Sony’s CEO and President Sir Howard Stringer brushed off concerns that the PlayStation 3 video game console is too expensive, and said the company is unlikely to sell parts of its business amid the recession. Stringer, arriving at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Tuesday, described recent comments about PlayStation’s price by Robert Kotick, the CEO of video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc, as standard business tactics.
“He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer said, when asked about the comments. “He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”
Last month, Kotick told the Times of London that Activision might cease developing games for the PlayStation if Sony did not cut the price of the console, which competes with Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Wii.
“When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console,” Kotick had said.
Asked about the logic of not cutting prices, Stringer said, “I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make — how’s that for logic.”
