PS4 vs Xbox One: Sony Head Andrew House on ‘Shared Goal’ With Microsoft, Unparalleled Success of PlayStation
PlayStation and Xbox may be engaged in a fierce battle on the charts -- perhaps even within the fans -- but the relations between the two gaming bigwigs are better than one would expect. Being at the top of the industry has given both companies a common bond built on similar visions and goals to provide the best experience on consoles for players.
Sony Computer Entertainment president and CEO Andrew House spoke up about the famous rivalry in an interview with The Guardian. While it's undeniable that the PS4 and Xbox One are often pitted against each other, the PlayStation head said there's no bad blood between the two.
"It's reached a point of what I would describe as really healthy competition -- and I use the word 'healthy' very deliberately," House said. "I think since Phil Spencer took on leadership of [Microsoft's Xbox division], he has been very honest about their approach. He's been, in a very gentlemanly way, complimentary about us in the past."
He added, "But if you look at something like Augmented Reality for them or virtual reality for us, we're both trying to build a category overall. At the end of the day, there is a shared goal of great experiences for gamers."
Perhaps, the respect between the two was also borne out of their shared roles in the success of console gaming. There was a time that the community believed the industry was shifting to other devices, but PlayStation 4 and Xbox helped with the resurgence of the consoles.
"With this generation, we launched against a background of considerable media scepticism about the role of consoles overall," House explained about PS4. "People were saying that consoles were dead, and that mobiles and tablets were the only gaming platforms around. But what I see in the developer and publisher community is a sense of returned confidence."
There have been speed bumps along the way as fellow Sony executive Michael Ephraim recently revealed to Game Spot that the company was not able to field a strong set of first-party titles in 2015. The future looks promising for PS4 as Ephraim added, "Next year, our first party lineup looks incredible."
As Sony's latest generation console hits the 30 million sales mark, House pointed out that the PlayStation 4 is now more successful than even the acclaimed PlayStation 2 saying, "We remain well ahead of the PlayStation 2 at the same point in its life-cycle. That, to me, is almost more important than market share and rivalry with Microsoft. The question is whether you're growing the category overall, and whether it is vibrant."
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