Shahid Kamal Ahmad is a name you might have heard over the past year or so. As Senior Business Development Manager for Sony Computer Entertainment’s European division, he’s held the spotlight a fair few times in the run up to PS4 launch. back in August he took to the stage at Sony’s Gamescom briefing, and previously built up a reputation for getting indie games onto the company’s platforms.
But how does he feel about the never-ending console ‘war’ with rival Microsoft and the Xbox One? Turns out he likes it a lot.
Ahmad recently posted a series of tweets offering his views on PS4 vs Xbox One. The verdict? It’s not a war, it’s a business ecosystem and it’s great.
“The hardware was always going to be close,” Ahmad wrote. “The ecosystem is healthy. Good. It’s attitude that counts the most. I’ll carry on working on that.”
A later tweet read: “I’ve not called it a war in a very long time. It’s not a war. It’s a huge business; an ecosystem – and there’s room for us all. Gamers win.”
Ahmad’s colleagues Adam Boyes and Shuhei Yoshida recently congratulated Microsoft on a successful launch over the social network. The Xbox One launched on Friday and shifted a million units in less than 24 hours. The company’s Phil spencer had congratulated Sony on the PS4 North American launch last week.
“I gave a talk for TIGA’s “Battle of the Platforms” at Shoreditch House last year,” Ahmed continued. “Imagine the surprise when I fired no shots, just flowers.”
“At #LGC13, I alluded to the new business. In an era of massive change, trust is a better strategy than mistrust.”
Despite Ahmad’s comments, Sony has fired a few shots at it’s rival in the past few months. It’s E3 presentation took direct aim at the Xbox One’s then-inability to play used games and require consistent online logins. Then again at Gamescom it quipped about Xbox ‘shifting its strategy’ after reversing the previous restrictions.
Still, Ahmad continued: “Forging relationships based on mutual trust and minimal friction suits the environment. It’s not fluffy at all. It’s *the* growth strategy.”
Gaming’s other big players, Nintendo, weren’t left out either: “At the UKIE offices for the @IndieGamesCol talk, I played a song for Nintendo and talked about the history of MS in my family life.”
“This isn’t a gimmick for us. This is as real as it gets,” Ahmad concluded.
The PS4 launches in the EU and other territories next Friday, November 29th, though it won’t hit its native Japan until February 2014.
Source: Twitter
