Peter Moore, former Microsoft man and current EA Sports Cheshire Cat, has been dishing the dirt on his time with The ‘Soft, claiming that the company was “fixated” on Sony during early console strategies and barely even gave Nintendo a second glance.
“In January (2003) I flew up [to Redmond] and had lunch with Steve Ballmer and you don’t say no to Ballmer. We had a great lunch and he convinced me that Microsoft was going to take on Sony; so I get to put on my suit of armor, get on my horse and take on Sony again – but with a little bit more money this time!
… Interestingly, we were just completely fixated on Sony. Nintendo didn’t even come into the conversation. But Steve was very compelling, particularly when you’re one-on-one with him in his office – we talked about what we’d done to compete with Sony, where I felt their weaknesses were.”
Moore divulges that MS had “a little bit of concern” with Sony, and that the company’s goal was to keep its Japanese rival out of homes, both in terms of software and services. Moore also expounded on Ballmer’s attitude:
“He wanted my attitude, he didn’t care what I’d achieved at Sega, he wanted to know how I was going to win for Microsoft, how we were going to take on Sony, how would we compete with – or acquire – Nintendo. Those were the conversations in those days.”
You’ve got to love how Nintendo managed to sneak into the top spot while Microsoft was focused on Sony and dreaming of acquisition. Always the one you least suspect, eh?
