A while back, Sony president and CEO Kaz Hirai went off on how "Microsoft copies everything we do." Going on to say, "I wish that they would come up with some strategies of their own, but they seem to be going down the path of everything we do."
This just in: Kaz is living in his own little 4-D fantasy world.
Proof: Word is out that the Playstation 3 will have a status tracking system similar to the extremely popular Xbox 360 Achievements. These will be called (prepare for the original thinking) Entitlements.
Entitlements. Achievements. Xbox Live. Sony Life.
From joystiq:
"According to Dan Hsu on the July 19th EGM Live podcast, "Sony's looking into it and they want to call them 'entitlements.' They want to basically rip off the same idea Microsoft has and just giving you different rewards for playing through their games."
Scrapple, a commenter on kotaku.com, put it best:
"Sony Life (Xbox Live)
Sony Life Entitlements (Live Achievements*)
Sony LifePic (Live Gamerpics)
Sony LifeScore (Live Gamerscore)
Sony Lifestat (Live Reputation)
Sony LifeCard (Live Gamercard)
Sony LifeLine (Live Chat)
Sony LifeLook (Live Videchat)
The hits keep hitting..."
* - Typo fixed.
Microsoft took bold action and waded into the competitive area of next-gen console gaming with a very good stand-alone system and a visionary, groundbreaking, truly original Xbox Live experience. Now it seems that Sony, fresh off another round of delays and non-announcements, is surfing the wake, me-too-ing all of the 360's good ideas.
Here is where I'd normally put in a paragraph with a prediction of XBox 360 dominating Sony in the on-line console game space this fall, but at this point, with no console and no immediate plans or ship dates, it's really just a one horse race.
And now Microsoft is gearing up a HDTV add-on, a whole slew of games for the holiday season and maybe (maybe) a new Xbox portable device as well?
It just doesn't seem fair.
Read all about it: