stupidity but cost control in a dangerous financial situation. They want to quickly reach profitability a lot more than they want to dominate the market. With a leading console and a better market share and momentum, they could anticipate future revenues and spend it in campains and exclusives to push their advantage. But right now, I think they would agree to sell not more than xbox if it made them output a solid profit this year. Right now outselling with just a better and cost controlled hardware is like a dream for Sony, they will not push too much their advantage, just cheaply show better multi-platform, future 3D device, and more indies... while enjoying profits from third party studio games.

Now that was by the book arogance. SONY wins for me in this pool.

Microsoft.

Microsoft basically promised everything they were doing won't ever change (DRMs, Kinect, always online, etc...)
There has been a first 180. Some people were upset, but the vast majority was actually satified.

But then, after repeating Kinect won't go away, that it's a part of the Xbox One system, and saying it made it worth 500$, they just throw it away like it's garbage ("Oh you paid 500$ for our lies ? Like we care !"). And worse, they make the Xbox One 399$, the exact same price as the PS4. For a weaker hardware with NO EXCUSE for the price this time, with Kinect gone.

That wins the prize for me. And just add the "You want an offline device ? Keep your 360" and the "More people are buying PS4 because Xbox users are more satisfied with their 360" and it's just perfect.

Both Sony 2006 and MS 2013/2014 were stupid AND arrogant. But in my honest opinion, Microsoft wins. It's a close call, but still.