Unnecessary Trash Talk

Lately, Sony executives Jack Tretton and Kaz "Ridge Racer" Hirai have been bashing their competition a lot. I'm not really sure what right they have to do that, considering both their platforms are "losing" terribly in all regions (I put "losing" in quotes because even though the executives of the Big 3 and the Type-A fanboys seem to think so, it isn't a competition). Trash talk in competition is natural; all three companies are guilty of it. But Sony seems to be doing it more than the others. Microsoft is not innocent of this; I'll be talking about their offense later in this post. It's just that Sony seems to have the most to say.

It's understandable that they'd be upset about losing the exclusivity of Final Fantasy XIII, but bashing Microsoft for "currying developers" is just dumb. For one thing, Microsoft doesn't neet to "curry developers" to make the 360 an appealing platform; it's outselling the PS3 by a wide margin, and THAT'S why Square Enix made their decision.

It's also preposterous to say that Metal Gear Solid 4 would be impossible on the 360. It might be different (possibly on multiple discs, for example), but not impossible; they're making Dead Rising for Wii, after all (and no fanboys or companies seem to have any problem with that, which surprises me). And who says having multiple discs is a bad thing? I want to remind Sony and its Type-A fanboys that both the original Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII ran on multiple discs, and they did pretty well. Is Sony going to say that those games were bad? I doubt it.

And finally, there's Kaz Hirai saying in a very assholish way that just like the PS1 and PS2, the PS3 will keep selling well as its competitors die. Yeah, there's just one problem with that: the PS1 and PS2 outsold their competitors from the very beginning, while the PS3 has never been in the lead. The PS1 and PS2 didn't gain their leads at the end of their "console wars"; they just kept the leads they already had. And it's a lot easier to keep a lead than to gain one. The continued success of the PS2 is a result of its consistently large fan base, which the PS3 currently does not have. As time goes on, people aren't going to magically decide that the PS3 is for them. Whatever Sony's doing now is not working, and rather than just sitting around and saying "we're the best and you will love us," they should actually work on making that true. The PS3 won't sell well simply because it follows the PS1 and PS2; it's foolish of them to count on that.

Again, while Sony seems to be doing this bullshit the most, they're not alone. Recently Microsoft denied that Miis had any influence on its upcoming "Avatars" for the 360, and also downplayed the idea of Playstation Home, saying they're "not holding their breath". Not quite as inflammatory as what Sony said, but obviously not true. There's nothing wrong with being influenced by your competitors, as long as you just admit it.

Nintendo hasn't really said anything of this sort lately, but that doesn't mean they haven't said it. I'm too lazy to go back through archives of gaming news blogs to find examples, but I'm sure they exist. If anyone knows of any, please comment on this post so I can add them to the article.

This kind of talk is what's fueling the Type-A Fanboys and making the gamer community segmented and angry. The more I hear this kind of talk, the more I worry that these companies don't care about the wellbeing and happiness of their fans at all. All companies care more about making money than pretty much anything else; that's why they're companies. But I like to think they put the happiness of their fans as a high priority too. If they keep talking like this, I'll start to believe that they want us to fight with each other, and that's not cool.