GamesIndustry International is kicking off a new monthly feature today. Each month we'll be selecting a key topic and putting several pundits (mainly fellow journalists) in the shoes of a notable industry player. This month it's Phil Harrison, who just joined Microsoft to head up its Interactive Entertainment business in Europe.
Harrison has been a Sony man through and through and since he joined Sony way back in 1992, he's been a core part of all the PlayStation hardware launches. His biggest impact was probably felt as the president of Sony's Worldwide Studios.
Harrison will no doubt play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the Xbox business.
Phil Harrison discusses the future of gaming and how Stadia's cloud-based service aims to be a big part of it.
In this month's IGN Unfiltered interview, Phil Harrison revealed a big reason why the PlayStation 3 released a year after the Xbox 360.
I’m glad Sony didn’t rush PlayStation 3’s launch. Microsoft did so for Xbox 360 just to get an advantage over the competition and their console had one of the worse hardware malfunctions in history. Scratched discs, overheating and RRoDs out the wazoo. Add that to the no HDMI out of the box on launch units, no WiFi & myriad of other cost cutting decisions showed Microsoft cheaped out on so many things just for that headstart.
My 360 went out within a month after purchase it was a nightmare and a fight to find a store that will fix it took me almost two months to find the right guy that can fix E74 error.
I liked that console had many great racing games that never came out on PS3 but damn was it unreliable to anyone who bought it before 2009.
It had way too many problems. And worst of all is that 360 is still Xboxs best console. SMH
I thought OG Xbox was there best because it pushed the bar way past PS2 with built in Ethernet and XBL
Gosh I always forget they shipped that thing without HDMI. I'm sure we all have bad memories of being at friend's house and seeing that they had their Xbox 360 set up on an HDTV through composite cables, while they obliviously talked about how they couldn't believe how good the graphics in Gears of War were. My eyes hurt just thinking about it.
Their software was superior though imo. Dashboard updates and XBL functionality was way ahead of PS. Party chat for example...
as it should be from a software company. I also liked their simple blade set up and found the PS3 interface slow and too much like a dvd, bluray interface
the Wii was a fraction of the price and geared towards old women.
Should we compare candy crush downloads now?
Another interesting reason for the delay was that the first batch of chips which Sony funded and ordered were defective, where as Microsoft bought backups from a 3rd party. So Microsoft got chips Sony funded even before Sony did, as Sony didn't consider the chance of Microsoft asking IBM for a chip, with IBM showing them what they were working on for Sony
Neither company had great luck during RnD last gen
i love the disagrees
even when your talking sense , if it makes sony look bad youll get disagreed
this site is ran by Sony fanboys left and right
what a effin joke
Why should the disagrees/agrees that someone else gets concern you? If this site bothers you so much, why are you still here?
Yeah it's strange, there is loads of really interesting facts and stats about the 360s and PS3s development and I feel that not many people would know that. I never really worry about the agrees and disagrees, doesn't matter much :)
- PS2 launches ahead of Xbox: PlayStation outsells it
- Xbox 360 launches ahead of PS3: PlayStation outsells it
- PS4 launches alongside Xbox One: PlayStation outsells it
Seems no matter what timeframe Microsoft releases their console they’ll still have less marketshare than Sony.
Even if PS5 were somehow delayed a year behind the next Xbox, I’m certain it’d still outsell it just like PS3 did to 360. Unfortunately for Microsoft the PS5 will release alongside the next Xbox.
There were holes in MS's strategy with the 360. They had a year head start, but they focused heavily on the short term. They paid off companies for exclusive DLC or timed exclusivity on games and DLC, but they didn't really focus a lot on securing studios, and the ones they had they didn't exactly put in the money to keep them firing on all cylinders.
That strategy paid off in the short term as for at least a few years the 360 was the system to have, but eventually that dried up while Sony first party studios kept turning out exclusives. That carried over into this gen where the XB1 had an alright launch lineup, but that dried up pretty quickly and that's why MS has recently had to go on a purchasing spree for studios to hopefully produce more games than their first party studios have been. Of course, the conclusion of their contract with Bungie didn't help either. Even if there was no DRM fiasco marring the XB1's launch I doubt it would have performed as well as the PS4 regardless.
didnt microsoft close down alot of studios then now decided to go out and buy a few? i thought that was weird, im surprised some of Lionhead(Fable) went on to make media molecule( Little Big Planet, Tearaway, Dreams)
The problem for MS is they can't compete outside the United States. 360 absolutely dominated here, but got trounced everywhere else. I mean, Japan is not a huge market for home consoles anymore, but if the PlayStation basically gets basically an uncontested 10 million unit gap each generation, that matters a lot in the overall. Although MS does better in Europe than Japan, they still don't come close to PlayStation.
XONE is actually pretty competitive in the US. That's why you probably have friends who started really playing games on the 360 but don't follow the industry as a whole who have no idea that XONE got outsold so badly.
nobody is big in Japan except for Nintendo now in the console space. it's been 6 years and the PS4 is yet to reach even 8mil let alone 10mil like you said.
@badz149 8 millions for a home console is pretty good for Japan nowadays. As for the Switch, it's only doing so well in Japan because it's considered a portable console. If it was an actual home console like the PS4 and Xbox One (no portable mode), it wouldn't be doing nearly as well as it is right now and it would just sell at the same rate the PS4 did.
@badz149
10 million was a reference to PS3 since that generation is done, and PS3 sold around that in Japan. PS4 is selling similarly there year by year, so it's a useful number.
Anyway, your comment illustrates my point: even if you assume 8 million, it's 8 million that are basically uncontested (XONE is under a million in Japan, maybe even under half a million). In a close gen like last one was (obviously this one isn't, but just as a hypothetical) a free 7 million unit advantage could be the difference between outselling your competitor or not.
All those sales and Xbox has still beaten them out each gen by having the superior platform. Crazy how sales don't actually matter at all in the end for us consumers, huh.
And neither unit has had any impact on the trajectory of the overall race. It's almost like a new, more powerful console isn't as enticing if there are going to be literally zero games designed from the ground up for its specs, rather than designed for a much weaker system and just given graphical improvements.
And still against all odds the PS3 surpassed Xbox 360. Xbox has finished last in each of their console generations.
“Xbox has finished last in each of their console generations.“
Rewriting history much?
- Xbox outsold GameCube
- Xbox One outsold Wii U
PS3 launch was a fail. $599! Riiiidge Racer! Backlash!
Xbox One launch was a fail! The system will always be online. Backlash!
If these two consoles are taking turns on launch fails. PS5 launch will be a fail.
Oh no!
PS3 was Sony's 3rd console, XBO was MS's 3rd console... if you look back throughout platforms where they released a 3rd console, it has historically been shown to not be as successful as their 2nd and sometimes 1st. Those that have gone on to release a 4th has fared better but not always.
Some call it a 3rd console curse.
Creative engineers Phil Harrison, Jade Raymond, Majd Bakar, and more take you behind the scenes of Google Stadia
Microsoft's Phil Harris. Wow, that just doesn't sound right for some reason haha. Nothing agains MS or Phil though.
Phil Harrison exclusive to 360 ;)
Some of the opinions these guys come out with in this article are jaw-dropping.
Make cheap, shitty hardware and release lots of non-games from amateurs and indies? Bring on board people who worked on the failed Eye Toy for Kinect development?
It's not 1 April yet guys. Keep the indie games in the cellar and make sure it's locked.
Would anyone give a shit about this guy if he wasnt an ex-Sony employee?.