Microsoft lashes out at Sony and Apple – signs of desperation?
Recently Microsoft lashed out against two of its competitors by taking jabs. The casualties in the latest wave of insults from Microsoft are none other than Apple and Sony. It seems like trash talking might just be a corporate mandate over at Microsoft. However, some might argue that such mudslinging could be due to insecurity or desperation.
Recently during a conference Steve Ballmer, head honcho of Microsoft, took a cheap shot at Apple. He chastised Apple for having such an expensive device such as the iPhone when Microsoft could make something that does the same thing for much less – around $150 to $200. It seems like Ballmer is indicating that Microsoft could do a better job of selling smartphones than Apple, which is contrary to the sales figures.
Aaron Greenberg, another boss over at Microsoft did a number on Sony by going into Microsoft’s mantra about how the PS3 is too expensive compared to the Xbox 360, which retails for as low as $200. Starting to see a pattern here? Of course Greenberg would feel that the PS3 should be priced as low as the Xbox 360 Arcade. This is despite the fact the PS3 has a hard drive, wireless adapter and blu-ray player. He also made it a point to put down Sony’s prize game, Killzone 2 for selling less than the downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV. This was a bit ridiculous considering Killzone 2 was only out for two days.
It almost sounds as if Microsoft has some internal brainwashing seminar going on behind closed doors to train everyone at the company to attack the competitors by playing the economy card. However, it really is hard to fault the company for trying to use the state of the economy as a selling point. With the US in a recession everyone’s pockets are being hit hard. I suppose the heads of the company could learn to use a bit of tact instead of slamming the competitor’s weaknesses, because it does reek of insecurity and desperation whether it is true or not.
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March 22nd, 2009
This website is a sign of desperation. Go look up any Reeves qoute this entire generation and take in the signs of desperation. Quit writing your bullshit everyday Techblorge. No one cares.
March 22nd, 2009
@Jlee
No offense, but if nobody cares about this site then why are you here?
March 22nd, 2009
Those suffering from desperation often lash out at others who do it better. MS is lashing out across the board, whether its PS3 or iPhone or FireFox or Linux or StreetView or …
Sense a pattern?
March 22nd, 2009
Oh Jlee, did it strike a nerve?
This article makes very good points. Microsoft seems to be afraid of both Apple and Sony with the amount of mudslinging they’ve been doing lately. I mean, who are they to tell these two companies how to run their business?
All companies do mudslinging from time to time but Microsoft’s mudslinging is truly astonishing.
March 22nd, 2009
well killzone 2 was suppose to be big, its also not a first in a series of that franchise, so lets look at ms biggest shooter when it launched on the 360, halo3, so yeah it was not to impressive of a launch. the 360 is beating the ps3 in americs every months by more then 100,000 systems, oh and america is still the biggest videogame market. so the apple bash might be out of desperation, but not the sony bash, oh and what ms might do this year is release their new operating system, hate or love it , it will still be number one in the OS dept and make them alot of money. if you know how to look at a company value, microsoft is not doing bad sense they have multiple flows of revenue, go look at sony and apply and compare, apple has ipod but thats the only place its the leader, microsoft is number one in desk top and laptop OS’s, so imagine how many of those are in the world, oh i dont own a 360 no more, only a ps3 and i have an ipod, but i wont be one of these microsoft bashers who dont look at the big picture or who dont try to find hard facts themselves… and who does something better is just a personal opinion, some like opera, some like firefox, some like safari.
March 22nd, 2009
Massive price cuts, buying 3rd party exclusive DLC, trash talking about the competition. Seems like desperation to me.
March 22nd, 2009
Boy, the Sony viral marketers are in an uproar. I bet Kaz Hirai probably called you guys personally. Instead of proving to the gaming community that Sony and it’s minions are the crybabies of the gaming world. How about getting your shit together and start making the PS3 a competitive game console?
Aaron Greenberg is just stating the obvious in regards to the PS3. It’s in last place, it’s sales are in a year over year decline(and has been for monthes), the conversion rate of yen to dollar is causing Sony to hemorrage money. That’s facts folks, not bashing. If you don’t like it, call Kaz Hirai back and cry to him about the big bad boogeyman Microsoft. Us regular Joe gamers are tired of hearing your incessant whining.
