Well, you have to give the guy credit. He hasn't once backed off on his stance; he has always said the PlayStation 3 will emerge on top in this generation. And that's what Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Kazuo Hirai does : he makes bold statements, then works to try to back them up. Pretty simple, really.
According to a recent interview with OPM, Hirai said he believes Microsoft's Xbox 360 "lacks longevity" and won't be able to compete with the PS3 down the road. As far as Nintendo's gargantuan lead, Hirai simply said, "I'd like to think that we continue official leadership in this industry." He also said he doesn't look at the Wii as a competitor (which we at PSXE have been saying all along), and went on to say that "they're a different world and we operate in our world." And as always, when asked about the 360, Hirai says he has difficulty assigning just "one word" to the system, but in the interview he said "you need a word that describes something that lacks longevity." He went on:
"Last time I checked, they've never had a console that's been on the market for more than four or five years and we've committed to a ten year life cycle, so you do the math. And unless things go really bad, there's no way that at the end of a life cycle our competition is going to have a higher install base."
Well, that's probably true. The PlayStations just seem to stick around for a longer span of time, although the original went out in about 6 years. The PS2 is still going (it's currently in its 9th year), and Sony has said many times that the PS3 has a 10-year lifespan as well. The 360 isn't likely to last that long, but who knows? We don't try to predict the future, but it's part of Hirai's job to try.
