Microsoft has ruled out any web browsing functionality for the Xbox 360, saying browsing on the TV is a “poor experience” and rubbishing the PS3 for offering it.
Quoth Aaron Greenberg, director of product management at Microsoft:
“No, we really believe that the web browsing experience on TV is a poor one, and the real magic is to take those web experiences and optimise them for the living room. That’s what we did with Netflix. So, sure, you can go on the PS3 and go to Facebook and and try to navigate, but it’s an absolute nightmare.
No disrespect, there’s things I love about the PS3, but that’s not one of them. We want the online experience to be fun and optimised for the living room, and we’ll continue to add more applications to get more richness.”
With Microsoft having already given the Xbox 360 limited compatibility with certain sites, such as Facebook, despite a “poor experience” on a TV screen, just whether this is a believable explanation is rather open to question.
It seems quite possible that Microsoft’s historical dislike for the open Internet is surfacing once again, and the company simply wishes to restrict users to selected sites, for reasons it would rather keep to itself.
I own a PS3 80GB Phat and a Xbox360 Arcade Modded+banned in order to play “cheap” games, or MS exclusive ones. Also a PSP 2000 GEN CFW that I use to play Project Diva and Disgaea 1, and a NDS Lite that I use to play VNDS.
I would like to try a cheap Wii for some Nintendo and RPG games.
I Have spent most of my free time playing Disgaea 3, Valkyria Chronicles, and WipeOut Fury on the PS3. And I mean, 150 hours around per game.
On the other hand, I have spend playing around 100 hours of Tales of Vesperia ENG on the 360, and 30 hours of NFS Shift. Obviously, I can’t connect online (nor will I PAY for a gold Live subscription, I am happy playing WipeOut Fury free @ PSN for that).
Finally, I have spent 150 hours+++ playing Dragon’s Age on PC.
Come on Microsoft, Poor “television” browsing experinced, I lol’d but seriously, I know a lot of folks who ethier play thier PS3 and use thier laptop/ desktop at the same time, or just simplied have their computer on another output channel on thier tv. But Sony does got them beat with that. Bad choice of words Bill Gates, bad choice.
I’m almost ashamed to say this, but the guys at MS are right here.
Internet browsing on my PS3 is a novel experience, but frustrating compared to the experience of doing it in my computer.
Internet browsing on the PS3 at the moment is there just to show that it can do it.
Hmmm I wonder why the PS3 is Sold out nation-wide in America AND Japan…Sony Can’t keep up with production because of it’s popularity and features
http://www.webtv.com/pc/
That’s all that has to be said. Mr. Greenberg should probably think about what products his company sells before opening his mouth and spewing F.U.D.