March 22nd, 2009
@ Cisco
Stop making contradictions. You just said that Sony is interested in only one thing: profits, and you praised them for it. And right after that you said Microsoft is interested only in $$$ and criticized them for it. My question to you is, why should these corporations care about money? You identify Microsoft as “M$” even though every company is designed to profit its shareholders. Every one is in it for the money. Sony entered the market in ’94 because Nintendo was beating Sega out and Sony wanted a piece of the gaming market. MS did the same thing in ’01m and all the Sony fanboys were enraged. “Teh MS is the evil.” “Teh MS is only wanting teh $$$.” Get over yourself, Sony is as much a ruthless company as Microsoft. And when PS3 was first released and criticized for its steep prices, the Sony reps were claiming that it should cost more. What kind of arrogance was that, considering the launch PS3s were very unsuccessful. Everyone’s jumping down Microsoft’s throat because of RROD, when MS actually repairs or replaces almost all consoles free of charge. There are a few consumers that unfortunately got left out in the rain, and I feel for them, but don’t think crap like that hasn’t happened to Sony consumers. I’m not trying to be a MS fanboy here, but you guys are deifying Sony. It’s not fair because both consoles have strengths and weaknesses, and just because MS happens to be doing somewhat (not that much) better than Sony right now, you guys think that they’ve brainwashed the consumer world. The PS3 has yet to even have a killer app since launch. Uncharted, KZ2, MGS4, Little Big Planet, and Resistance series do not qualify has killer apps because they have not, according to fanboys, brought the full power of the PS3 to light. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wait until 2015 to see the full capabilities of the PS3, probably because before then MS will have launched their third console and its potential will exceed the PS3s due to better tech breakthroughs. That being said, the PS3 is a great machine, but for some people, it’s just not worth it to buy it, especially since the world economy is going to hell. If Sony had launched the PS3 during a prosperous time period then we all know that Sony would have crushed MS. As for Blu-Ray, it’s a day-to-day condition because developers are researching a way to allow open-boxed, large HD downloads rather than selling them through discs. So, a few years from now, the BD format will be obsolete because people will be downloading content onto larger harddrives rather than buying them boxed.
March 22nd, 2009
whoops, meant to say, “Why Shouldn’t these corporations care about money?”
March 22nd, 2009
“No offense, but if nobody cares about this site then why are you here?”
For a laugh, nothing else. It’s obvious after reading a few articles on this site the author is totally biased.
March 22nd, 2009
I’m not sure where Microsoft is coming from here. It’s almost like they’re throwing crap at everyone for the fun of it, I think they might be trying to attack Sony to cover up how Halo Wars didn’t sell as expected or something (still sold decently well for a game). It’s like M$ is asking Sony to drop the PS3 price with all this hate, and I don’t think they want that to happen since a PS3 price drop would cause a huge boost in sales for them. Eh… Plus KZ2 was out for 2 days in February, opposed to a much lower priced GTA DLC that was out for weeks. M$ is just trying to get whatever they can out of this lol.
March 22nd, 2009
@ Andy:
-Yes, PS3 has encountered a few harware issues (codenamed the Yellow Light of Death), but there are extremely few of these.
-Blu-ray will be around for more than a few years, because a large number of people will still want disc-based movies for a while, and it will take some time to transition to downloads.
-If killer-apps are determined by bringing out the full power of a system, then none of the current consoles have had a killer app because games will only continue to look better. Killer apps aren’t determined by looking the best or taking up the most space with information, but by being fantastic games. Those games that you listed are indeed killer apps, and every system has some.
March 22nd, 2009
It completely reeks of insecurity and desperation. HAHAHA!
March 22nd, 2009
LOL? ^ with “us regular joe gamers” you mean 360 fanboy right?
I have all of the consoles and theres none that i like best, but what really pisses me off is fanboy-talk like the above AND the bullshit microsoft is talking since a while… whats wrong with them? theyre doing good, sony is doing good and so is nintendo… absolutely no reason for such poor statements as of Aaron HUSO Greenberg
March 22nd, 2009
Oh my god. The level of ignorance in these posts is so astounding. How can people honestly say these things and think it’s the right thing to say? Honestly. I’m completely confused at some people.
