E3 2008: Hirai Says Sony Doesn't Abandon Old Consoles

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While it is true that Sony's forward-thinking has caused them to leave backwards compatibility behind, even the most annoyed PlayStation owners have to admit one thing: at the very least, Sony doesn't abandon old hardware.

Eurogamer interviewed Sony boss Kaz Hirai at E3 this year, and Hirai took a bit of a jab at the competition by saying they don't do the consumer "a disservice" by dropping old hardware like a hot potato when a new console arrives. ...essentially, like Nintendo did with the GameCube and Microsoft did with the Xbox. Obviously, Hirai cited the PS2 as a "prime example" of Sony's continued loyalty to old customers; it's now 9 years into the lifespan and they still have 130 games scheduled for that platform in 2008. Granted, neither the GC or Xbox sold 130 million units worldwide, but still, he makes a valid point. In addition, Hirai was asked who he thought was currently winning the console war, and his reply was consistent with what we've heard from him before:

"I think that winning and won are two different things. Where I stand, we look at it in the context of a ten-year life cycle as weve done with PS1 and PS2, which is certainly on its way. So its really a matter of looking back after ten years minimum and asking what youve actually accomplished in terms of the installed base. If somebody wants to say that theyre going to have a larger installed base, we should compare notes after ten years, because otherwise were not talking about the same thing."

Yes, Sony is definitely still talking about a 10-year lifespan for the PlayStation 3, as once again evidenced by SCEA president Jack Tretton's speech during Tuesday's conference, where he mentioned it several times. And while we all have to admit the system had a miserable start, things are really looking up in 2008, and who knows where we'll be in 2015 or 2016...

7/17/2008 Ben Dutka

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