Talking with Wired, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios Shane Kim disputed the notion that Sony's PS3 was leading in Europe. He added that he thought it was too early to declare a winner for this console generation, despite comments by Don Mattrick (head of the interactive entertainment division) when the Xbox 360 reached an installed base of 10 million in the U.S.
"I think we can build a very good business, an exciting business with a pretty big installed base with success in places like North America and Europe," said Kim. "Even though you may not think it's big numbers, we're actually strong in Latin America as well. Canada's been a big market for us as well. So there are ways to get the scale. Now, if you don't get 10 million units in Japan, can you get to 100 million units overall? I'd love to get 90 million units and have that problem. That's what we're really trying to focus on. I think it's way too early to declare a winner. Some guys were trying to declare Nintendo the winner of this generation last night."
While Kim believes the race is far from over, he thinks the picture will be clearer once someone is on their way to 100 million units sold. He was also somewhat evasive when it came to matters of a motion-sensing controller for the 360.
"You know that we're investing pretty heavily into hardware, online services, and content," commented Kim. "And regardless of what that underlying technology is, we're going to continue to push innovation in a whole bunch of different places. Whether that's in motion-sensing or some other area, we'll see."
