X360 has "fallen back" since GTA - Sony

Microsoft received a boost from GTA IV sales in Europe but has "fallen back since then" in the eyes of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves.

"I think they will continue along that strategy of trying to get exclusives from third parties and promote that," Reeves told Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"We anticipate that, but we still feel that we have our own IPs that we call our 'landing lights' that people are just going to go for."

When asked for an update on the console war overall, Reeves said that he and his colleagues "actually don't think about it too much".

"I think we've only made one - I would say - controversial announcement and that was to say that we have a higher installed base than Xbox 360 [in Europe] and we stand by that. We know what the figures are," he said.

"But I think - and I keep repeating this - that the more important thing is the growth in the marketplace is just absolutely phenomenal."

The winner, he said, is the consumer. "That's why we are not going to slag off Microsoft or Nintendo at all," he said, "because again it's rather like the trainer market: one year it's Reebok, next year it's Nike, and then suddenly it's Adidas; it's cyclical, but in the end everyone wins in five to ten years."

Which is fair enough, although he might want to double-check the official line on slagging off the competition with overall SCE boss Kaz Hirai, who told Eurogamer last week, "We certainly don't do the consumer the disservice of basically saying that the consoles have gone by the wayside because we have a new one. Right now, a prime example? PS2 is nine years into it. Where's the Xbox? Where's the GameCube?"

Read the rest of our interview with Sony's David Reeves for more on PS3's future and key subjects like Home, PSN and the recently-canned Eight Days and The Getaway.