Top MS Executive PR

[mckmas8808]

Stand clear if you don't like to read PR. But if you do here is enough to start a war.

Incoming! *ducks*

In an interview with industry publication MCV, Allard has once again waxed lyrical about the lack of any tangible PS3 offerings at this year’s TGS: "We don’t want to hide behind videos, we don’t want to hide behind CGI movies, we don’t want to hide behind false promises - everything we showed on stage was real. Our medium is an interactive one. Showing isn’t enough."

The Xbox VP is keen to stress that for all Sony’s hyperbole regarding next-gen specifications, Microsoft is the only company to have demonstrated a working console and games. Furthermore, Allard wonders how accurate Sony’s stated spring 2006 PS3 launch can be, given that little in the way of firm announcements regarding the console have been made as yet:
"There’s a big gap between what Sony claims and what they’ve shown. You might have thought our X05 presentation was a bit on long side, but they’ll need an eight-hour press conference pretty soon just to give people confidence in that [...] date they’ve mentioned. There’s a lot of stuff they just don’t have in place yet. They make nice movies, though."

Almost as if the MS boys have some kind of running bet to see which one of them can be feistiest in public, Robbie Bach also raises a questioning brow, pondering gleefully: "I was stunned they didn’t announce anything at E3 or TGS. Whatever they do, they’re going to be chasing us for a long, long time."

Wow there will be alot of mud slinging going on come next year. It's the battle of the fittest. Do you agree with their comments?

Link http://www.xboxaddict.com/

 

[jvd]

Allard has a point .

Esp in regards to blue ray .

Is the format even finalized yet ?

How about the rsx , has it been finilized and taped out ?

 

[NavNucST3]

[rant not directed at anyone in particular]

I truly wish the term "war" was dropped from the everyday jargon, I have always found it offensive to those of us who have bled, cried and almost died in the fields of what could TRULY be called wars, or in some of our cases (non-descript actions) [/rant]

On a milder note, its one of the things he is paid to do. No harm, no foul. I am sure at the end of the month we will here the retort from the Sony camp.

 

[seismologist]

just because they released a new console doesn't mean they're not still chasing Sony.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

It's PR, nothing new... in fact I think this is just a rehash of an old PR statement. MS just better hope their statements don't comeback to bite them... not that anyone other than the internet would really care.

 

[mckmas8808]

Internet only will care and nobody else won't. I just don't see why they need to say this stuff. They know that Sony will have games don't they? They talk as if Sony isn't making anything.

And now J. Allard is acting like he personally is making Sony get better software support for the PS3.

 

[Acert93]

Tit for tat... boring!

Sony shows movies, MS shows games.

Sony's movies are jaw dropping and taunt MS, "Why doesn't you Xbox 1.5 stuff look this good?! Muwahaha".

MS jabs back, "You cannot play movies dumbass!"

Sony, "Oh yeah, TGS they will be playable--take that sucka!"

Sony rides massive wave of excitement based on killer concept footage; MS gets diehards excited but in general people are confused about their PR.

. . .

TGS rolls by, no playable PS3 games.

. . .

MS, "Ohhh you are so screwed Sony! You still don't have playable games to show!"

BOTH companies are playing their trump cards right now.

Sony: Sets bar really really high, pictures of big brother holding a little brothers teddy bar just out of reach and giggling maddly at the inability of his sibling to reach his heighth. Their silence since E3 has done nothing but help them--with no bad footage of any sort everyone assumes every PS3 game will rock. Image is everything.

MS: Feels they have a trump of their own. While Sony is sitting on their killer PR wave of E3 MS has moved forward and provided, in their estimation, great playable games. Movies?! WHO CARES! We got the real deal.

This is just the continuation of the same song... Sony rode the E3 wave all the way into fall. They tarnished it just a tad by not living up to the expectation of playable PS3's at TGS (less a few minor exceptions on dev kits). MS is playing this up as BIG as they can. They want to scuff that golden image Sony did so well to establish at E3.

Like I said: BORING. They are both playing up their strengths. Sony, wisely, is riding E3 and all the great media from E3. MS is trying to take pot shots at Sony for missing TGS and emphasizing they DO have games now.

Yawn.

 

[mckmas8808]

Don't go to sleep Acert.

 

[c0_re]

PR crap bla bla bla I can pee further than you can

I kinda see where thir comming from, from what Sony have shown at TGS and E3 they have set the bar VERY VERY VERY high for all upcomming PS3 games, people are going to wonder why all the games don't look like KillZone and MGS.

 

[Titanio]

Tit for tat... boring!

Sony shows movies, MS shows games.

Sony's movies are jaw dropping and taunt MS, "Why doesn't you Xbox 1.5 stuff look this good?! Muwahaha".

MS jabs back, "You cannot play movies dumbass!"

Sony, "Oh yeah, TGS they will be playable--take that sucka!"

