‘Market doesn’t need Blu-ray’, says UK Xbox boss

Microsoft has reignited its war of words with arch rival Sony following the launch of PlayStation 3 in Europe, with UK boss Neil Thompson attacking the systemâs price tag and Blu-ray functionality.

Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, Thompson dismissed suggestions that the PlayStation 3's in-built Blu-ray drive gives the machine a tactical advantage over Xbox 360.

"Do I want to make people pay £200 extra for a machine with discs that have storage space I donât need? My answerâs no, I donât need to do that today," Thompson said. "And I donât think Iâm going to need to do that for quite a while."

Thompson argued that the flexibility of 360, which allows users to upgrade their experiences over time, will be key to the console's success. "Iâm not sure the market has moved to high definition [movies] yet," he said.

"And if and when it does, then the way that weâve constructed the offering weâve made means weâll be able to go whichever way we want."

The inclusion of a Blu-ray drive in every PlayStation 3 unit has been cited as one of the reasons for the systemâs hefty GBP425 price tag. The premium Xbox 360 unit carries a lower RRP of GBP 279.99, but does not allow users to play next-gen DVD movies out of the box. A separate HD-DVD drive must be purchased at a cost of GBP 129.99.

Sony executives have been at pains to argue that the additional storage Blu-ray offers is also essential for games, as it means developers are freed from memory restrictions they may encounter on other platforms.

But according to Thompson, Microsoftâs "nimble" hardware could adapt to anything the Sony console has in its arsenal. He cited the 360's latent ability to output in native 1080p - a feature previously only available on PS3.

"Iâd be really surprised if technologically, and weâre a software company, we couldnât get to a situation where we can deliver whatever content we need to," he offered - adding that improved compression techniques and the ability to deliver content via Xbox Live would negate any disc storage issues in the future.

"This is about the architecture of the hardware. With the PS3 youâve got a big, heavy truck that requires a big, heavy engine. With Xbox youâve got a much more nimble box that uses software in the architecture of the box in a much more nimble way."

Thompson concluded, "Thatâs the difference between us and PlayStation - we didnât have a need to develop a really complicated engine to get Blu-ray players into the market. We wanted to deliver HD gaming. Judge us on what weâve done."