Hmm. The more you live, the more you realize what little you really know. Ask Erykah Badu about it, she'll tell ya (see On & On). It's 2009 and the 7th generation of videogame consoles has been going on for a little over 3 years. The big players in this market race as well as their market positions are well known by now: Nintendo #1, Microsoft #2, Sony #3. For the year of 2008 it seemed that Sony and Microsoft would battle vigorously for the #2 position with Sony desperately trying to hold their fading status as industry champ and Microsoft positioning themselves as Sony's usurping replacement. The whole reason for Microsoft's entry into this business was to challenge Sony's encroachment on their wide-ranging business goals after all. The XBox 360's early headstart was in part aimed to throw off Sony's goals for the PlayStation 3.
Well according to a new book, Sony may have inadvertently helped Microsoft get the edge on them. Read on to find out more...
IBM engineers David Shippy and Mickie Phipps wrote the book "The Race for a New Game Machine" which spells out how research specified for Sony's Cell microprocessor, a highlited feature of their PlayStation 3 console, ended up directly aiding the development of Microsoft's XBox 360 processor. Check out this excerpt from a recent Wall Street Journal article on the subject:
"All three of the original partners had agreed that IBM would eventually sell the Cell to other clients. But it does not seem to have occurred to Sony that IBM would sell key parts of the Cell before it was complete and to Sony's primary videogame-console competitor. The result was that Sony's R&D money was spent creating a component for Microsoft to use against it.
Mr. Shippy and Ms. Phipps detail the resulting absurdity: IBM employees hiding their work from Sony and Toshiba engineers in the cubicles next to them; the Xbox chip being tested a few floors above the Cell design teams. Mr. Shippy says that he felt "contaminated" as he sat down with the Microsoft engineers, helping them to sketch out their architectural requirements with lessons learned from his earlier work on Playstation."
Development on Cell began in 2001 between partners Sony, Toshiba, and IBM and the half-decade $400 million project (not counting funds used for production facilities) was designed to overhaul perceptions on the power of a PC. IBM composed the majority of development staff (with Sony and Toshiba sending their accompanying teams to Cell's Austin, Texas HQ) and Mr. Shippy with teammate Ms. Phipps were in charge of designing the brains behind the celebrated processor which would debut in the PS3. But in late 2002, Microsoft, the newcomer to the videogaming business with 2001's XBox, asked IBM to develop the chip for their upcoming console which would become known as the XBox 360. The next year, Jeff Bennett of IBM showed Microsoft the specifications for the developing Cell core. In agreement, IBM decided to make a processor built around this core for a pleased and impressed Microsoft. Although the 3 partners — Sony, Toshiba, and IBM — agreed upon eventually selling the Cell to other clients in the future, Sony certainly wouldn't have approved selling key components of the technology before completion and most definitely not to sell it to one of their adversarial competitors.
The end result was Sony's research and development money unknowingly upending their very own product. Both Cell designs were completed on time ready for manufacturing but there were snags with the first production run. Microsoft thought ahead and already had backup manufacturing facilities to keep production smooth while Sony did not (having to wait 6 weeks to see their first chips). As a result, Microsoft actually got "Cell" before Sony did even though Cell was sponsored by Sony and was supposed to be the crown jewel of their future business plans. Coming off of the foot-in-the-door/$4 billion financial failure of the XBox, Microsoft jumpstarted the 7th generation of videogame consoles with the November 2005 debut of the XBox 360 while Sony's various delays pushed the PlayStation 3's debut back to November 2006 across from Nintendo's awe-striking Wii.
With the year long headstart, Microsoft captured the attention of technophile power graphics lovers holding them (and the 3rd party game designers who catered to them) all to themselves for a full year without challenge. In this time, they worked on shaking loose Sony's grips on international markets stealing their buyer base away piece by piece hoping to gain market momentum. Sony's rough first year on the market through inflated pricing, corporate arrogance, unexpected competition from both XBox 360 and Wii made it hard to reclaim their lost ground to Microsoft who was slowly replacing their anticipated role in the 7th gen market. However, the whole fight over this prized technology looked petty in the face of market dominance from the technologically weaker Wii who overshadowed them both in all markets. Nevertheless, both Shippy and Phipps believe that Sony and Microsoft were extremely successful in achieving their goals. Hmmm...
Anyone who believes in the mythical one-console platform needs to take a look at this story. Skulduggery is first and foremost when you're dealing with big money and contrary corporate aims. Can't have too many roosters in the henhouse. Human nature without checks and balances is always deceptive.
From Main Street to the Wall Street Journal.
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