Business

So, in a recent LJ post, I was told:

You think Reggie deserves more because you like Nintendo. That’s really all, if you liked Sony, you’d like the junk Kutaragi is spouting too.

*shrug* I think they’re all dicks, it’s their job to be.

Quite fair, and I agree to some extent.

I’m not here to make buddies with any of the people selling these systems. This is business, plain and simple.

Unfortunately, Kutaragi has this sort of snake-oil or used car salesman vibe to him I can’t get past. I get the feeling the guy is an opportunist, and that all he’s out for is his bottom line.

It’s business, though. I don’t expect Kutaragi nor Reggie nor Peter Moore to try and be my best friend. But with XBox and Nintendo, I feel that they are legitimately trying to please their customers in a way that Sony is not. Again, it’s business. But I feel that XBox and Nintendo are trying to form some sort of trust with their customers. That they want what’s best for us, because in return, we come back to them later. That’s one way to run a business.

With Sony… with Kutaragi… I feel like they are placing so much on us. Getting a second job to afford the system, getting used to design flaws… remember the whole gate analogy? The burnt pixel controversy? I think they replace the systems now, but they put up a much larger fight about it before it happened.

I sort of wonder if maybe someone higher at Sony, however, told Kutaragi “change that fucking controller,” because we weren’t supposed to see any major changes between the showing and the release. And what do we get? Dual Shock 3, minus the shock. And the last-minute addition of the motion-sensing tech. Which no one believes was ever meant to be a part of the plan.

After all, can you imagine how it might have made Nintendo look if Sony introduced it first? Nintendo would look like the rip-off artists. Superior, yes, but…

I won’t say the others are full of saints. Yamauchi is a man I can not honestly say I like. Generally speaking, he was a tyrant.

BUT. In spite of the Yokoi thing mentioned earlier, I have a respect for the man. For a long time, he really knew what he was doing, without EVER having played a video game. And it would not surprise me at all to find out he had input on the Wii; as far as I know, though retired, he still helps advise Nintendo. As some have said, the man is either very intuitive, or very lucky.

I may not like the man, and even though as time has gone on, he may or may not have lost his touch, the man knows the importance of quality and satisfying customers through things like affordability.

Nintendo used to be on top of the world, and thought they could do no wrong. Since that time, they’ve been proven wrong. They’ve been hurt, they’ve been humbled. But not broken. Even their most outrageous endeavors have not been made in complete foolishness; they are the company who have consistently sold hardware at a profit. The question is, will Sony and their $600 tag be able to weather the storm? If the PS3 does not echo the PS2’s success, which as I understand it has become a lynchpin for the whole company’s projects… where will Sony stand then?

LBD “Nytetrayn”

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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