Smarthouse gets knickers in a twist over Microsoft Xbox response

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 08 April 2008 13:21

Opinion and Analysis

Smarthouse has struck back at Microsoft’s claims that they’re very happy with the position of the Xbox 360 in Australia. This follows Smarthouse claims a survey they conducted has retailers saying the Xbox 360 isn’t selling as well as the Wii or PS3, with one retailer going so far as to say that ‘The Xbox 360 is dead’.

It’s probably best if you first read my story looking at a Smarthouse report that quoted retailers slamming the Xbox 360, with one claiming that the world’s first next-gen games console was ‘dead’.

Nexgenwars, a site that tracks global sales of games consoles, still puts the Xbox 360 on a global basis at almost 18m+ units sold, the Wii at nearly 21m+ consoles sold and the PS3 only at just under 9m+ consoles sold, yet to break into ‘double figures’.

After reading my story, Smarthouse says that “It appears that Microsoft have got their Xbox knickers in a twist following our story yesterday that retailers are not happy with the sales success of the Xbox 360 over the stunning success of the Nintendo and Sony offerings.”

Smarthouse notes that the Wii is outselling the Xbox 360 in Australia, but cleverly counts both PS2 and PS3 sales to claim that the Playstation brand is outselling the Xbox 360.

Now, that’s true, but every games console manufacturer likes to tailor the stats to suit them best. There would be no need to say PS2 and the PS3 were outselling the Xbox 360 if the PS3 was doing that alone.

Smarthouse then says that “Mariana Cidade, PR Manager of the Entertainment & Devices Division at Microsoft Australia managed to suck in iTWire journalist Alex Zaharov-Reutt with her spin for the fledgling games console which retailers say is a "distant third cousin" to highly popular offerings from Nintendoand Sony.”

Well, excuse me for believing that I wasn’t sucked in. It’s important to remember that if you ask all three games console manufacturers, they will all have features that show they’re doing better than the competition – it’s all about using the stats in a way that benefits you most.

That said, nothing Mariana Cidade of Microsoft told me was untrue.

Smarthouse then said: “She [Cidade] at no time called SmartHouse or ChannelNews to rebut our story instead she got into the ear of a competitor who went on to gush about the so called success of the Xbox 360.”

Erm... I don’t think I’d be in much of a rush to call Smarthouse either... would you? The fact still remains that Smarthouse did not call Microsoft to begin with, but just decided to post a story.

So, what happened next? There's plenty more! Please read onto page 2.