You're a bunch of copycats Sony boss tells Microsoft

Stan Beer
Thursday, 29 June 2006 21:52

Your IT - Home IT

It is sometimes said that imitation is flattery - or something like that. So no-one really believes Sony Computer Entertainment America boss Kaz Hirai when he says that he wishes Microsoft would come up with some ideas of its own in the games space.

However, in an interview with Official PayStation Magazine, that is approximately what Hirai said. To be exact, Hirai said: "I wish that they would come up with some strategies of their own, but they seem to be going down the path of everything we do."

One would be tempted to believe Hirai if he didn't contradict himself in the next breath when he ridiculed Microsoft for not including an HD DVD drive as an integrated part of the Xbox 360 but as an optional extra. This is clearly not going down the same path as Sony, which has integrated a Blu-ray player in PS3, in the process making the console considerably more expensive than Xbox 360.

His other reported statement does not quite ring true either. "Every time we go down a path, we look behind and Microsoft is right there - we just can't shake these guys." Well actually, Xbox 360 has been on the market for quite some time with millions of units sold. PS3 is not expected to make an appearance for at least four months.

Leaving aside reports that Sony may have copied Nintendo's motion sensing remote controller, it's a bit rich to expect the world to believe that Sony is the only innovator in the games area when it doesn't even have its next gen product in the market and Nintendo Wii is said to have stolen the show at E3. The most likely scenario is that all the players innovate and all of them copy each other to a certain extent. If your competitor has a good idea, why wouldn't you take it on board?