When I see article titles like “Sony has no strategy for an online service – Ballmer” I just have to respond. Everyone is always on Sony’s back for making claims that end up being no more than vapour. (Personally, I think that Sony has been rather restrained this time around compared to the PS2 launch.) But what about Microsoft’s posturings?

In this article, Ballmer says “Sony has no strategy for an online service.” That statement is so ludicrous, I can hardly keep a straight face typing this. Maybe Sony doesn’t have plans for a centralized online service, but they certainly do have online service plans, and Ballmer knows it.

But that’s not all!

Then Ballmer claims that the Xbox 360 launch was “phenomenal”. This is the launch where people couldn’t sell their souls to get an Xbox 360. It is perpetual short supply. It actually sold less in the opening week in Japan than the original Xbox did! And didn’t Microsoft recently have to downgrade expectations for sales in the first three months?

Okay, okay. I guess all this can be considered part of the gamesmanship that happens when two large companies battle it out. But why does everyone give Sony flak for this when Microsoft does the same?

Eurogamer – Sony has no strategy for an online service

PS Before you say it, I’ll do it for you. At least one person will reply to this post saying “I totally dug your site up until this post, which was stupid”. I always get comments like that when I post anti-Microsoft stuff. Guess what? I don’t care!