Sony CEO Ponders Possible PS3 Collapse
It's not a "when" scenario so much as an "if" one for Sir Howard Stringer.
Many people would love to buy a luxury car but for most of us they're just too expensive. And that price barrier to luxury, says Sony chief executive Sir Howard Stringer, is one reason the PlayStation 3 could fail.
Speaking in an as-yet-unaired TV interview, reported by Smarthouse, Stringer admitted that Sony was aiming higher than Nintendo was with the Wii with its PS3:
"Wii is a wonderful device, but has a different target audience. If we fail, it is because we positioned PS3 as the Mercedes of the video game field. PS3 is after a different audience and it can be whatever it wants - a home server, game device, even a computer."
The comment echoes a more presumptuous one by Sony's Ken Kutaragi, who said in the run-up to the launch of the PS3 that the console would be expensive and he hoped that people would be willing to work harder to afford it.
The question many Europeans are wondering now, on the eve of the launch of the PS3, is whether all that luxury is worth the price of entry.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo
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