The PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One battle is a good thing for gamers because it pushes each company to focus more intently on serving players, according to Sony worldwide studios executive Shuhei Yoshida. "Competition really pushes everyone--Microsoft and us--to do better," Yoshida told Eurogamer. "I think in the end the consumers will win."
Yoshida's comments today follow those of Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore, who recently said that the game industry thrives on the Sony vs. Microsoft battle. He also said the industry overall stands to benefit if Microsoft and Nintendo can catch up to Sony, because a runaway leader can have a "reverse effect" on the business.
"Personally, I was expecting that at some point in the future [that Microsoft would] unbundle Kinect, but I wasn't expecting it this early" -- Shuhei Yoshida
Also in Eurogamer's interview with Yoshida, the longtime PlayStation boss commented on Microsoft's high-profile decision to remove Kinect from Xbox One bundles, thereby lowering the price to $399--the same price as the PS4. He said, like another PlayStation boss before him, that Microsoft would make this change eventually, but admitted that he was surprised by just how quickly Microsoft made the move.
"Some media people totally believed they should have done it earlier, but some other media people thought it was a unique selling point," Yoshida said. "Personally, I was expecting that at some point in the future they'd unbundle Kinect, but I wasn't expecting it this early. My interpretation was the management change had really helped them to reset and re-sync everything. And since then they've been consistent."
Yoshida also sung the praises of new Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, lauding him for the way in which he presented Microsoft's platform relative to past Xbox executives. "It was very interesting," Yoshida said about Microsoft's E3 showing. "The attitude was great, like from Phil Spencer. I read and listened to his interviews, and he's a reasonably smart guy, compared to some other people who used to say some unbelievable things."
It's possible that Yoshida is referencing some of the controversial comments made by former Xbox executive Don Mattrick. He left Microsoft a year ago this month and now works at social game studio Zynga.
| Eddie Makuch is a news editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuch |
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