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.

and losing.

My shock!

Seriously, who didn't know this already?

The Wii doesn't exist...

The Wii is a strong competitor but its losing in markets we actually targetted before the start of the generation...

The Wii is only winning where we didn't actually try...

We don't sell exercise equipment...

We're winning in terms of volume of boxes shipped worldwide...

Well they represent shipping in terms of tonnage and since we only talk about what we shipped to retailers, its important for us to mention we're winning the all important tonnage wars...

Well, say what you will about the Xbox360, I'm impressed by the sales it manages to achieve. Week after week. Wii aside, I don't think a lot of people were expecting this kind of success compared to the PS3. This time last year everybody and their grandma were expecting the gap between PS3 and Xbox360 to shrink massively and fast, with PS3 overtaking the Xbox 360 sometime in early 2009. Now, it's no longer a question of when the PS3 will overtake the 360, but if it will at all.
Anyway, I'm impressed.

Shane Kim is so preferable to Aaron Greenberg, it isn't even funny.

It's actually a little funny.

Long ago, in a galaxy far far away, Sony & MS were laughing at Nintendo for releasing a "weak" Wii console with SD graphics, and now they are mimicking them and playing catchup.

Don't get me wrong, my Wii gets the least amount of playtime between my 3 consoles, but it still is a little ironic.

Nintendo is king bitches, for ever dont ever forget that :)

Then why don't they ever mention them in press releases?

>_>

Surely not even Wii fanatics think MS was not competing against Nintendo just because MS doesnt mention them. Everyone including MS knows their competitors include sony and nintendo.

It has clearly been PR. Never once has MS stated that they are beating the Wii in sales. They constantly talk about beating the PS3 (when it happens). PR sounds better to leave out the thrashing of the Wii. MS PR is not interested in all numbers....just numbers that make them look good.

If I was a NE Patriot PR machine, I would talk about how dominant NE has been over the last decade with all the superbowl wins and a perfect regular season. It all sounds great when you leave out the SB loss to the crappy giants!

Nintendo Fans seem to want MS to include the Nintendo in every announcement. See how dumb PR would sound if they said:

"We have eclipsed the original xbox sales.....unfortunately we are losing to the Wii by a lot"

"We had the biggest black Friday ever!!.....unfortunately it was still only half of what the Wii sold"

"360's are selling like hot cakes, unfortunately the wii is selling like hottercakes x 10"

The original post makes it sound like MS is finally ackowledging the Wii. cmon fellas....surely you are smarter than that.