With both Microsoft and Sony preparing to bring their own next generation consoles – Xbox One and PlayStation 4, respectively – it’s only normal that tempers will flair with both the parties trying to gain the upper hand in the race. However, that doesn’t mean that all comments will be negative.
Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida was recently in an interview with Games Industry International, and talked about Microsoft and its upcoming console, and how smart a decision it was for Microsoft to make changes to its previously criticized DRMs, and other policies related to the Xbox One.
On this topic, Yoshida stated: “We know they're very smart people. It's great that they were able to quickly realise that some of the things they were doing were not popular, and were able to make really quick decisions to change some of those things - even things that their engineering group must have spent a lot of time preparing before the launch.”
“It must have been a very tough time for them. That shows how smart they are, and it shows their dedication to making Xbox One successful.”
At the same time, Yoshida also revealed that Sony never took Microsoft lightly. With Microsoft based in the US, Sony actually saw itself as the challenger in the American market.
“Some of the messaging that they stumbled on just gave us more chances to compete with them in the States. Other markets are very different - in Europe, we have a larger market share and in Japan, we have a much longer history of being here. Being consistent and persistent helps; the legacy and people's associations with the brand, their memories of having a great time before,” he stated.
As far as a comparison between the built-in hardware for Xbox One and PS4 is concerned, Yoshida stated that the company has reminded the audience many times since February that the “PS4 is really designed for consumers and focused on how people want to play games.”
“At the same time, we've really made sure that it's hardware which game developers will enjoy making games on. We want consumers to look at how much fun it is to use this system, not just for playing games but for finding out about games and sharing the experience with other people,” he added.
Sony’s PlayStation 4 is currently scheduled to release on Nov. 15 in North America and Nov. 29, 2013 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
