Michael Ephraim
Michael Ephraim is the Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and he is apparently "pissed", according to a piece on the Australian Smarthouse site.
The piece begins by titling Ephraim as "The boss of Sony Computer entertainment (sic)" rather than MD of the Australian operation - which is a region of SCEE, the president of which is David Reeves. Reeves in turn reports to the actual 'boss' of Sony Computer Entertainment, Kaz Hirai ("President and Group Chief Operating Officer, Sony Computer Entertainment" to be exact).
Ephraim was responding to a Smarthouse article that had accused SCE Australia of "price gouging" - artificially keeping the price of the PS3 inflated.
The original article stated, among other things: "When the PS3 was launched, Sony deliberately designed it so that it was not backward compatible. Instead the Company tried to get two bites of the cherry by continuing to sell the PS2 as a low cost console and the PS3 as a premium console, thus forcing die hard gamers to buy a new Sony PS3 console and new PS3 compatible games."
This is referring to the Australian PS3 launch - which featured limited compatibility with PS2 titles.
Ephraim apparently phoned Smarthouse owner and the author of the pieces, David Richards, and let rip. According to Richards, Ephraim said "I am fed up of Sony being bashed we are not price gouging neither do we have regional codes in our software. I am calling in our lawyers as we are not in any way price gouging Australian consumers. This is misleading. We have to factor in exchange rates etc".
The piece continues in that vein. The mention of 'regional codes' refers to an element of the original feature - since removed - that stated PS3 software is region locked. It isn't. Bear in mind, however, that Smarthouse also reported that the PS4 was 18 months away. That report was in May of 2007.
How about Microsoft and Toshiba's joint-box with built-in HD DVD... due for release "in 2008 or at the 2009 CES show in Las Vegas"? Or, what of Xbox 360 with built-in Blu-ray for May 2008?
The question does remain, however, as to when and how SCE will enable SCEE (including Australia) to price cut the PS3 in order to make it competitive with the Xbox 360. We would also like to know if support for the PS2 will extend beyond Ephraim's stated cut-off, February 2009.
The piece begins by titling Ephraim as "The boss of Sony Computer entertainment (sic)" rather than MD of the Australian operation - which is a region of SCEE, the president of which is David Reeves. Reeves in turn reports to the actual 'boss' of Sony Computer Entertainment, Kaz Hirai ("President and Group Chief Operating Officer, Sony Computer Entertainment" to be exact).
Ephraim was responding to a Smarthouse article that had accused SCE Australia of "price gouging" - artificially keeping the price of the PS3 inflated.
The original article stated, among other things: "When the PS3 was launched, Sony deliberately designed it so that it was not backward compatible. Instead the Company tried to get two bites of the cherry by continuing to sell the PS2 as a low cost console and the PS3 as a premium console, thus forcing die hard gamers to buy a new Sony PS3 console and new PS3 compatible games."
This is referring to the Australian PS3 launch - which featured limited compatibility with PS2 titles.
Ephraim apparently phoned Smarthouse owner and the author of the pieces, David Richards, and let rip. According to Richards, Ephraim said "I am fed up of Sony being bashed we are not price gouging neither do we have regional codes in our software. I am calling in our lawyers as we are not in any way price gouging Australian consumers. This is misleading. We have to factor in exchange rates etc".
The piece continues in that vein. The mention of 'regional codes' refers to an element of the original feature - since removed - that stated PS3 software is region locked. It isn't. Bear in mind, however, that Smarthouse also reported that the PS4 was 18 months away. That report was in May of 2007.
How about Microsoft and Toshiba's joint-box with built-in HD DVD... due for release "in 2008 or at the 2009 CES show in Las Vegas"? Or, what of Xbox 360 with built-in Blu-ray for May 2008?
The question does remain, however, as to when and how SCE will enable SCEE (including Australia) to price cut the PS3 in order to make it competitive with the Xbox 360. We would also like to know if support for the PS2 will extend beyond Ephraim's stated cut-off, February 2009.
Companies:
SCEE
Read More Like This
Comments
wandos 27 Jan 2009 19:42
1/1
If you read the smart house web story, its quite funny. At one point it states something like.......And when we asked him to justify why Sony had not been able to make a super duper console that actually made some money, he refused to answer the question.....
Im not sure who this reporter guy thinks he is...At one point hes slaggin them off for not makeing money on the console, then hes saying drop the price....just seemed a bit unprofessional.
Anyway thats a side track. I would have thought that the plan would be to loose the most money on the consoles that are in the place of biggest competition (ie USA , microsofts home) if you know what i mean (probably not explained that very well) At the end of the day, they must be happy with the amount sold in Austrailia, otherwise they would drop the price to the same, unless theres extra costs somewhere else. sorry for the spelling, in a rush .
Im not sure who this reporter guy thinks he is...At one point hes slaggin them off for not makeing money on the console, then hes saying drop the price....just seemed a bit unprofessional.
Anyway thats a side track. I would have thought that the plan would be to loose the most money on the consoles that are in the place of biggest competition (ie USA , microsofts home) if you know what i mean (probably not explained that very well) At the end of the day, they must be happy with the amount sold in Austrailia, otherwise they would drop the price to the same, unless theres extra costs somewhere else. sorry for the spelling, in a rush .