Microsoft's Xbox console is "finished before it even got started". So says Sony's PlayStation supremo, Ken Kutaragi, in an interview with the Financial Times today.
Published:
24 May 2001 y., Thursday
We've always said that the early 21st Century's big battle will be between Microsoft and Sony, and it looks like the combat is just starting to get a little rougher.
Kutaragi's claim is based on two factors. First, the Xbox hardware isn't anywhere near as good as everyone thought it would be, and second, that Microsoft just doesn't fully understand the console business and certainly not the Japanese side of it.
The problems Microsoft may have winning over Japanese consumers and games developers has been signalled before. Earlier this year, rumours sprang up suggesting Microsoft would delay Xbox's Japanese launch to give it more time to address the needs of that market, which is very different from the US or Europe. Japanese gamers favour different game styles and need to be addressed with different flavours of marketing and advertising.
Since then, Bill Gates has gone on record to say that Xbox will ship in Japan at the same time that its ships in the US. And a handful of big-name Japanese developers have signed up to produce Xbox games. Among them is Sega, but since it's so desperate for software revenue it will code for almost anything, it's support is hardly a strong indicator of Xbox's Japanese credibility.
Šaltinis:
theregister.co.uk
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
EBRD to pay 4.6 billion roubles for 11.75 percent stake.
more »
On 24 November in London a letter of intent will be signed between Alytus Municipality and the Spanish aluminium company “Sopena group” regarding investments of the “Sopena group” in Alytus.
more »
Tourism opportunities in Dzūkija Region of Lithuania and other issues of incoming tourism promotion were the main topics of the meeting of the Mixed Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Lithuania.
more »
On 22-23 November in Kiyv, foreign ministers of Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus discuss trilateral cooperation and participation of Belarus and Ukraine in the Eastern Partnership of the European Union.
more »
The Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund is supporting an innovative programme to boost energy savings and efficiency of public buildings in Bulgaria with a €5 million grant.
more »
Bank DnB NORD’s Economic Research Group predicts that out of the six Baltic Rim countries, moderate economic growth will be seen in Poland, Finland and, possibly Estonia in 2010, while Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia will need more time to climb out of recession.
more »
In a meeting in Brussels of the European Bank Coordination Initiative held on 19 November 2009, the parent banks of the six largest foreign banks active in Hungary reaffirmed their commitments made in May 2009 to support their subsidiaries.
more »
On 17 November 2009, the Board of AB Bank SNORAS decided to establish the bank’s representative office in London.
more »
The European Commission has approved, under EC Treaty state aid rules, two capital injections in favour of 'The Mortgage and Land Bank of Latvia' (LHZB).
more »
The government of G hana will tomorrow sign an historic agreement with the EU aimed at ensuring that only legally harvested timber from the West African country is exported to the EU market.
more »