Posted by Bob Mackey
The future is a funny thing. If you had told me back in the fall of 2005 (what I regard as the height of the PS2) that Sony would be a money-bleeding mess three short years later, I probably would have slapped you out of pure contempt. It wasn't that I was a Sony fanboy, you see; it's just that the thought of a powerful company taking such a fall from grace was something once regarded as sheer lunacy--hell, even when Nintendo was sucking with the N64, they at least had the Pokemon brand to pump billions of dollars into their coffers. Sony? ...Not so much.
Things have gotten so bad that a London Times article from a few days ago slyly pointed to some major changes in the Playstation brand as a possible solution for Sony's problems. Changes in this case meaning massive upheavals:
Despite the promise of reform inherent in the appointment of Sony's first non-Japanese head, sources close to Sir Howard describe three years of frustration as the company's British-born chief has tried to impose changes on an unwilling entrenched management. Those frustrations - and a clear internal cultural clash between Japanese Sony and its US and European operations - have finally begun to be noticed by Japanese analysts. Several have started to call for Sir Howard to be free to take a “gloves-off” approach to running Sony, even if that means that the axe falls most heavily on the group's Japanese operations.
This wouldn't be the first time a cultural clash between East and West led to the death of a console; the Sega Saturn died mainly because of the miscommunication, separatism, and, at times, antagonism between Sega of America and Sega of Japan. Sonic X-treme, what would have been the system's killer ap, wasn't really helped by the fact that legendary dickhead Yuji Naka threw a hissy fit when he learned the team had co-opted some of his NiGHTS code for their own purposes. And really, the little petty East v. West problems with the Saturn are endless--though they are fascinating. But interesting stories don't exactly make for a profitable business; Sony's sleek little overpriced panther of a console is looking more and more like a Jaguar as the days roll on.
Related Links:
Sony’s New Year’s Resolution
New Year's PS3 Wish List: part 1
New Year's PS3 Wish List: part 2
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About Bob Mackey
For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's
Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.
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