Sony slugs Microsoft with a heavy combination of console criticism

by Stevie Smith - Jan 20 2009, 13:00

With Microsoft Corp. claiming its Xbox 360 console holds a market lead of eight million units over Sony’s PlayStation 3, Sony executives have this week slipped horseshoes into their bloodied corporate boxing gloves with a view to ending Microsoft’s chest beating via a couple of well-placed body blows.

Aiming to curb Microsoft’s posturing by slamming a left into its exposed rib cage, Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Kaz Hirai has said Microsoft’s console “lacks longevity” and that the PlayStation 3 will emerge as the market frontrunner.

“I’d like to think that we will continue official leadership in this industry,” commented Hirai in an Official PlayStation Magazine report.

While conveniently avoiding a direct swipe at Nintendo on the (equally convenient) grounds that Sony doesn’t see the hugely dominant Wii as a direct competitor, Hirai was more than willing to lay into Microsoft.

“I can’t come up with one word to fit [the Xbox 360]. You need a word that describes something that lacks longevity,” he offered. “Last time I checked, they’ve never had a console that’s been on the market for more than four or five years and we’ve committed to a ten-year life cycle [with the PlayStation 3], so you do the math.”

Seemingly not content with leaving Microsoft gasping for air, Hirai also used the platform afforded him by the official publication by slamming home a close-quarter head butt beyond the view of the referee.

“And, unless things go really bad,” he added, “there’s no way that at the end of a life cycle our competition is going to have a higher install base.”

Not alone in his criticism of Microsoft’s home console, Kaz Hirai’s crunching blows have been swiftly followed by a stinging flurry from Sony PR manager David Wilson, who has labelled the performance of the Xbox 360 as inadequate for hosting a title such as upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive Killzone 2.

According to Wilson, “Killzone 2 has been a long time in the making, and best showcases why PlayStation 3 is the only console powerful enough to deliver a groundbreaking title of this nature.”

Wilson’s comments were issued in response to the review of Killzone 2 appearing this week in the Official PlayStation Magazine UK, which awarded the game a score of 9/10 and described it as, “Call of Duty set in double-gravity space, directed by Ridley Scott and rendered by God.”

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