Robbie Bach: Xbox 360's Success Down to Sony's Mistakes
Admits Microsoft got a bit lucky with publisher support.
Former Xbox executive-turned philanthropist Robbie Bach has been talking about the success of the Xbox 360 under his tenure as the head of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division. He puts the winning formula down to making friends with developers and publishers - but also says that Sony's mistakes had just as much a part to play.
"[Sony] mismanaged [its] 70 per cent market share," Bach said at the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, outlining a number of "not so smart" decisions that the Japanese giant made during its generational leap. "The transition to PlayStation 3 was really, really bad. And really hard.
"They mismanaged their partners, they mismanaged their cost structure. They made their next platform so complicated that developers couldn't develop for it." On the other hand, Bach explained that Microsoft received perhaps a bit more support from partners than it should have. Part of that is being the "only" competition out there.
"You need friends. It's just the way life works. It turned out we were able to convince retailers and publishers like Activision, Electronic Arts and others, that it was a good thing for Microsoft to be successful, because if we were not successful, the only game in town was Sony.
"Being dependent on somebody else was bad for them, and so they supported us disproportionately to what they should have, mathematically."
Source: GeekWire
"[Sony] mismanaged [its] 70 per cent market share," Bach said at the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, outlining a number of "not so smart" decisions that the Japanese giant made during its generational leap. "The transition to PlayStation 3 was really, really bad. And really hard.
"They mismanaged their partners, they mismanaged their cost structure. They made their next platform so complicated that developers couldn't develop for it." On the other hand, Bach explained that Microsoft received perhaps a bit more support from partners than it should have. Part of that is being the "only" competition out there.
"You need friends. It's just the way life works. It turned out we were able to convince retailers and publishers like Activision, Electronic Arts and others, that it was a good thing for Microsoft to be successful, because if we were not successful, the only game in town was Sony.
"Being dependent on somebody else was bad for them, and so they supported us disproportionately to what they should have, mathematically."
Source: GeekWire
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