http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/12/microsofts-bell.html

Looks like they are competing, once Wii's run short that is. They are about to take Sony's spot at the bottom of the ladder I think, PR wise.

Nothing Bell can say will erase the 2 years of Sony PR stupidity.

Still, it's a slightly stupid comment that doesn't give the Wii's third party games enough credit.

I don't see it. No one has ever thought that they weren't competing with the Wii, so it's not like they're giving anything away by calling Nintendo a 'competitor'. And his claim about third party games, while somewhat dishonest, isn't obviously so - a lot of people are going to nod along and think that it sounds reasonable. It's not wonderful market analysis, but it's hardly bad PR.

Fair enough, not bad PR, but I recently read someone say that Microsoft wasn't competing against Nintendo, yet as soon as they get the upper hand because of supply they are suddenly competing with them again.

Its seems like a way to dodge facing the fact that the Wii sold more in half the time. Thats why I brought it up.

That's just it though - they really don't seem to be tiptoeing around the Wii's sales success. Their PR just doesn't strike me as being as completely detached from reality as some of Sony's earlier stuff. Hell, he even says something about being lucky that Nintendo can't supply more Wiis than they are. He's saying that "Nintendo's success is only good for Nintendo; we're still the leader as far as third parties are concerned (and so we have better long-term prospects than current sales alone would indicate)", which is less a shot at Nintendo and more a somewhat reasonable sounding appeal for continued support from third parties and stockholders.

I agree that some of the "we're not really competing with Nintendo" stuff from a while ago was a bit silly, but we note that this was something that Sony was also spouting, and even Nintendo claimed that it wasn't trying to go head to head with the other two for the longest time, and that Nintendo did it first. That's less bad PR on Sony's and MS' parts and more a miscalculation by Nintendo - they were trying to lower expectations at the time, and it turned out that there was absolutely no need to do so. Sony and MS can hardly be blamed for throwing Nintendo's own PR back at it. I'd also find it totally appropriate for a Nintendo or Microsoft rep to ask whether next-gen has started yet when Sony has to revise its forecasts way downwards for its next quarterly. I think we forget how strongly Nintendo was making this noncompetition point leading up to and shortly after launch. The DS was largely the same way, if I recall. These are risky ideas, and so their concern was more to minimize the consequences of failure than to maximize the benefits of success.

Standard issue MS FUD. Move along. Nothing to see here.

 Actually, the only expected standard issued FUD usually comes from Sony.  This is a far cry from their resent press releases.

OH SNAP!!!!!!!!!!!


He done told them!

MIYAMOTO:
(Reads Article)
"Well, I'm convinced... time to pack it in boys"

IWATA:
(Wipes Tears)
"What were we thinking... (Sniff)"

REGGIE:
"I feel like kicking my own ass"

They've done it towards Nintendo many times in the past.

I remember even Bill Gates did it in an interview where he laughed at the Wii's controller and I believe it was Peter Moore who said, "We look forward to Shigeru Miyamoto working for us someday soon."

They've done this for a long time. It's the type of passive-aggressiveness which I despise. Rather than coming right out and making a statement against Nintendo, they kind of insinuate it without saying anything substantial.

The idea isn't to give Nintendo fans something to argue. The idea is to quietly raise fear, uncertainty and doubt about Nintendo and their products. It's the business equivalent of starting rumors about other students in high school.

I'm not arguing that Sony does it as well, but MS is no stranger to the act.