Doing a top 10 list of blunders from the past year automatically means you’re going to omit countless incidents that are very worthy of being discussed in the conversation, but Next Gen has narrowed down the list to their top 10 blunders of 2007.
Crowd favorites like Nintendo’s apparent disbelief that the Wii would pull an Energizer Bunny and keep on selling and selling, the horrible bargain that was the Xbox 360 Elite, and Jack Tretton’s claim that he would give $1,200 to anyone who could find a PS3 sitting on store shelves in North America for more than five minutes. Penny-Arcade was quick to set up a retirement fund based purely on Tretton’s claim.
Of the ten finalists, my personal favorite came in at #8, which was regarding Sony’s many different PlayStation 3 SKUs, just barely edging out Shane Kim’s disbelief that RE5 for 360 was announced prior to E3 ’07. All those PS3 SKUs have been released in spite of the fact that Phil Harrison once stated, “I think we wouldn’t take that [multiple SKU] strategy. We wouldn’t’ want to create confusion,” in response to the 360’s (at the time) two SKU setup.
As the image above outlines, that didn’t exactly pan out.
Read the full list here.
6 Comments to Top Games Industry Blunders of 2007
by: Norbit
On December 27, 2007 at 5:36 pm
1) Xbox 360 Core
Xbox 360 Arcade
2) Xbox 360 20gb
3) Xbox 360 20gb + HDMI
4) Xbox 360 Premium
5) Xbox 360 Premium + HDMI
6) Xbox 360 Elite
7) Xbox 360 Console Halo 3 Special Edition
lol
by: Chris
On December 27, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I think the Crux is, Norbit, that Microsoft never said they were NOT going to have multiple SKUs.
by: Chris
On December 27, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Also, as you may or may not know, “crux” is not a proper noun and should therefore not be capitalized.
by: Joelteon7
On December 27, 2007 at 5:57 pm
“As each model cuts features, analysts expect the final version to be just a stylish, shiny black box that does nothing more than take tens and twenties in through the disc slot.”
That had me in stitches. 40 PS3′s…now THAT’s consumer investigation.
@ Norbit – It’s not really funny, because you do do that in most of your posts anyhow. At least there are still 3. The sales assisstants behind the counter of a local gamestore once confused a Wii with a PS3. The irony that it’s the biggest games-only retail store in the country is just brimming.
Anyhow, that chart is funny. It took me a second to notice the Blu-ray. Ahh, good stuff.
by: ManOfTeal
On December 28, 2007 at 8:11 am
Norbit is on Sony’s payroll
by: Kspraydad
On December 30, 2007 at 11:44 pm
@Joelteon7…
Confused a Wii with a PS3? That’s odd…thought it was generally confused with a Gamecube.
As for SONY’s multiple SKUs…Is it not the case that in the majority of the world there IS only one current sku?