Anyway, Microsoft really is an unprofessional company, well, it seems that way by the way they speak. They have no decency and recently seem to be shoveling out bad products. The Xbox 360′s RRoD, obviously, Vista’s many problems, and Internet Explorer 8′s bugs, glitches, and crashes. Although, I’ve heard good things from the most recent Windows.
March 22nd, 2009
MS sells ten consoles for ten bucks each. They make one hundred bucks. Sony sell seven consoles for thirty bucks each. Sony makes two hundred and ten bucks. You see what I’m saying? Microsoft can run around spinning a public picture of a company with the largest market share, but behind the spin, you’ll find a company that’s losing money on every console manufactured, uses cheap low quality materials and production processes, resulting in a high failure rate with the hardware which costs them more, and to top it all, pays out millions to third party developers for exclusive DLC, yet the competition, Sony, with the more expensive (but profitable) console, and slightly smaller market share, is starting to sell more multiplatform games than MS.
March 23rd, 2009
M$ is scratching their head trying to figure out how sony is still moving a system that is double the price, M$ does outsell them each month but if and when Sony drops the price M$ doesnt want to see the trend of early 2008 when Sony started outselling them when the price difference was only 50. M$ also gets away with it because thats how you market your merchandise in america you talk shit about the competitor without even stating the positives of your own stuff. M$ knows that the price of the ps3 is justified. they just know american consumers are broke nowadays and are clueless more often then not. Sony is doing fine over 20million consoles and still selling good per month at 400 dollars in this economy.
March 23rd, 2009
HAHAHAHAHHHH… think… Mac OS X for ps3+ Cell and blu-ray technology for Apple= PS3 taking out 360 and MAC OS taking out Windows, enough said…
March 23rd, 2009
Sony Ericsson new phone, the xperia, runs on windows….
an im pretty sure not one of you have a clue the kind of money MS makes.. Microsoft isnt desperate. Compared to the PS3 or not the 360 is selling real well. Yall sit here and blog about bullshit all day long, feeding into this nonsense.
i own both systems, an besides the fact that the 360 is less reliable(ive sent mine in for 8 repairs lol) i play it a hell of alot more then i ever played the PS3. MS knows what the fuck their doing.
Their internet and online community>PS3s anyday.
call it what you want..
oh. an @ crimson fox.. vista problems?? the first release was good, they just released it early.. u just dont know how 2 use the OS.. aint MS’s fault that ur a idiot. and SP1 fixed all the “problems”… Vista>>
March 23rd, 2009
of corse it is.
but not that thats anything new M$ are pros at making themselvs look like arogant ass holes
March 23rd, 2009
i found the PERFECT slogan for M$ today watching the wedge.
“emptying your pockets, helping you make us ritch”
fits like a glove.
March 23rd, 2009
vista is a pain in the A$$.
my comp is running so much faster going from 64bit vista to 64bit XP.
90% of PC games i want to play wont work with vista.
90% of software wont work with vista.
if vista was so sucsessful that why are they scraping it so early and going on to windows 7???
March 23rd, 2009
haha funny – microsofts Steve & Aaron acts like their own fanboys?
I wonder if many hate threads out on public forums have been infected by these guys?
March 23rd, 2009
haha funny – microsofts Steve & Aaron acts like their own fanboys?
I wonder if any hate threads out on public forums have been infected by these guys?
Probably so.
March 23rd, 2009
i agree with this article apple makes things way to expansive same goes for there computers.
March 23rd, 2009
@ManWithSword:
I have no idea how much money Microsoft makes from selling an Xbox 360, but I gather than Sony loses about $30 per PS3 sale… So by your standards, Microsoft will make $100 per 10 360s sold (or whatever you said), and Sony will lose $300 per every 10 PS3s sold.
Way to go on your argument, because you just said that Sony fails, even though you’re a massive PS3 fanboy.
Personally, I prefer Microsoft’s attack message over Sony’s “lol, we’re so great, give us tons of money for a console with 7 good games” message. At least it’s less disgustingly arrogant. Sony’s BS where they just sit there and rest on their past accomplishments makes me sick.
For what it’s worth, I own every Sony console that’s ever been released in North America — including the PS3.
