As most of you know, from my earlier posts, you can tell how much I love the Big N and care little for Sony and M$. I don’t know where those feelings came from, maybe it’s because I grew up with Nintendo all my life, maybe it’s because I believe the Xbox is a hack of a machine, or maybe it’s because I don’t like shapes for my controller buttons. Wherever they came from, those feelings are staying damn well put. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the other machines, I have played Dead or Alive for 10 minutes, before my hands fell apart. And what hot-blooded male doesn’t enjoy the GTA series?

Now considering all of that, I happen to agree with what most of this man is saying, weird as it may seem. In a new interview with The Age, Michael Ephraim, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, claims that the Wii is too expensive, the 360 is struggling to find a fan base and the PS3 delay won’t hurt them at all. We all know the job of an executive (among others) is to promote your own product and slander point out the weaknesses in your competitor’s products. Granted, we can give Michael that. Of course, whenever an executive does talk about their competitor’s product in a bad way, they’re going to get some resistance from fanboys, as did Michael.

“My only question for this Christmas on Wii is the price point. Even though it’s affordable, at $400 plus whatever you need to buy accessories-wise, I’m guessing you need to spend about $500 to take home a Wii and enjoy it. I can’t judge the product because I haven’t played it but I’ve heard good things about it,” said Michael.

Adding, “For this Christmas, I think that price point is still not family entertainment because $500 is a lot to fork out, but we welcome the Nintendo heritage of gaming where they can appeal to a broader audience because long-term that is critical for the industry.”

I happen to agree with Michael on this. I think that the Wii is too expensive, for a machine that Ninty have said would be consumer friendly and appeal to the mass market, $400 is a lot of money. Sure, it’s nowhere near the PS3’s price, but if you’re going to buy a PS3, you know what you need. Nintendo have continually marketed the Wii as “the other console”, not in competition with PS3 or 360, and for “the other console”, it should be cheaper, to be successful.

Talking about the 360, Michael kicked it up a notch. “If you look at what’s happening in retail, 360 has done fairly well at launch but since then it has struggled to kick up a gear to the next level of sales. I think their product offering is still not broad enough. The content is narrow and appeals only to a very core group. I don’t see content that will appeal to a family or a broader mass-market audience.”

“It’s still pricey, and I’m sure Microsoft will do everything they can, but if you just look at the offerings from each format and the marketplace that we are now playing in, especially PlayStation 2, it has to be affordable because we are talking about mass-market and non traditional gamers. We clearly have that advantage going into this Christmas. Microsoft’s price point at $600-plus a big investment for family entertainment.”

Some of this is true. The 360 does have a very small market, mainly males. It’s a FPS’s fan’s wet dream. Would a girl buy a 360? Probably not. I don’t have sales records, so I can’t say how well the 360 has done since launch, but I would think it’s better then what a Sony exec is saying. Mikey does slip up when calling the 360 “pricey”, considering the PS3’s honey-we-have-to-sell-our-unborn-child-to-smugglers-to-afford-a-PS3 standpoint on the all-important factor of price. If the 360 is pricey, then what about the PS3? Hypocrite? Yes. That’s his job.

Now, onto that delay. When asked if the PS3’s PAL March 07 delay will hurt sales, Michael replied, “Talking to our retailers I would have to say none. I know that’s a bold statement, but based on pre-orders, every retailer has told us that they’ve had fractional percentages of cancellations. I think from the early adopters, they’re the foundation of this industry, and they want the best systems when they’re available. The early adopters will buy PlayStation 3.”

COME ON Michael. Be a man. How can the delay not hurt you? You’ve been taking bad PR since E3, and now you still think everything is cool? Admitting it will hurt will gain you more ground with fans then if you don’t.

Michael then got talking about the DS and PSP. “If you look at the markets, they are completely different. The DS really appeals to a lot younger, very female skewed, and the DS has done a fabulous job.” I also agree, the DS appeals to the women (Nintendogs, Brain Training, Pink DS) more then the PSP (GTA, Need for Speed). That’s not to say anything bad about either system, it’s just it has a more female orientated audience. And Michael is right on the track with the DS, it has done a fabulous job. The DS is smashing the PSP in sales, not just in Oz, but also all over the world. Just take a look at the Japan charts.

Of course, Michael has come under fire for his comments from different gaming websites all over the world. So, he went back to The Age the next day and offered this ‘apology’ (I use the term loosely).

In closing, has anybody been able to catch The Departed in cinemas this week? Best goddam movie of the year. Scorsese will finally get his Oscar. Go check it out.

- Aaron Kleemann.