Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai talked to Dean Takahashi at E3 about the PS3 post-announcement, about pricing and their plans for the next generation of gaming. Hirai felt generally positive about the announcement, generally expressing that Sony was able to stay on message for the press. Of course, the question of price came up, and Kaz’s response basically parroted the Sony party line, saying “We get no breaks. If we didn’t say the price, you would be all over us for that. I think that is the right price for what we’re bringing to consumers.” But of course, the price has been an issue, and has really dominated the conversation about the PS3. While Sony might have felt like they were in a lose-lose situation on the price announcement, putting such large numbers out there has really made any discussion about the Playstation 3 in the media start with the cost, pushing their positives to the side.

Also discussed was the impression of arrogance that Sony gave at the press conference; to some extent Sony has earned a little arrogance in the gaming arena, since dominating with both the original Playstation and the Playstation 2, but to say that Sony “ushered in the era of the CD-ROM and 3-D” pushes things a little bit. A small measure of arrogance from the current leader can help, but there’s a fine line between enough and too much, and a lot of gamers feel that Sony has counted on their mindshare a little too much in this generation.

Overall, Sony wanted their message to be about the content, and about the advantages that Cell and Blu-ray will bring to the next generation. Sony wants to extend the console lifecycle, and expand the market, but these messages were seemingly easily lost in the uproar over the cost that gamers will pay to play with Sony this holiday season.

Read More | Mercury News