Sony rides massive wave of excitement based on killer concept footage; MS gets diehards excited but in general people are confused about their PR.

. . .

TGS rolls by, no playable PS3 games.

. . .

MS, "Ohhh you are so screwed Sony! You still don't have playable games to show!"

Come on, you know it's not that simple, and you know that's not entirely accurate. Both have mixed prerendered movies into their showcases, both have shown a lot of in-engine movies (is this showing games..?), and one has shown playable games (the one that's coming this year and doesn't have two other hot products to push in the meantime). I've yet to see anyone quote Sony on the "promise" of playable PS3 games at TGS either (it's come up before, and maybe I've missed the part where that was proven beyond Kutaragi's statement at the PSM that PS3 games "may" be playable at TGS).

I do get your main point though - it is silly, boring, tit-for-tat PR.

 

[_phil_]

i think Allard is ultimately working for Sony.The question is does he know it.

 

[London Geezer]

-my dick is bigger than yours!
-no mine is bigger!
-bullshit! you're holding it at the base it's not fair!
-you had viagra how is that fair!?


blah blah blah...

 

[Gholbine]

Closer to the Xbox 360 release, I liked J. Allard because he was sedate and quite about the competition, no mud-slinging whatsoever. Now he's just like the rest, spewing PR left right and center. It's a shame.

 

[expletive]

just because they released a new console doesn't mean they're not still chasing Sony.

That Bach comment was taken out of context, i believe he was talking specifically about an online strategy.

I tend to believe him on this though only becuase developers seem to know nothing about Sony's online plans or prefer the MS strategy. If Devs dont know about it how is it going to be in any games (or at least 1st gen titles)?

IMO SOny has done a good job being as quiet as they have up until this point, just showing things they know will create buzz and excitement about their console.

That, however, could all backfire if they dont deliver playable games that live up to the hype theyve generated.

Only time will tell...

J

 

[expletive]

Come on, you know it's not that simple, and you know that's not entirely accurate. Both have mixed prerendered movies into their showcases, both have shown a lot of in-engine movies (is this showing games..?), and one has shown playable games (the one that's coming this year and doesn't have two other hot products to push in the meantime).

I do get your main point though - it is silly, boring, tit-for-tat PR.

I have much less of a problem with a company showing concept pre-rendered movies when theyre also providing 100 kiosks of actual playable games though (and i blieve thats the point MS is trying to drive home).

I think when you show ONLY movies it sets the expectation that all the games will look like that, when in fact that could be misleading. OTOH, when you show both you can say "we think this game will look like this, but in the meantime you can still judge the actual system based on these actual games over here" I think theres abig difference there and saying MS 'shows movies too' doesnt really address the main argument.

I actually dont think this is just boring PR, i think theres a REAL reason why they are making these kind of comments. (I also liked it when MS was more quiet and professional.) They are trying to force Sony to release information and games by their rules, not by Sony's, possibly forcing Sony to engage in this new generation before theyre ready. I assume theyre hoping that doing this will force Sony to show some stuff ebfore theyre fully 'baked'.

J

 

[_phil_]

perhaps MS actually regrets badly to have shown in progress stuff.Now they try to capitalize on that error.Sony plays "nextgen isn't there yet ,but you can sense it comming"

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't understand the need to see working games this early. We've seen vids of programs working on Cell, so know software is being written. And what's the point in showing games running on underspec'd devkits? Just makes them look bad. If Sony don't show working consoles some months before PS3's supposed Spring release then perhaps there's cause to be concerned that the hardware won't be ready in time. But showing a Dual-PPC, ATi GPU 'PC' running software is no more demoing your final working hardware than not showing anything. How many shows have MS done where they've shown working consoles including Xenos GPU's? What was the earliest and how far from the console's launch was it?

I'd rather wait and see games running on the actual hardware than any amount of WIP's running on prototype devkits. MS's E3 showings were not indicative of their console's final capabilities and left them looking the underdog. They were showcasing a 'PowerMac', not the XB360 with it's custom CPU and GPU. What's the point in that?

The only concern is if the movies shown aren't indicative of what's in game. If the movies were fictitious vaporware just to steal MS's thunder, but the real machines weren't capable of that level of performance, than MS's point makes sense. That is Sony aren'r releasing realtime playables to hide the fact they lied about their hardware's performance. That seems to be MS's take on this. OR at least, what they're reporting. But we're being informed what we're seeing are ingame visuals, and we have seen a few interactive applications. At this juncture I say Sony hace the right idea to not show prototype hardware but wait for the real thing (and hope they have their 'rendered-to-spec' specs right )

And regards the PR, it's all meaningless PR. I was just replying to the logic of showing/not showing WIPs. I can't be arsed having any opinion of PR anymore; best to treat it as though it were never said.

