Another E3 gaming conference has gone by with the usual pomp and ceremony. Naturally all three major consoles were well represented with each making a keynote address to the gaming press. Arguably the most interesting of the three speeches was from Sony. While the PS3 has not had the instant success Sony executives would have liked, the company’s entertainment president was keen to express his confidence that the platform would be stable for the next decade.
The press conference, like many at E3 depended upon the razzmatazz of high tech screens and stunning visual effects. This could not hide the fact however that this was somewhat of a damage limitation exercise; after the immediate 24 months of release that has seen Nintendo dominating the games industry, Kaz Hirai was happy to reassure delegates that Sony were “playing the long game” and bargaining on success over a longer period.
Another spokesperson used the example of the time it took the PS2 to replace the original PlayStation, reminding audiences that the best games for the previous generation of PlayStation were not developed until four years after the PS2′s release. Some commentators have seen this however as a way to convince PS3 owners that while top titles may be lacking currently, groundbreaking titles will eventually become apparent. The bare facts however are clear; from the release date, the sales of the PS3 are in fact greater than the comparable figures for the PS2.
Currently the PS3 is slowly edging past the Xbox 360 in Europe and worldwide the forecast is generally good. Sony were happy to point out that while Nintendo may be experiencing great levels of success at the moment, the Sony machine is now rolling and will undoubtedly catch up in time. Time is definitely the factor that Sony are regarding as the most important; working over a schedule of ten years until the PS3 is operating at its full capacity means that the PS3 is an investment. Sony expects its competitors to fall by the wayside in five years and it is at this point when the PS3 will reap the benefits of long term planning.
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