Why Ballmer and Hirai will control the next-gen war

Thursday, 10 October 2024

Why Ballmer and Hirai will control the next-gen war

Added: 29.04.2013 15:17 | 15 views | 0 comments

Monday Muse: PS4 and Xbox strategies will closely reflect the commercial fitness of Sony and Microsoft By Rob Crossley What can we learn from that remarkable day in March 2001, when Sega killed off the Dreamcast? Sony chief executive Kaz Hirai In an interview with The Guardian (published in 2008 but still illuminating in 2013), the former Sega of America chief Peter Moore gives insight into, among many matters, the difficulties in being beholden to a parent company. "We [Sega of America] knew we could win," he said. "We had a tremendous 18 months. The Dreamcast was on fire [in the US]. We really thought that we could do it. But then we had a target from Japan that said - and I can't remember the exact figures - but we had to make N hundreds of millions of dollars by the holiday season and shift N millions of units of hardware, otherwise we just couldn't sustain the business."