Gaming Industry Executives tarnishing their own image.
Unfortunately success in the gaming industry goes hand in hand with the notion of arrogance.
by Sutton Dagger:
©2009 Steven Sutton:
Shigeru Miyamoto
Throughout the industry, certain executives feel like ‘smack-talk’ and chest beating will ensure the most support from the gaming public. Contrary to these PR methods, the general gaming populace seem to revile these ‘outbursts’, and the companies associated with them.
The industry ‘nice guys’ like Shigeru Miyamoto (responsible for Mario, Zelda and other well known franchises), seem to remain popular amongst the hardcore gaming crowd, whilst the ‘loud-mouth’ executives are abused and tormented.
It is seemingly ironic, given the fact that pot-shots and smack-talk are the staple of online gaming today; I guess we can do it, as long as those in charge don’t.
Let us take a look at the three competing industry heavyweights and the often poor choice of words that impact their standing in the gaming community.
Nintendo has had its fair share of industry executives who liked to dish dirt on the competition (sometimes even gamers, looking at you Laurent Fischer). None more famous than the former president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who took a pot-shot at the upcoming Xbox console back in 2000.
Hiroshi Yamauchi
The Xbox went on to sell more units worldwide than Nintendo’s competing machine, the GameCube.
“There are many people in the industry that know nothing about games. In particular, a large American company is trying to engulf software houses with money, but I don’t believe that will go well. It looks like they’ll sell their game system next year, but we’ll see the answer to that the following year.”
Sony have also been accused of arrogance during their rein at the top of the industry. Specifically when the transition from the PS2 and PS3 was taking place, former Chairman/CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Ken Kutaragi made in infamous blunder when describing the price point of the PS3.
Ken Kutaragi
It almost single-handedly turned the media and gaming public against Sony and its newest console, and ruined the chances of Sony’s PS3 making a profit.
“[PS3 is] for consumers to think to themselves ‘I will work more hours to buy one’. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else.”
Microsoft has had its fair share of drama as well, with the whole hardware failure fiasco surely tarnishing their reputation. One man in particular though, Aaron Greenberg (Xbox 360 product management director), seems to do a bang up job of getting gamers offside.
Though it can’t be put down into a particular quote or statement, Mr Greenberg has a habit of tooting his own horn (that being the Xbox 360), whilst generally dismissing the competition. I’m not sure Mr Greenberg has grasped the notion of being ‘humble in victory as well as defeat’, but in this fickle industry, things can shift in a heartbeat, and the product manager would do well to remember this.
Aaron Greenberg
The recent interview on Gamasutra regarding the February NPD numbers (American hardware/software numbers) is a prime example of his methods and one which has garnered a lot of bad publicity for the Xbox 360 platform.
So what are your thoughts; do these top industry players show a hint of arrogance in their ramblings, or is it all part of acceptable PR talk?
©2009 Steven Sutton:
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Filed under: Console gaming, Editorial, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | Aaron Greenberg, February NPD numbers, Hiroshi Yamauchi, Ken kutaragi, Shigeru Miyamoto
I’m not saying he was right to have said that… but I’m going to defend Hiroshi Yamauchi. Calling it a pot-shot is kind of short-sighted, a far too shallow way of looking at it. Unlike Satoru Iwata he’s rather old and almost entirely used to Japanese life and opinions. In that sense if Japan was the only market to exist he would’ve been absolutely right about the Xbox. It bombed in Japan and continued to do horribly and even today the 360 is struggling in comparison to the other systems despite microsoft enormous efforts to increase it’s popularity in Japan.
So while he shouldn’t have said that, in a way in regards to the financial world he was thinking of he was right. I wouldn’t expect an old Japanese businessman to think about or know about how things would work overseas so he either assumed it was like Japan or it didn’t cross his mind. At least that’s how it seems.
Reggie of NOA, despite having street cred for threatening people indirectly has been bragging quite a bit lately… well actually he stopped in the past months but a year ago or so he was bragging up a storm. Maybe Nintendo execs asked him to stop or something.
