MS laughs in Sony's face

Microsoft's Shane Kim has played down the significance of Sony's recent PS3 announcements, claiming that the company will not be changing its ongoing Xbox 360 strategy.

"I have a philosophy: leaders don't react," Kim told OXM.co.uk.

"For us, Sony's announcement doesn't change anything. We've had a very clear strategy for a long time now and we're not going to change that. We're not going to react to anything that they do."

"Of course, there are strategic announcements in our game plan and if we've done it right they'll have some impact on Sony," Kim continued.

"But we're not sitting down and thinking, 'Okay, what's the best way to hurt PS3?' We'll do things our way, Sony will do it theirs, and the customers will decide."

Kim went on to take a potshot at Sony's showcase at E3 last year, which included concept videos said to be of PS3 games. "We didn't want to go out to E3 and show a bunch of rendered videos that wouldn't necessarily reflect reality. Sony has created that expectation and we'll have to see if they can deliver on it," Kim said, adding: "We'll have real content at E3, real games that people can go out and get their hands on."

Sony yesterday announced plans to launch the PlayStation 3 simultaneously in Japan, the US and Europe this November - something which Kim believes will not be easy. "They said they'll launch worldwide? We'll see if they can pull it off. It's very challenging."

However, despite the fact that Microsoft struggled with its own global launch of the Xbox 360 last year - with stock shortage problems only now being resolved - Kim said that the company is on track to take over as market leader.

"We'll be in full supply of Xbox 360s shortly, we've got great content on the way, and we've got fantastic third-party support," Kim stated.

"If Sony happens to stumble - and we know first-hand that there are a lot of challenges in a worldwide launch - then we'll be in an incredibly strong position to take advantage."