March 23rd, 2009
Additionally, the amount of fail on this blog is almost as huge and useless as my PS3. Way to go, you biased, completely lacking integrity POS.
I hope that Sony is at least paying you to write this drivel.
March 23rd, 2009
This just goes back to what I have said previously. Microsoft do nothing properly. Everything is rushed and nothing is done properly. It’s all just rush, rush, rush and just get the product out with MS.
Whilst I’m not a massive Apple fan, you just can’t knock their Operating Systems. The user experience with iPhone is utterly superb, Apple do need to address a couple of things though but the interface is nothing short of superb.
Compare this to crappy Windows Mobile, I mean this pile of crap has not moved on in about 6 years. I use Windows Mobile every day and it gets right on my tits – everyday.
Now look at the 360, a good enough machine. BUT look at the failure rate of the thing, and how they treat their gamers, as well as a serious lack of innovation.
MicroSoft need to pull their finger out.
March 23rd, 2009
This just goes back to what I have said previously. Microsoft do nothing properly. Everything is rushed and nothing is done properly. It’s all just rush, rush, rush and just get the product out with MS.
Whilst I’m not a massive Apple fan, you just can’t knock their Operating Systems. The user experience with iPhone is utterly superb, Apple do need to address a couple of things though but the interface is nothing short of superb.
Compare this to crappy Windows Mobile, I mean this pile of crap has not moved on in about 6 years. I use Windows Mobile every day and it gets right on my tits – everyday.
Now look at the 360, a good enough machine. BUT look at the failure rate of the thing, and how they treat their gamers, as well as a serious lack of innovation.
So MicroSoft are just piping up because they are starting to feel inferior to the competition, they need to pull their finger out.
March 23rd, 2009
When your competition offers a superior product and you have nothing else to talk about you talk smack.
March 23rd, 2009
It’s funny how everyone is talking about the price of the playstation3 when many people can join me in saying that I bought my ps3 when it first came out and it isn’t broke hasn’t broken. I also have backwards compatibility. You pay for what you get.
March 23rd, 2009
I sense bias in this article as well. Had M$ came out and said Sony and Apple both suck and cool people don’t buy their products. Then I would call that mud slinging, but when a company states factual information about its competitor, that no one in the media has the balls to state, that is not mud slinging, its just pointing out the truth.
March 23rd, 2009
I don’t think Microsoft is desperate, just stupid. With Apple to push them around and with Sony they don’t want to admit they made a mistake. Of course the last people I would count as people persons is Microsoft’s CEO.
March 23rd, 2009
Uh my Ps3 broke, and so did a pal of mine. I think far more PS3s than Sony is admitting to are breaking. The reports are easy to find online at PS3 only sites. PS3 fanboys never admit their consoles break around 360 fans. Silly I know.
March 23rd, 2009
they all have been talking smack about each other so whats new..i mean sony is poppin shit about the 360 since they thought gaming started with them and ends with them..well not the case anymore and apple has always been trying to get people to convert to their computers instead of pcs for the longest one reason why microsoft.
March 23rd, 2009
OMG, a company lashed out at a competitor? No way!
You journalists really need to stop with this “he said, she said” nonsense. Nobody cares except fanboys, and you clearly seem to be one.
You have seen those Mac vs. PC commercials Apple’s been putting out, right? Everyone’s guilty of mud slinging. Don’t make it bigger than what it really is.
April 14th, 2009
@Andy
Saying “Sony entered the market in ‘94 because Nintendo was beating Sega out and Sony wanted a piece of the gaming market” is wrong they entered the market because the were contracted to make a software disc for Nintendo’s new system the 64 but Nintendo back out at the last minute. So Sony was left with software and discs but no hardware and that is why they made the playstation.
February 9th, 2010
Xbox is way better then playstation,Better games and everyone on the PS3 are little kids and/or Annoying Bitches.
February 18th, 2010
hi there lets start with microsoft no portable xbox with halo and no xbox 360 with a lighting fast solid state flash drive becuase curent 20 gb hard drive xbox slowly loads halo like painfully load times lag time too long and frezes a lot too
February 18th, 2010
hi there apple ipad will win fast cpu and a lighting fasst solid state flash drive sony needs a ssd ps3 and microsoft needs a ssd xbox 360 and ninteno will be in loose
December 28th, 2011
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