Microsoft's Shane Kim* has been speaking to Reuters about the Xbox 360, Christmas, the opposition and the future. In doing so, he's finally come out and said that the Xbox 360 is competing with Nintendo if only in Japan.
Kim explained that, "We continue to focus tremendously internationally, Europe in particular is a very big area of focus for us," before continuing, "Japan has always been an important market for us. That's an interesting challenge because you're competing with Sony and Nintendo on their home turf there".
This is a odds with Aaron Greenberg (director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live) who told Gamasutra in July that, "I think for us, we don't really see the Wii as a direct competitor, we actually very much complement the Wii experience..."
So, Kim's statement is a refreshing admission that all three platform holders are in fact competing. It's also more straightforward than head of SCE, Kaz Hirai's statement in May that, "I feel that our competition is not Microsoft or Nintendo, but basically any form of entertainment that is competing for the consumers’ attention".
Shane also commented on what shape the next console generation might take, stating "(the next generation) may not be hardware, graphical processing power. It could very well be innovations in the interface or the online services. If that's the case we feel very good about how we're positioned with Xbox Live."
As for this Xmas, well, says Shane, "With Xbox 360 we have the most affordable console, we have the Xbox 360 arcade available for $199".
* Corporate Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Interactive Entertainment Business.
