In the trash you go

Sony is certainly no stranger to silly statements, with its hubris heading into the previous generation providing plenty of memes which still do the rounds today. However, it would appear that Microsoft learned nothing from the Japanese giant’s biggest blunders, as the firm is still making some wince inducing statements regarding the competition – despite putting its device on a level playing field with the PlayStation 4.

The latest corker comes courtesy of chief marketing and strategy officer Yusuf Mehdi, who was recently asked by Forbes to explain the disparity in sales between the Xbox One and its competitor’s aforementioned console. For those out of the loop, the PlayStation maker has shifted over seven million next-gen systems to date, while the Redmond-based firm has managed to ship a slightly less impressive five million.

“It's hard to really assess the gap in sales,” the executive stated. “They’re in many more markets right now than we are. They're in 40 plus markets, we're in 13.” It’s a fair answer, though one could argue that Microsoft has focused on the regions where its brand has historically fared best. Territories such as Continental Europe and Asia have typically favoured PlayStation platforms, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Xbox One fares when it launches globally this September.

Mehdi continued, however, that another reason for the difference in sales is due to consumers being more satisfied with the Xbox 360 than the PlayStation 3, and thus being less inclined to upgrade. “People have been more satisfied with the Xbox 360 than the PS3, so in that respect people have less of a need to upgrade in the short-term due to regular updates for the Xbox 360,” he explained. “We could point to any number of things.”

While we’re sure that the outspoken executive has some customer research to back up his point, the comment seems a bit short-sighted. For starters, we’re not convinced that consumers would be eager to upgrade to the PS3’s successor if they weren’t happy with its predecessor. Moreover, we’d argue that the ageing system has actually matured very gracefully, likely deterring some gamers from purchasing a PS4.

We understand that it’s Mehdi’s job to paint his employer’s brand in the best possible light, but we think that this quote would have looked a lot better without the backhanded jab. Do you agree with the suit’s statement, or do you think that it was a bit misjudged? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source forbes.com, via gamespot.com]