I have never agreed with verbally putting down your competition. I believe people or companies should prove that they’re “the cream of the crop” (so to speak) by what they produce and how well their products perform in the marketplace, not by taking shots at others.
Arrogant Greenberg is a Ponce!
All PR’s act lile this but Microsoft PR’s act like fanbrats at a birthday party. They keep this up and they will be in the same situation Sony was in when they reeked of arrogance.
Just focus on your own systems and work on the games.
Competition is good and healthy but not when you’re trash-talking competition and putting everything they do down.
yea and ms are the angels there not arrogant at all.
recent splurge from arron greenburg ring any bells?
Greenberg is a fat, bald person, thats why he has to do all the trash talking. To make himself feel better.
@Darkie
Darkie have you ever seen when the infamous Kaz Hirai interviews? No. Well let me put you up to speed on what happened.
Kaz Hirai went on to compare the 360 to the PS3 and stated that he believes that the PS3 and Sony’s strategy were superior. A few days later the media made fun of Sony, they called them arrogant, ignorant and said they were acting like ex girlfriends. That was one months worth of arrogance, arrogance that was well after the Sony Arrogance of 2006 (they were humble throughout 2008).
Aaron Greenberg on the other hand cannot keep his mouth shut about Sony. Every time he’s in an interview there will always be Sony bashing, sometimes he does it subtly sometimes blatantly. Whenever he does it the media do not talk about it they’re too busy playing pretend it’s true. The fact is is Microsoft has done this more than Sony or Nintendo in 2008 yet they were getting free passes.
Sony did it in 2006 and now we see how that has affected them, it had become the laughing stock of the gaming community people hated Sony, that is why they’ve become humble the following years, Microsoft just started and they’ve been ignored until now but I doubt this is going to start any form of media outrage present after the Kaz Hirai interviews. Nintendo is going the way of the casual so they’re arrogance towards their competition can just be ignored.
If the media would praise Sony for it’s success (still selling PS3′s despite it being the most expensive console) half as much as they praise Microsoft for its 360′s failures (RRoD), maybe Kaz Hirai would have never had to toot his own horn.
I approve on this article and I thank OXCGN that has proven to me once again that this site is one of the most unbiased sites I’ve ever been to.
This was never a problem when it was only Sony and Nintendo smack talking. Now that MS is giving themselves credit where it is certainly due, everyone has a problem with it.
If the media would praise Microsoft for it’s 360 successes half as much as they praise Sony even in its PS3 failures, maybe Aaron wouldn’t have to toot his own horn.
I think they (industry’s big three in gaming)should focus on their own games and strategies instead of trashing the competition.Cause as you mentioned everything can change in a sec and they can end up looking stupid.
I would love to see Greenberg’s speech after PS3 gets a $100 price drop.their own $400 machine(elite)is selling so bad they are thinking about discontinuing it. PS3 is selling consoles at $400 and $500 price point.it was only 80K or so behind the X360 in February in US Despite the hefty price.they are also dead even world wide despite PS3 being almost three times as expensive in Europe.
I think we should all remember that PlayStation brand gave life to world wide console gaming industry . So atleast we owe it to them and their fans not trash them when they make a few mistake.Don’t get me wrong,competition is awesome (just like MS providing a challenge for PS) and it improves the industry but trash talking them does not.
I agree, nbut one of the biggest things the top two Japanese majors have is arrogance nd the never ending belief they are the ones that run gaming.
It was that thought and rule of thumb that cause the PS3 to do so poorly initially. KK even refused to discuss anything with the head ceo of Sony – period. Saying he didn’t take orders from a gagin and told his worker/followers in Japan to ignor any inter office instructions from the head of Sony.
Now that is arrogance, especially when you’re telling YOUR boss to go take a jump.
There’s some excellent books around that tell the REAL stories behind all three of the current majors, and every one of them has some nasty stories to hid and not want known. They really do open up your eyes more than the genral media let you know about.