Above: Home, Sony's upcoming massively multiplayer virtual world for PlayStation 3. Sony says it's a killer app for its console, Microsoft says it's a vaporware boondoggle.
Who's right? God only knows at this point, but one thing's for sure: It'll be a good long while until we find out, with Sony's Kaz Hirai telling press at a recent London media event that Home won't be out until the end of the year. He also had a few more things to say about the current state of the console wars, which were followed in rapid succession by interesting comments from Electronic Arts' Peter Moore and Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg.
After that London press event, Hirai spoke to the BBC and said that, contrary to all available evidence, PlayStation 3 would reclaim the lead from not only Microsoft and Xbox 360, but Nintendo and the Wii:
Sony was able to announce that, as a first step, it had moved from third place to second in Europe. (Microsoft doesn't agree with those numbers, but we'll get to that later.) Now, even if we assume that on a long enough timeline, Sony's advantage over Xbox 360 in Europe and
Japan is going to overcome Microsoft's 4-million-unit lead in the U.S., then what Hirai is predicting here is nothing less than the complete and utter implosion of the Wii.
I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's a bold statement to make -- especially in London, where if you listened very carefully you could hear copies of Wii Fit flying off the shelves. Again: Not impossible, but there's zero evidence.
At any rate, we know where Sony stands. If it wants to get this massive turnaround going, it needs software, and it needs Home. EA Sports president Peter Moore (formerly boss of the Xbox division at Microsoft) weighed in after Hirai's speech, telling Eurogamer:
For as much as gamers are frustrated with the delay, software makers seem to be getting fed up with it as well. It's important to remember that Home isn't just a Second Life clone -- it's the evolution of Sony's online service and user interface for PlayStation 3, which is supposed to work seamlessly with all sorts of other games and features.
But all of this seems to have been prelude to an interview, which from the look of the text was done via email, with Xbox Live product management director Aaron Greenberg on Destructoid. First, Greenberg disputes Sony's claims of victory in Europe:
It doesn't really seem like it matters at this point whose numbers are exactly right, as if Sony hasn't caught up by now, it seems as if it's going to shortly. But man, Greenberg seems really ticked off at Sony. His response to Destructoid's question about Sony's lineup is worth excerpting in full insofar as I've never read anything quite like this before from a game platform executive:
Wow. While there are certainly a lot of holes to be poked in that argument -- PS3 sales are significantly up compared to the same period last year, and it certainly hasn't been two years since the* Home* announcement -- but this is quite a rant, nonetheless. A Sony executive could of course pull together something very similar for all of the dropped balls on Microsoft's part, but somehow I don't see it happening.
But really, did Microsoft really have it so difficult, this time around? While it's true that the media by and large gave Sony a free pass with PlayStation 2, the same simply cannot be said about PlayStation 3. So while Greenberg definitely seems frustrated, I have to wonder if perhaps his frustration is aimed not only at Sony's empty promises but also at his own company's inability to deliver the knockout punch even when their rival was up against the ropes.
Microsoft, somehow, is letting Sony keep fighting in the battle for second place even without exclusive killer apps. What happens when it has them?
Image: Sony
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