First mover advantage. Yup, gotta get that Xbox 360 out there before Sony gets theirs out there. It’ll make all the difference in the world! So says J Allard, at least. We’ve heard it so many times from all sorts of different sources that we know Microsoft believes this to be one of their two aces for the Xbox 360 launch (the other being Xbox Live). And frankly, I think they have a point, everything else being equal (which it rarely is).

Someone over at Microsoft forgot to tell Chris Lewis, regional vice president, Xbox, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He says that the reasons for the release date are:

This is something that comes up a lot and I want to get this straight. The timing’s not about the competition. The timing’s about listening to what gamers want, and listening to what the market wants right now. It’s about giving people the next-generation of gaming, now. People want high definition, they want deeper gameplay, they want more riveting stories, and people want to do a whole lot more things. They want to connect their music, they want to rip tracks, they want to plug their iPod or PSP in, and I think it’s about giving people what they want, right now, in a scaleable way. If that works well in terms of timing, then great.

Well, I certainly want HD, but with only 10% or so of American homes having an HDTV, I don’t think it’s something gamers want right now.

But anyway, maybe Mr. Lewis just hasn’t read the memo yet.

C&VG - INTERVIEW: XBOX 360 UNCOVERED!