So No 3D (Or Marketshare) For PSP2, Then?
THEY CALL ME KAZ
Oh Kaz, you silly little man:
“A portable with naked eye 3D does not have high precision, according to internal research,” Hirai said in an interview with Sankei Biz. “Presently, there are limits.”
Yes, limits on Sony’s imagination that has, already I’d wager, put the PSP2 6′ under while banking on glasses-based 3D tech (at some small1 cost) for the PS3 which will be dead and gone within 5 years–even on large displays.2
Seriously: did Hirai actually think for a minute that the tech incorporated into the 3DS would be gimmicky crap? We’re talking about the follow-up console to what will soon be the best-selling game machine of all time and to believe Nintendo would do anything but get it right you’d have to be either a raving fanboy, the current president of Sony Computer Entertainment or Ken Kataragi.4
1 And by “small” I mean in the ‘mere’ four figures…during a crippling, worldwide, recession. Oh, who am I kidding: even in 2005′s economy (when everyone was using their house to finance a fleet of Ferraris) that price would have painted Sony as completely insane and, once again, using their game biz to try to shore up their other units3–in this case 3D TVs–is borderline suicidal.)
2 I can remember when Sony was actually capable of innovation: when they brought out stuff like the Walkman and PlayStation. Now they’re reduced to hocking their wares to the very affluent/rich which guarantees they’ll never soar to the heights of PS1/2 ever again.
3 Blu-ray really worked out well for them, as they claw and scrape for a distant, second, place, right?
4 Then again, Sony completely fubared the PS3, so maybe he’s just working from experience on this score.
He’d have been better off saying he hates innovation/gimmicks. At least then he could appeal to the (shrinking) niche that rejects concepts like touchscreens and 3D. But he could never do that, because Sony *does* believe in such things (hence their half-hearted plans for 3D on PS3). They’re just not good enough to pull the concept off. And they’ve now admitted as much.
Even worse, he’s laid a challenge out there on the public table. If Nintendo does 3D well — and I think they will — then Nintendo will look like geniuses, and Sony will look like incompetents.
This isn’t the first time Hirai has said something dumb. Sony really needs a smarter mouthpiece.
He’s actually an improvement over “let them eat cake and get a second job” Kutaragi. That’s really not saying much, though.