Harrison frustrated with Sony Japan

via Eurogamer


Sony's Phil Harrison, head of worldwide studios for Sony, has expressed his frustration that the company's Japanese division was too slow at accepting the ideas of social gaming - a market now dominated by rival manufacturer Nintendo and its Wii console, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Sony Europe already had three products on the market designed specifically to encourage social gaming in the living room before the Wii was even released - the EyeToy, SingStar and Buzz - but Japanese execs didn't believe in the concept of families enjoying gaming together.

"It's a very interesting and frustrating thing for me to experience because I have been banging the drum about social gaming for a long time, with SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz," he said during a private lunch taking place during GDC week.

"And our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan - people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other's homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii."

Harrison said that he thinks Wii Sports is a title that encapsulates the idea of a true 'next-generation' game, and he admires Nintendo's success in marketing and sales.

"What's interesting with Nintendo adverts - and they are the same the world over - they always show the view from the television back to the sofa, which is very clever. And what do you see? A family or friends all on a sofa," he said.

I honestly admire phil for saying this. In such a highly competitive and bias market, he has the bulls to go up and say that the Wii is great in front of many people, and that they do they do it better then sony does.

Sony on the whole just wants the whole market to move forward and freely express this opinion whether its to a competitor not. Like they have said in another example, how sony will have no problems if the 360 wanted to use blu ray.

Microsoft on the other hand would rather nothing moved forward and they always criticise the competition and make excuses in any situation they can get their hands on. Its the same in the console and the PC market. They also use the whole "splash the cash thign" where they buy anything as long as they make themselves "better" then the competition, but theres many thigns cash cant buy, and thats a good reputation for one. Im slowly getting sick of them.

My congratulations to Phil Harrison for actually having something nice to say about a competitor. For him to actually say that he has a degree of admiration for Nintendo is a welcome change from the acrid banter that has become far too common of late.

Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to other Sony exec's and finally alert them to the fact that "business as usual" is no longer the business model most likely to gain them promotions and cushy corner offices.