PlayStation Boss Downplays Xbox 360

Turns out that first-mover advantage might not be such an advantage after all, or so Sony says.

Microsoft's launch of the Xbox 360 in November was a finely crafted attempt to eke out an early lead in the next generation. The company has had a hard time satisfying demand, meaning it's not getting as much out of the difficult launch as would like. And now Sony's boss has said that the so-called first-mover advantage doesn't matter anyway.

Will she be disappointed?

"People, especially people up north on the West Coast, seem to put a lot of credence on being out before the other consoles," Sony's North American boss, Kaz Hirai, told US Official PlayStation Magazine, referring to Microsoft and Nintendo, who both have their headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

"If you take a look at when our competitors came out in the market, we had upward of 3 [million] to 5 million PS2 units when our competitors came out with a platform. Consumers adopted our platform because [they like our content] and not because we were first to market. And, first to market, from what we can tell, has never been an advantage."

As Hirai pointed out, Sony has never been the first player to release its hardware. Both the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 were preceded by first-movers who buckled under Sony's pressure.

The launch of the Xbox 360 officially kicked off the next generation, but the victor will be decided, as Hirai says, not by the hardware but by the games:

"At the end of the day, it's all about the entertainment content that you bring to the consumers, to the PlayStation family of products. We're going to make sure we're your family and that we'll take care of you."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games