The Life And Times Of The PlayStation

April 25th, 2009, 22:55 Posted By: wraggster

Ever wonder how Sony managed to sell over 100 million PlayStations? Edge magazine takes a trip through Sony history.


If, after reading Douglass Perry's on-going series on the fall of Nintendo, you wished someone would tackle chief console manufacturing rival Sony, look no further than the magazine feature Edge has recently posted to its Web site. Relying heavily on the recollections of Infogrames President and former Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Executive Phil Harrison, the story weaves through the decision making processes that gave birth to "a new way of doing business."

Ultimately, it transformed the games market.

Most know, of course, that much of Sony's success was due to its bet on new technology offered at an affordable price point. (What you might not know is Harrison feared everyone was going to "hate" the PlayStation name.) But it was Sony Computer Entertainment's Chief Executive Ken Kutaragi's vision of the Playstation as a gaming machine--not a multimedia device--that shaped such a successful console.

It is ironic then, that the PlayStation 3 is marketed as a multimedia device. As Edge concludes, it is the complete lack of a singular vision for its latest console that caused Sony to cede its market position to Nintendo this generation.

http://www.gamebizblog.com/gamebizbl...aystation.html

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