Sony Computer Entertainment has always advocated living in your world so long as you play in theirs, but it seems the SCE chairman Kazuo Hirai may have spent a little too much time his own alternate reality. In addition to claiming "leadership" of the current console market, Hirai believed the relative difficulty in producing titles for PlayStation 3 hardware in fact promotes quality over the long term. SCE remains committed to a ten-year lifecycle for the PS3, and Hirai in the process questions the Xbox 360's ability to keep up. Microsoft naturally isn't taking any of that sitting down.

Speaking to The Bitbag, Microsoft's Director of Xbox 360 Product Management, Aaron Greenberg, accused Sony losing sight of what's needed to move forward in the industry as we know it. Greenberg explains that there's more to it than hardware sales, and Microsoft's experience as a software giant will provide 360 development with important leverage.

This sounds like an old hardware company that's comfortable with its market position. That complacent attitude is out of touch with where the industry and consumer is today. This generation won’t be won over just hardware specs, but who can out-innovate when it comes to online and software. This is the kind of stuff that’s in our DNA, and frankly moves the console war onto our home court.

It's not like Microsoft is currently at a disadvantage with the 360 compared to the PS3, even if it strictly comes down to hardware sales. Here too, Greenberg is confident Sony will remain behind:

I'm confident we will outsell the PS3 throughout the entire generation by providing more innovation and building the best and broadest games library while growing our entertainment experiences on the leading online network. With a U.S. install base lead now of more than 7 million units (according to NPD), I can't imagine any scenario where the PS3 can catch up with us. In fact, even if you doubled the current PS3 sales and Xbox 360 remained flat, they couldn’t close the gap until 2014.

Some biting commentary from both sides!  Of course, we'll have to see just how long each platform intends to hold out this generation.  Sony in particular is keen on making the PlayStation 3 profitable in the short term.