Aaron Greenberg of the Xbox 360 team lampooned Sony earlier this month, saying how slow they are in delivering their products. He isn't through yet though. In the latest Major Nelson podcast, he states that Sony has "a history of over-promising and under-delivering." Ouch. More in the full article.

If you're already one of the many gamers enjoying some sweet Grand Theft Auto IV action on your Sony PlayStation 3 or Microsoft Xbox 360, then here's an update about the ongoing sales war: GameStop reports that according to their sales figures during the first week of sales of the game, the Xbox 360 version has been constantly outselling the PS3 version by a huge margin. Check out all the details in the full article.

Microsoft has been drawing up plans on how to one-up their rival Sony in the next leg of the console race. In a recent meeting both companies had with major global telecommunications companies, they recognized the importance of IP delivery content in the next generation of consoles that they plan to manufacture. More information about this in our full article.

The seventh-gen console war seems to have taken a sharp turn towards Sony's favor for February. Not only did Blu-ray finally win over HD DVD, but the PlayStation 3 also outsold the Xbox 360 for the second month in a row. Sony's pretty stoked about it, but what does Microsoft have to say? The answer to that and more in the full article.

It's been a busy week this Thanksgiving for Microsoft, who reports that  it had to replenish supplies to top retailers who had sold out of Xbox 360s for the shopping week. Microsoft also reports that a big percentage of sales are made up of the successful Xbox 360 Arcade unit, which "performed above what [Microsoft] expected." More in the full article.

Xbox Live group product manager Aaron Greenberg talked to Gametrailers about what's hot about the PSN, and he deems the service being free as insignificant.

Greenberg was asked to name cool things about the competition's online network. First up, he gave props to how Sony is committed to their service.

True enough, PS3 owners get new content from time to time. Everyone's anticipating the virtual world, PlayStation Home, and more are expected to come.

"I like their store," Greenberg commented. "It's more like being on a web page. To me it's a little slower and harder to navigate because of that, but visually it's familiar."

Lastly, classic PlayStation games are available from the network. That said, he believes that the pay isn't much of a big thing. "I don't think price is a big issue," he said.

To justify, he mentioned how 80% of Xbox Live features are free. Subscribers can create a list of friends, categorize them into games, see who's up and whatnot - Greenberg believes that only multiplayer gaming isn't free.

Greenberg pointed out PSN's weakness as being "not a unified service." He continued, "People want a consistent experience across their games. They don't want the way you integrate friends list to be different game to game." Head on over to the read link below to view Bonus Round episode 6, part 1.

During a Gamers' Day press event in San Francisco, Sony finally showed the public a few features that their PlayStation Network will have; video streaming from PS3 to PSP, downloading games directly to the PS3's hard drive, etc.

Naturally, this drew a huge crowd, and we think it's safe to say that Microsoft engineers were probably part of this crowd and tuned in too. So, after the whole PS Network shindig, Gamespot thought it would be interesting to hear what Xbox Live's group marketing manager Aaron Greenberg had to say about Sony's PlayStation Network and its features.

The interview also touches on what Greenberg thinks this could mean for Xbox Live, now that Sony's PlayStation Network looks like it's shaping up to be a really worthy adversary of Microsoft's XBL. First, Gamespot asked Greenberg what his impressions were of Sony's online initiative, and here's the console-wars-inducing reply: "We're proud that we've created a smash hit service that has prevailed over four years by growing to 4 million members during that time. And we're flattered that we've created a service that is breeding yet another knockoff."

Tsk tsk tsk. But before fanboys start swarming our site, Greenberg pulls back a bit by saying that it's still too early to comment on what the PS Network has to offer because there are still a lot of questions left unanswered like (and we quote): "Is this a fully connected service with one identity across your entire gameplay experience? Is every game online with voice chat integration? Do they have Achievements and Gamerscore? How are they handling safety, security, hacking, viruses, and parental controls?"

In addition, Greenberg said that they welcome competition but at this point, they're sure that XBL will continue to thrive and the fact that they have a four-year AND four-million member subscription headstart keeps them confident in the continuing success of XBL. Gamespot also fished for info on the fall update, whether there are plans for a bigger hard drive, as well as backward-compatibility updates for XBL.

Oh, and here's another kicker, when asked how Microsoft will justify charging their users for games when the PlayStation Network will offer FREE downloads, here's what Greenberg had to say: "There is so much more for gamers to experience on Xbox Live and so little new news in Sony's online announcements. Heck, do they have exclusive titles that can compete with Halo 3, Gears of War, Geometry Wars, Next Splinter Cell, Halo Wars, and exclusive episodic content for Grand Theft Auto IV that you won't be playing on the PS3?"

Also, Gamespot prods Greenberg on whether there are plans for integrating Web browsing functionality into XBL since the PlayStation Network will have this and Nintendo seems to be moving in the same direction with the Wii. The interview tackles a whole lot more, so if you're interested in reading all about it (as we know you guys are), simply click on the read link below to see the full interview. We'll keep you posted for more.

In the ferocious dogfight between the nex-gen consoles, Microsoft appears to be well ahead. The Xbox 360 has been released in November last year and its sales have been performing great in the market, and their success comes to a new level as the news of the PS3's delay due to a shortage in parts went around.

In an interview with Xbox's Aaron Greenberg, the success of the Microsoft console can be attributed to focusing on consumers' choice. "From the beginning we have taken the approach to let consumers choose how they want to spend their money in regards to high definition entertainment. If a high definition movie experience is important to them, we offer a great option with the HD DVD player. We also realize that for a lot of gamers out there, they would prefer to have the option to spend their extra money on more games or accessories for their Xbox 360. We plan to continue to leave this choice in the hands of the consumer, instead of forcing them to buy something that may not be important to them," says Greenberg.

If one can recall, according to findings by Kagan Research, Microsoft is predicted to break Sony’s North American market share dominance in 2006, leading with 54% of hardware unit sales. But the prediction also states that Sony’s Playstation 3 will eventually lead in sales that will peak by 2008. Kagan forecasts 17.9 mil. consoles sold in the U.S. in 2008, with PS3 accounting for 54% of next-generation game hardware units purchased that year, the Xbox 360 for 24%, and Nintendo's Revolution for 22%. Whether their analysis proves to be correct still remains to be seen.