PS3 Boss Clarifies Xbox 360 Smears

SCEA's Dave Karraker, Senior Director of Corporate Communications, is defending the company's PS3 chart that claims Xbox 360 owners are required to make a myriad of add on purchases.

The original chart can be found here (via Engadget), and for those of you who are click-phobes, here's a summary of what we said previously:

And the sheet goes on to say that the Xbox 360 Core costs $299, which is also truthful. But then Sony's information goes on to claim that Microsoft requires gamers to purchase a 20GB hard drive for $100, the HD-DVD drive for $199, a Wireless controller for $50, and a 12 month subscription to Xbox Live Gold for $50. Yes, they claim with all of the so-called requirements, Xbox 360 costs $698.

And now, here's Karraker's response to the backlash that has ensued:

"Through our comparison chart we are not implying that you must purchase the myriad of peripherals and add-ons that Microsoft offers to play your Xbox 360. You don't. However, if you want to attempt to come close to the performance of the $499 PlayStation 3 by using your Xbox 360, Core or Premium, you could only do that through expensive add-ons -- that is what our chart is demonstrating. Once you add it all up, it would cost you more than our $499 unit, and you would still not come close to everything we offer, ie: free multiplayer gaming, 50GB storage capacity of Blu-ray disc, Blu-ray disc player for games AND movies, processing power of the Cell Broadband Engine."

Hmmm...and here we were, thinking that the phrase "requires" means "must". Silly us. Regardless, it was incredibly disingenuous to compared the 20GB PS3 to the Core Xbox 360. A comparison with the Premium Pack shows the true cost differential between the two consoles. In a nutshell, with a Premium except you pretty much the sale perks that come with 20GB PlayStation 3 except for high definition DVD. And it costs $100 less.

It's easy to be concise when you want to be.