The lighter side of "hype"
John Hokanson Jr
isamu@usagi.comThose of you that read my editorial "Stolar’s Stumble" will recall I briefly touched upon the many counterproductive blunders that the staff at SOA (Bernard Stolar in particular) have/had made.
Well I’d like to take the time to refine one of those points. This concerns what we commonly refer to as: hype.
Hype. Seems like such a harmless word, such a harmless institution doesn’t it? Despite all the bashing people do concerning it, it ultimately helps any product. This includes video games, and video game consoles. It was actually lack of hype which strangled the Saturn to death in North America.
Three things sell to the American public:
Gratuitous Sex. Wanton acts of Violence. And Hype (Oh and good marketing helps, but we’ll file that under hype).
Now we could sit here and debate the endless numbers of evils that ensue with Hype, or we could actually wise up and admit that from a sales standpoint, your average audience member is too naive to know better. With that said, I present you exhibit A:
"Speculation about any future technology has to be tempered with the fact that we believe we’re not even 25% done with the original Playstation yet. Whatever method you use to calculate sales, we’re doing great."
- Phil Harrison Sony’s vice president of 3rd party affairs and R&D in an interview with Next Generation.
I don’t know Phil personally, but I like the guy already. By all accounts he’s exactly what Stolar should have been. Of course, what he’s saying it utter bulls*it (The PlayStation has an inception date of September 9th 1995, and if you think it’s going to last for another 6+ years, you need to wake up) but that’s the point. It’s statements like these that give developers confidence in the stability of a certain product. If a company appears devoted to their machine, and willing to accept 3rd party development with open arms, how can you loose? That goes double for the consumer. Hey, if I didn’t know any better, I’d go out right now and buy a PlayStation (instead, I want to wait until it falls in price one more time).
Now exhibit B (This one I love):
"There is nothing to suggest, in any future, near or medium- term, that PlayStation is going to run out of steam. So we’re not even considering a next generation at this time."
For the most part this is just verbatim. Instilling a sense of confidence (as mislead as it may be) in both the consumer and developer. "Medium term" of course is entirely subjective. That could mean anything from six months to another 2 years, but at least Sony’s not insulting the intelligence of game players by totally denouncing a Next-Gen console outright. You *can* lie and make it look good, you know. ^_^
Now we all know that Sony already has the tentative specs for their PlayStation 2 (or whatever the hell the final production name will be) on the drawing board. I’m mentioning this to prove a point. The difference between Stolar and Harrison is like night and day. Harrison is doing something that will likely keep the PSX going right up until the PSX2 is released and likely far beyond. Stolar on the other hand…. Well let’s just say that if I ever met him on the street, the first thing I would ask is "Did you ever graduate from business school?".
Sony’s elaborate smoke screen is going to pay off. They are talking the talk, and I have no doubts that they can and yes, *will* walk the walk (Until Blackbelt, oops I mean Dural….. oh wait……Excuse me, Katana is released, in which case Sony of Japan’s engineering and R&D departments will have to shift into high gear or face being buried under the 64 bit onslaught. Thus is the perpetual motion of the video gaming industry).
Is hype evil? That’s up for you to decide. But hype should be measured and judged on a case by case basis. Sometimes it’s a good thing. I think I’ve demonstrated to you that it either extends the life of a product, or regulates it to the bargain bins. Hey, look at how well FFVII is doing in the US?
And in closing, I'd like to leave you with this:
"Well, there is a checklist of technology that everybody seems to talk about at the moment. This stuff is considered cutting edge now, be we know from Sony's view of the world, that it will appear old hat very quickly. So anybody who tries to place a stake in the ground today and predict the future has got to be very brave indeed. And I'm not gonna be first to do that."
If you've ever owned a Genesis, SegaCD, 32X, or Saturn, mentioning what this does (or rather doesn't mean) is a moot point. Sega's "let's be first out of the gate" approach will ultimately be their downfall. To mention that likely Katana won't be as powerful as PSX2 is redundant. Of course Sony's system will likely be better. How can it not be with intelligent management such as Phil's?
Sega should fire Stolar and get in touch with those English scientists that cloned that sheep earlier this year. And then they should sit down and closely scrutinize Sony's business model. As much as you may feel you're betraying loyalty to Sega (And if you do, you need to re-examine yourself lest you be labeled bias), or as much as we hate to admit it's true, Sony's business model *works*.
The opinions of John Hokanson Jr. are not the opinions of DaveZ's Sega Saturn page. As a freelance writer, John Hokanson makes no guarantees as to the accuracy of his information. He does not however, knowingly or intentionally spread misinformation. Mr. Hokanson is NOT an English major, so don't expect everything to be grammatically correct. Gripes, complaints, corrections, and death threats from anti-sega zealots, or intelligent, mature individuals alike may be sent to: isamu@usagi.com. Have a nice day. ^_^