Mr. Neil Thompson, please stuff it

Neil Thompson, Senior Regional Director, Northern Europe, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation had this to say:

"Nintendo are doing very well and they've done a great job at expanding the market in certain areas, but there is a limit in terms of what you can do with Wii and there is a very definite limit on the expandability of that product."

Firstly, this is nothing more than the corporate equivalent of a troll-post disguised as an industry interview. Too bad the Universe has no Moderator to ban people from RL, which means we all have to deal with them. Inevitably someone will take these comments seriously, so we'll bite at the offering and chew it over a bit.

In case it hasn't already been established, Mr. Niel Thompson is a top Microsoft Henchman who happens to occupy a high enough position that even his occasional gassy expels are mistaken for insightful commentary. Of course, we should expect a Microsoft Chieftain to expel Microsoft propaganda, but what is amusing is the notion implied; that while the Wii is definitely limited, the Xbox 360, somehow, is not.

So let's think about all the ways the Xbox 360 is not limited whatsoever.

You can play Any Xbox Game on the Xbox 360.

So long as they are on the List of Backwards Compatibility. There's a lonely Xbox acolyte somewhere out there who is dying to update the List of Compatible Titles. Some might argue that this is not a Limitation, but rather, Quality Control. You see, in time, even titles that are not as good as Barbie Horse Adventures Wild Horse Rescue may gain entry into the discriminating drive-tray.

You may play for an Unlimited Length of Time.

As long as it doesn't exceed about 2 - 3 hours. You see, suffering the Red Ring of Death from heat overdose is merely a form of penance, and enduring the Nine Circles of Hell that is Microsoft Xbox Support is a way to prove your devotion. You must understand that a 30% failure rate serves only to weed out the Non Believers.

True Believers, you may download as Much as You Want.

As long as you have a hard drive. And if you do have a hard drive, that you have sufficient space. But this Limitation goes by another name: "Consumer Choice". All that means is that you, the consumer get to choose how limited you want to be.

So for all of Mr. Neil Thompson's condescending back-handed remarks about the limited expandability of the Wii, let's consider:

The Xbox 360 screwed itself when it didn't back HD-DVD out of the gate, so now it's limited to a 4.6 GB game disc, funnily enough, just like the Wii. Remember, the HD-DVD sidecar addon contributes nothing to games.

Poor heat dissipation meant limited play time as machines would either melt down or seize up. Video fetishists bitched because there was no HDMI support. The intial 20 GB harddrive (with, really, about 12 GB of usable space) was insufficient. How did Microsoft expand on these limitations? Release new versions: with a cooler chips, with HDMI support, with bigger harddrives.

In other words, Microsoft's idea of "unlimited expandability" is to simply toss out another SKU when a limitation has been reached (and when the decibel of disgruntled voices reaches maximum pitch). Core, Premium, Elite, "Falcon" and Special Editions -- this is nothing but a hierarchy of the console's own limitations.

Releasing new SKUs to make up for shortcomings in your products does not make your product "unlimited" in expandability -- why don't we ask First Gen Xbox 360 owners how impressed they are about their boxes' "unlimitedness". Because the Wii does not have multiple SKUs does not translate to it being limited in expandability. If tossing out new SKUs is the answer to expandability, then Xbox 360s are just as unlimited as toaster ovens, a product which also sees several new versions yearly.