Sony's Harrison on Sony Arrogance

Joystiq had the chance to exchange a few words with Sony's Phil Harrison at the UK Develop Conference. They asked him some hard questions about the crazy comments that have been coming out of the company since E3. From the article: "There's always going to be a risk when you are market leader for ten years that we start to lose perspective; and we have to make sure that we don't lose perspective. But I don't think we're arrogant, I think we have to recognize that we're in a highly competitive industry and that anything that we say will be eternally editorialized by professionals and consumers alike. So we're always in the spotlight." After the tape was off he snarked that he hadn't been asked very nice questions. Poor guy, having to answer questions that aren't 'How awesome is the PS3 going to be?'

Comments

Dear Zonk

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Zonk,

You are not a journalist nor a competent editorial writer. Please post your snarky comments (in response to others' snarky comments) in the comments section like I'm doing, so that they may be voted "+5, Taking potshots at the market share leader in a given field."

Re:Dear Zonk

[tfurrows]

And yet, in spite of Zonk's apparent lack of writing skills, hundreds of /. readers will take this opportunity to get their energy out concerning yet-another arrogant industry-leader... None of us uses slashot for the quality (or grammar) of the writing, but for the chance to participate in the mele of the comments :)

Re:Have you stopped beating your wife?

[oahazmatt]

Any answer Sony gives is "wrong." "We're not arrogant" yields, "see?! Seeeeee??" "Ok, we're arrogant" is just as stupid. I can't imagine how joystiq figured that'd be a useful question, except in the context of badgering Sony. Why he'd set out to do that intentionally is clearly up for debate. When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail, I suppose. So, joystiq, "have you stopped badgering Sony?

The question is relating to how he felt regarding comments of Sony's arrogance. The question moved on to how the negative comments are affecting Sony.

I don't see that as badgering Sony. It is asking relevant questions. Had the question been "Why are you so arrogant" it would have been a different story. The questions were asking for responses to accusations, not accusing in themselves.

$599 is fine

[rsilvergun]

for launch. I don't know why people are surprised. The last 3 console releases (ps2, Xbox and Xbox360) where all scalped on ebay for way more than that. Sony's just responding to that. Expect the price to come down pretty quick as sales drop.

Re:One "zonked" tag to go please

[NonSequor]

What bias? How do you expect him to report anything good about the PS3 when there isn't any good news about it available?

Dear Anonymous Fanboi,

[Anonymous Coward]

> Taking potshots at the market share leader in a given field

I don't give a damn if they're #1 or #100, frankly I don't like Sony due to all the crap they've been pulling of late like the rootkits.

And I'm sick of fanbois who act like "oh no, our precious Sony! they gave us the Playstation, you can't criticize them!"

Face it: Sony sucks. And I don't care how good their games are, or even if the PS3 lives up to the hype. I won't buy it because I won't endorse the things Sony has done. They "promise" not to use the patent that kills our ability to rent (or even loan!) games to others, but don't explain why they hell they bothered to patent it if that's true (umm, yeah, so our competitors can't sue us for infringing upon it when we're not, umm, going to do that! suuuurrre....) or how we can ever trust them again after the rootkit?

If they REALLY want to ask tough questions...

[FSWKU]

...then I've got one that should cause him to sweat a bit.

Quoth Phil Harrison to Spiegel Online:

On one level I understand why people say that. But it's a little stupid, if you don't mind me saying so. When we launched Playstation in 1994 we introduced the concept of real-time computer-generated 3-D-graphics for the first time.

This was part of his response to a question relating to the tilt controller, specifically wanting a response to those who thought they stole the idea. My question is two-fold: First, what are you hiding? It should be easy to relate the design process that ended with having a tilt controller (needing a feature now that they can't have dual-shock would have been more than sufficient). However, you simply called the allegations "stupid" and tried to move on as quickly as possible.

My second question (and the most pressing): Why are you LYING to the public about Sony's achievements? And before you get upset about the question, let me point out my proof:

• 1980: Atari releases Battlezone. This game featured real-time, computer-generated 3D graphics, and was also (technically) an FPS.
• 1992: Sega releases Virtua Racing in the arcades. The game was composed almost entirely of real-time 3D graphicsf.
• February 23, 1993: Nintendo releases Star Fox for the SNES. The major selling point of the game was real-time, computer-generated 3D graphics.
• November 22, 1994: Sega debuts the Saturn, which is fully capable of providing real-time, computer-generated 3D graphics. Titles such as Daytona USA sell extremely well among owners of the system. This same year, Virtua Racing is ported to the Genesis, and Virtua Racing Deluxe is released for the 32X.
• December 3, 1994: Sony releases the Playstation, which was originally to become a CD add-on for the SNES to compete with the SegaCD.

This clearly shows your assertion that "...we introduced the concept of real-time computer-generated 3-D-graphics for the first time..." to be flat-out wrong. This is all commonly available information, which someone authorized to speak on Sony's behalf should know off the top of their head. So I ask again, why the lying? If it was intentional, then you have only proven the arrogant desperation of your company. If it was a mistake, then you are proving yourself unqualified to speak for an entire company. Unfortunately, I am inclined to believe that it was intentional in light of Kaz Hirai's statement of "...With our original PlayStation, we ushered in the era of the CD-ROM and 3-D..."

So to conclude, you may not think of yourselves as arrogant, but your words and actions say otherwise.