The Escapist Bulletin: He said what?

Michael Pachter probably made the board over at Sony rather pleased this week when he predicted that the PS3 install base would eventually overtake that of the Xbox 360. That prediction comes with a couple of caveats, though: the first is that it all hinges on Nintendo not releasing an HD capable Wii, and the second is it’s going to take another six years for them to take second place, by which point the PS3 will be nearing the end of its projected ten year lifespan.

Sony could use a bit of good news, because it seems to be everyone’s favourite whipping boy in this generation. A perceived lack of quality launch titles has coloured people’s perception of the console and even now, several years on, one of the most common complaints about the system is that it doesn’t have any decent games.

Anyone with even a spot of objectivity can see that that isn’t the case, but perceptions can be tricky things to change.

It didn’t help either when Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, announced that the company had deliberately made the PS3 hard to program for to artificially increase the longevity of the console, which means all those jibes their loyal fans have had to endure about the system’s lacklustre library was actually Sony’s fault.

Such an admission makes sense, albeit in a somewhat twisted fashion, if Sony has really planned for a ten year lifespan for the PS3, but to admit it so brazenly must have been galling for the early adopters. It’s also soured certain developers towards making games for the PS3, most notably Valve, who feel that they need a special team to work on the PS3 versions of their games.

Of course, the other common complaint is that the PS3 is simply too expensive, and Sony’s reluctance to drop the price below the $400 mark, despite repeated calls to do so both from consumers and even publishers like Activision-Blizzard, again colour the perception of the device.

Complaints over price are going to dog Sony for some time. The PS3 is undisputedly the most powerful console of this generation, but with greater power comes a greater cost. The company has managed to reduce manufacturing costs significantly, but that has come at the expense of features like backwards compatibility, which people cared a lot more about than Sony thought they did.

While the PS3 is actually very cheap for what it is, communicating that to consumers is difficult at best. Trying to position the device as an entertainment centre hasn’t really reaped the benefits Sony hoped it would. Blu-Ray is still a new technology and for a public not well-versed in the difference between standard and high-definition, it doesn’t do anything that a DVD doesn’t do already.

Perhaps this is why Sony executives seem so quick to try and disparage their competitors. Not long ago, John Koller of Sony Computer Entertainment America called out Microsoft for paying for exclusive content, which followed Kaz Hirai saying that the 360 lacked ‘longevity’ a few months earlier. Microsoft isn’t completely blameless in the muck-slinging department, especially not with Aaron Greenberg on board, but it seems like Sony is always on the attack.

Sony has potentially got some pretty compelling selling points, like PS2 backwards compatibility for all SKUs and a new slim PS3, which will hopefully cost a little bit less than the standard model. If it can capitalise on these new developments, and stop revealing business secrets that are harmful to its public image, it might just recapture some of its lost thunder.

The Escapist is the internet's leading source of intelligent writing on the subject of video games.