The officials from Microsoft and Sony are caught in a new war of words. It all started when Kazuo Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment boss, shared his thoughts about PS3’s competitors in an interview for Official PlayStation Magazine.
Eurogamer.com reported that during the interview, Hirai had a hard time trying to find a word to describe Xbox 360. Though, he managed to come up with something.
"And with the Xbox - again, I can't come up with one word to fit. You need a word that describes something that lacks longevity," Hirai said.
What he tried to say is basically that PS3 is more complex and it has more to offer compared to Xbox 360.
Hirai also dismissed the selling units as criteria to judge the success of a gaming console and stated that despite being on the third place, PS3 is the official leader of gaming industry.
"This is not meant in terms of numbers, or who's got the biggest install base, or who's selling most in any particular week or month, but I'd like to think that we continue official leadership in this industry” Hirai stated. Hirai also took a shot at Nintendo Wii, which according to Sony boss, can’t be even considered a competitor. "They're a different world, and we operate in our world - that's the kind of way I look at things," Hirai said.
In fact, the theory that Nintendo’s fan base is totally different from the one of PS3 is nothing new and it isn’t the first time when Sony tries to dismiss Wii as a direct competitor.
However, it seems like Nintendo doesn’t care too much about who’s who as long as Wii is selling like hotcakes two years after its official launch.
In fact, Kazuo Hirai noted that in ten years PS3 will be ultimate winner of the gaming war. If you wonder how they will manage to reach their goal, the answer is simple. There will be no competition left, because PS3 will not "fall by the wayside in five years" as Xbox 360.
Meanwhile, the guys from
thebitbag.com have invited Aaron Greenberg, Director of Product Management for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE, to share his thoughts about Hirai’s statements.
And Greenberg has only one thing to say about Sony. “This sounds like an old hardware company that’s comfortable with its market position”, Greenberg stated. He also noted that in his opinion the gaming war will be won not by the hardware specs, but by those who will be able to “out-innovate when it comes to online and software.”
Aaron Greenberg went further and he did a little math, even if Kazuo Hirai said he doesn’t care about the numbers.“With a U.S. install base lead now of more than 7 million units (according to NPD), I can’t imagine any scenario where the PS3 can catch up with us. In fact, even if you doubled the current PS3 sales and Xbox 360 remained flat, they couldn’t close the gap until 2014,” Greenberg said.
And, judging by numbers, he has a point. According to the latest figures released by the NPD Group, in December 2008 Microsoft has won the battle against rival Sony, after its Xbox 360 console sold 1,440,000 units, compared to just 726,000 PS3s.
However, it remains to be seen what would happen this year if Sony will cut the price of PS3, as it was rumored. Earlier this month, the Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter that Sony could cut the price of its embattled PS3 console with $100 as soon as this April. This move will definitely boost the sales of PS3, he also noted.
Last year, Sony Europe president David Reeves denied in a London conference that Sony will cut the price of the PS3 until March 2009. But he added that PS3 “will be getting more competitive in price from March 2009 onwards.”
So, grab your popcorn and get a good seat because the gaming war is far from over.
