The PS3 launch was rough. Real rough. Like, the roughest. After an executive reshuffling (that shuffled PlayStation father Ken Kutaragi out of the company), Sony seems like its on terra firma. Things are turning around! But looking back at that launch mess, current Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai says:
Well, I was not in place to decide on some of the issues for the worldwide launch, but while we were very confident – and still are – of the PS3's capabilities, we may have been a little too zealous in trying to get that message out too quickly. In other words, we can talk about all the non-game functions, features and services now because we actually have them. To say that it isn't just a games machine without being able to point to tangible things that you can show to consumers — that's a bit of a challenge. So in the US operation, which I was running at that point, our positioning was firstly as a great video game console, but I think there was a bit of a disconnect between us and Japan, when they were concentrating on the PS3's other capabilities at a time when we didn't have anything to back up that claim.
The exec quotes at that time were quite nutty — zany, even. Though, for Hirai to claim he was completely divorced from that muck is silly, really. Kaz Hirai: The Station Master [EDGE]