Yeah, so the headline isn't all that shocking. Nonetheless, the senior regional director of Microsoft in Ireland and the UK, Neil Thompson, isn't worried about the Playstation 3 (which finally landed in Europe last week). Speaking to Times Online, Thompson said that the PS3 poses no threat to the Xbox 360 from a technological standpoint. He says that the biggest threat Microsoft faces is Sony's well established brand presence. Technologically, Thompson notes that the PS3 has no notable features that he wishes were also in the Xbox 360. Thompson does admit that the PS3 may have a graphical advantage, but states that the Xbox 360 already outperforms the PS3's online capabilities and has a wider variety of games available..Concerning Blu-ray, Thompson says that Sony has jumped into the next generation format war prematurely, stating that the average consumer isn't ready to replace his or her DVD collection with another format. Furthermore, he notes that a regular DVD will actually play at a higher resolution on an Xbox 360 than it will on a Playstation 3. Finally, Thompson references the oft cited reasoning that the format war will be rendered moot by digital distribution in the long run anyway. Digital distribution, of course, is something the Xbox 360 already supports (very successfully, according to Microsoft).
So, an Xbox executive thinks the Xbox is top notch. No surprise there. Still, now that the new console war has gone global, we expect this isn't the last bit of executive sniping to be had.