 

[expletive]

I don't understand the need to see working games this early. We've seen vids of programs working on Cell, so know software is being written. And what's the point in showing games running on underspec'd devkits? Just makes them look bad. If Sony don't show working consoles some months before PS3's supposed Spring release then perhaps there's cause to be concerned that the hardware won't be ready in time. But showing a Dual-PPC, ATi GPU 'PC' running software is no more demoing your final working hardware than not showing anything. How many shows have MS done where they've shown working consoles including Xenos GPU's? What was the earliest and how far from the console's launch was it?

I'd rather wait and see games running on the actual hardware than any amount of WIP's running on prototype devkits. MS's E3 showings were not indicative of their console's final capabilities and left them looking the underdog. They were showcasing a 'PowerMac', not the XB360 with it's custom CPU and GPU. What's the point in that?

The only concern is if the movies shown aren't indicative of what's in game. If the movies were fictitious vaporware just to steal MS's thunder, but the real machines weren't capable of that level of performance, than MS's point makes sense. That is Sony aren'r releasing realtime playables to hide the fact they lied about their hardware's performance. That seems to be MS's take on this. OR at least, what they're reporting. But we're being informed what we're seeing are ingame visuals, and we have seen a few interactive applications. At this juncture I say Sony hace the right idea to not show prototype hardware but wait for the real thing (and hope they have their 'rendered-to-spec' specs right )

And regards the PR, it's all meaningless PR. I was just replying to the logic of showing/not showing WIPs. I can't be arsed having any opinion of PR anymore; best to treat it as though it were never said.

There is no reason for Sony to show working games this early, but there IS a reason for MS to WANT Sony to show working games this early. If Sony hadnt generated so much hype with the pre-rendered stuff i dont think MS would care as much.

I agree 100% that MS may have jumped the gun on showing stuff too early. And while it was discussion fodder for the hardcore online gamers (READ: US) back then, It doesnt really amtter at this point becuase the games are ultimately being judged on their (near) final incarnations. Also the general public, the ones who actually decide this 'console war' will really only ever see the best of the final versions in marketing material.

I think your comment:
"The only concern is if the movies shown aren't indicative of what's in game. If the movies were fictitious vaporware just to steal MS's thunder, but the real machines weren't capable of that level of performance, than MS's point makes sense. That is Sony aren'r releasing realtime playables to hide the fact they lied about their hardware's performance. That seems to be MS's take on this. "

Is really the core of whats going on here. I think MS feels its battling this hype machine known as Sony and they are trying 'level the playing field' by calling Sony out to show actual games. How many people in the press walked away from E3/TGS saying "Sony won that" and they didnt really show anything. Thats the kind of thing the MS is trying to avoid in the future, so theyre attempting to 'set the rules' on what is to be jedgued and and how.

Yeah its all PR bs in the end but its as fun to chat about as any of the speculation on this board.

J

 

[Sovere]

MS is obviously trying to goad Sony into dealing their hand but I doubt it's going to work. The silent game has worked wonders for Nintendo until they finally released the controller. If you don't finish a sentence people tend to want to know the rest of the sentence. Giving people a little taste will leave them hungering for more. Sony knows the game and they are going to play the games till the cows come home. Leave them guessing is the game that Sony and Nintendo use with this strategy some will be a little disappointed by the end results but more interest is instilled. MS and Sony have totally opposite ways of marketing and I must say the real war (if you can call it that) will be who can hype the product better. It's going to be a very interesting genertation to say the least.

 

[Titanio]

I have much less of a problem with a company showing concept pre-rendered movies when theyre also providing 100 kiosks of actual playable games though (and i blieve thats the point MS is trying to drive home).

I think when you show ONLY movies it sets the expectation that all the games will look like that, when in fact that could be misleading.

I'm puzzled by this comment as it applies to everything shown for PS3 thusfar. We have had the likes of Killzone, but then we've also had games like Fifth Phantom Saga at E3 etc. It's not like Sony suppressed poorer quality vids in order to mislead people into thinking "all games will look like that" i.e. the Killzones of this world.

From our point of view, it'd be GREAT if Sony showed playable stuff at TGS at least, but it's not difficult to understand why they want to wait longer from both a marketing and a technical perspective. I'm not going to comment specifically on something like Killzone, but once playable games are shown, I think it's..hopeful (?) to expect them to look significantly different from many of their respective trailers thusfar (a perverse hope at that, IMO). I'm pretty sure Heavenly Sword will look like that. That I-8 will look like that. That MGS4 will look like that. That Warhawk will look like that. That Gundam will look like that (note the transition from CG to realtime there). That Fight Night will look like that. Etc. Etc. Some people seem to be clinging to Killzone as if it's something that ALL games need to meet, or as bar Sony set for ALL games (all these "sony better hope the games look like killzone" BS comments). That's nonsense. The most you can say about that vid is that it's the bar Sony set for Killzone. And that's it!