Speaking ahead of the Playstation meeting on February 20th, Microsoft’s UK senior regional director Jonathan Grimes came out with some baffling comments speaking to MCV.
In the interview Grimes suggested that the Playstation 4 announcement wouldn’t be a big deal to their business and that many customers “won’t know” about whatever Sony is going to reveal next week, and being it more than likely it’s the Playstation 4 and maybe even a new version of the PS Vita, it comes across as a somewhat silly comment to make.
The entire gaming industry, fans, critics and casual gamers are all on the edge of their seat waiting for the big reveal, so to say that “the majority of consumers in the UK won’t know” is complete bull.
“Whatever gets announced on February 20, the majority of consumers in the UK won’t know,” said Grimes. “They’ll still want to buy the devices out there. So in terms of noise our job will be to ensure that the consumers are going into stores, going online, still see and experience Xbox, rather than get lost in the industry chatter.
“Whatever is announced is important from an industry perspective, but we must remember who is buying right now.”
Harvey Eagle also spoke in support of Grimes’ comments, implying that Microsoft has no idea what will be announced on the 20th.
“All we know [is] that there is an event planned on February 20,” Eagle told MCV. “So we can only wait and see what is announced.
“We are very happy with our offering at the moment. Our software market share in value was 55 per cent. So we are pretty happy.”
“We’re comfortable with the position and our market share,
“The market has changed. We changed it by introducing Xbox LIVE and being able to update Xbox 360. The console that you bought when we launch versus the one today is totally different. And this has enabled us to get the install base we have – an install base that wants to buy games.
“We need to be careful about wishing for constant ‘new’. We should look at how we can benefit from what is already out.”
It sounds to me that Microsoft is unhappy with Playstation getting the upper hand with some much buzz and talk of the upcoming The Future of Playstation meeting, suggesting that the majority of UK consumers wouldn’t know what it is when it’s revealed. The simple fact of the matter is, everybody will know what it is, whether it is indeed the Playstation 4, a new PS Vita model or even just a new version of the Playstation Move (which would be horrible,) every news outlet up and down the country will be reporting it, the news will spread over Facebook and Twitter like wildfire and every gaming site worth their salt will have reported the news.
Come on Microsoft, don’t be so bitter…
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What do you think of Microsofts latest attempt to downplay the Playstation meeting next week? Silly? Childish? Or good business sense? Let us know in the comments.