Xbox Addict

Sony Afraid of Xbox???

In a recent interview with The Financial Times, Kunitake Ando, president and CEO of Sony, said that the Xbox could force the company to transition to the PS3 earlier than Sony expected which in turn can cause the lifecycle of consoles to shorten dramatically. "The biggest threat to the PlayStation 2 is that the Xbox changes the industry’s life cycle," said Ando, who feels that it is unclear whether the current PS2 business model is sustainable and that its console life cycle could be reduced to three years as a result. Although sales of the PlayStation 2 console remain strong, Ando said that the company is still in the process of recuperating its high front-end chip manufacturing costs. Awww Sony, don’t worry, this is just the beginning, I don’t think your PS3 will be able to handle it either. Because before you know it, we’ll throw a Xbox 2 right back at ya and hey, if a console can change the industry like Xbox can, then nobody will trust anything other than the Xbox.

Furthermore, Ando had also commented that Nintendo is not considered a danger or a competitor to Sony in the games division. "Nintendo’s GameCube has been a disappointment in Japan, they have sold only a third of what they had hoped," he said. "The PlayStation 2 is viewed by gamers as the games console to own." Ando further stated that although there was interest within Sony to enter the handheld business to compete directly with Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance, Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, requested that the company remain out of that market in order to focus its efforts exclusively on the PlayStation 2. Microsoft also did the same by focusing its efforts entirely on Xbox and hitting home with a well carried out launch and a delightful number of launch titles and units to keep everyone happy.

Research for and development of the PlayStation 3 is already under way. Sony has partnered with Toshiba and IBM, as part of a combined $400 million, five-year investment, to develop the technology for the PS3. Production of the chip, at last report, was slated to begin in 2004. According to Sony, the new chip design will be fundamentally different from what the company has used in the past and will have a greater focus on delivering communication and broadband services. So that means Microsoft doesn’t have to worry for now because by focusing its efforts entirely on the Xbox, the Xbox’s chip already have a greater focus on delivering communication and broadband services thanks to nVidia and Intel and other partners. With the Xbox, as a console gamer, you never have to worry about having the obsolete technology.
Source: http://www.xboxaddict.com/