Earlier this week, Sony received some good news from analysts at the Yankee Group, who said that the PS3 would take the lead in the next gen console wars by the year 2011. Kaz Hirai, SCEA CEO, responded to the report and made remarks on what he sees as an uphill struggle to maintain market share in a recent interview with GameSpot.
Hirai was encouraged by the report, but also cognizant that Sony still needs to streamline production operations on the PS3. "It’s generally a very positive report, but you can tell they’ve done a lot of their homework because there are some things that we need to work on. We’ve had those ups and downs as far as manufacturing is concerned on the console, for example, and that’s being properly addressed."
Sony has always maintained that it is the leader of the pack, as far as game console market share is concerned. But in the ever-increasing pressure of competing against two strong rivals, Hirai will be just satisfied to maintain a reasonable piece of the game console pie and maybe just a little bit more. "My plan basically is to make sure that we keep at least as much market share as we have had with the PS1 and the PS2. We don’t plan on ceding any of the market share to our competitors, especially after the cycle has gone deep… when we look back, I’d like to think that our market share will be as good–if not better–than what we’ve accomplished with the PS2 in the same kind of time frame since launch."
Hirai then stated his views about the logistics of being able to meet demand for the product. “I think it’s going to be very much of a challenge to be able to meet every single unit demand that’s out there in the market. That’s just a logistical impossibility. Unless we suddenly say, ‘Well we want to wait until June of next year to launch because we want to stockpile product,’ I don’t think that’s the approach we want to take."
