SPOnG had a meeting with a high-ranking executive from a platform holder last week. We had beers in the sun. It was all very pleasant. During our chat about the ins and outs of the games industry, we were told something that sounded too incredible even for our news pages.
“I saw a Sony PlayStation 3 presentation slide last week,” he said. “Guess what was on it.” We guessed a picture of our staff looking dubious. It wasn’t that. We guessed a PlayStation 3. We were told, “Of course a PlayStation 3 but what else…?” We gave up. With a crafty wink we were told, “A PlayStation 3 linking out to all sorts of things, being compatible with them all in some way. Guess what one of the things was.” We said we didn’t like guessing anymore and just wanted to know. “An Xbox 360! In some way, Sony is planning on making the PlayStation 3 ‘talk’ to the 360, though exactly what they are planning wasn’t explained.”
Our source was 100% explicit about what he saw and was 100% confident in his conviction. “The slide was shown to many delegates at the ELSPA summit. It was on screen behind the stage for a long time. I can’t believe no one noticed the Xbox 360 in the corner.”
Neither could we. It just seemed too far-fetched.
Then we noticed
this article appear on respected blog Engadget. It reads:
Be at peace, gamers, for rumor has it that the Xbox 360’s hotly discussed extensive 3rd party hardware integration and support will include—no, you definitely did not see this coming—methods for allowing PSP and DS users to play Microsoft games online with their devices through the 360, and with one another. Of course, this is completely unconfirmed, but sometimes bizarre love triangles really aren’t that bizarre. Bring on the unity. Feel the love.
So what to make of it all? The concept of almost complete cross-company hardware integration seems less than likely to say the least, yet rumour from some decent sources says otherwise. SPOnG right now has absolutely no way of knowing and absolutely no way of finding out; unless of course, something leaks in the next few months. We’ll monitor the situation - we're sure you will too. Let us know your thoughts, as ever, in the forum below.