Hirai: console war is a marathon, not a sprint

Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai was recently interviewed and was asked what he thinks of the console war right now. Hirai admitted that the PlayStation 3 may still be behind its rivals, but after 10 years, he says they’ll be the ones laughing. More details after the jump.

Sony Computer Entertainment CEO and president Kaz Hirai was recently interviewed on what he thinks will happen to this generation’s console war. The chief confidently said that the PlayStation 3 will eventually come out on top by outlasting the Xbox 360 and the Wii.

Hirai said that even though the PS3 is still trailing its rivals in overall sales, its 10-year life cycle will ultimately result in more consoles sold and more business generated for its game development partners. He also drew comparisons to the last two game generations to drill the point.

“We certainly don’t do the consumer the disservice of basically saying that the consoles have gone by the wayside because we have a new one,” he commented. “Right now, a prime example? PS2 is nine years into it. Where’s the Xbox? Where’s the GameCube?”

“Same thing with the original PlayStation. At some point we looked around and asked what happened to the Saturn? Where’s the N64?”

He likened the seventh-generation console wars to a marathon, and not a sprint. He also said that the real measure of a console’s success when it’s all said and done is how many sectors were able to benefit from it. He said that this should go beyond first-party partners. It has to trickle down to retailers and third-party publishers.

Hirai concluded the interview by saying, “We’re still only two years into the PS3, and I think the true test is really like the situation we find ourselves with PS2, where nine years later and 130 million units later we can look back and say, “Yeah – it’s been a pretty successful platform.”

Via Games Industry

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