While it’s no surprise that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 team would want to give its rivals a friendly prod or three in the hopes of redirecting the console war, I was struck by the recent comments of Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for the Xbox 360 Group, not only because of their tone, but because most of them are spot-on.
At the tail end of an interview with Destructoid — in which Microsoft primarily patted itself on the back for Grand Theft Auto IV’s success — Greenberg let loose with a flurry of criticism directed at the PS3:
Lastly, the PlayStation 3 has a number of important exclusive titles — potential system sellers — coming in 2008, including Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (along with, of course, PlayStation Home). Is Microsoft confident that its slate of releases this year will be enough to combat what many perceive is a slowly growing momentum for Sony’s black box? And do you think that the hype behind (and success of) GTA IV will be able to sustain the 360 until its own heavy hitters come along?
I know a lot of folks enjoy watching the console wars and we would never underestimate our competition. But answer to your question specifically, didn’t Sony promise all of this last year including Home as well? We have been fighting Sony’s promises from the day we entered the market and if you remember at that time it was all about PS2 being an online cybercity with partner announcements from the likes of RealNetworks and AOL. Then three years ago at E3 they showed what PS3 games would supposedly look like with the Killzone 2 video, that we are now learning will ship four years later. That means that we will have shipped Gears of War and Gears of War 2 before they can even get Killzone out the door. Think back to GDC 2007 when Sony promised to leap ahead in online with the Sony Home unveil. Here we are two years later and multiple delays for a product that has appears to have little to no buzz. Where are the achievements? The friends list integration across all games? Where is the long-promised video store? Where are all the other products using and networking with their CELL chip? How come Blu-ray did not result in better games? What happened with Sixaxis and rumble? Where is the complete 1080p game library we were promised? If Blu-ray as they said would be such a catalyst to PS3 console sales, then why have PS3 sales over the past couple months not seen any lift since the format victory?
While we’re unsure if this sort of direct attack on a competitor is considered professional behavior for a Microsoft executive, perhaps that’s exactly why it’s so compelling; he sounds more like a jaded PS3 owner, and every one of his points reminds me why I’ve yet to purchase one of the black monoliths myself.
That said, it’s not like the Xbox 360 doesn’t have massive holes in its armor either — the very same Aaron Greenberg struggled back in March to address the PS3’s greatly increased chances at success. And because we strive to be equal opportunity offenders here at GameCyte, we’ll just leave you with a reminder that the Wii has work cut out for it as well.
Editor’s Note: It’s only been one year (and two months, and two days) since the Home unveiling at GDC 2007.
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