Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell Says Xbox 720 To Be Stronger Than The PS4

Atari’s founder, Nolan Bushnell, has stated he believes Microsoft’s Xbox 720 will emerge stronger than Sony’s PlayStation 4 when the next generation of consoles arrive. He claims Sony’s PS4 will be held back by lame and difficult to understand software tools.

“I personally believe Microsoft is in a superior position, and the reason is Sony, whenever they change consoles, the software tools that they have are lame,” Bushnell said. “A lot of times in the past they were in Japanese; not well documented and getting the software development community up to speed…they may have been able to do it in Japan, but the American software community just says ‘Oh boy, what a pain.’ And a lot of people don’t realize how strong the software community is at making the hardware platform sing and dance.”

Bushnell’s comments come after a number of high profile developers, such as Gearbox Software’s CEO Randy Pitchford, praised Sony’s PlayStation 4 for its exciting potential. Linus Blombery, Avalanche Studios Co-Founder, even went as far to say that the Sony PS4 would out-power most gaming PCs for years to come.

However, Bushnell’s argument is that the software drives the hardware sales and he believes Microsoft have a better software environment to allow game developers to produce better games and produce them faster.

“Microsoft, because of their strong software tools, will end up with much better products sooner [and] easier, in my estimation,” Bushnell said. “And with that, I think will be an advantage. And also don’t forget, Microsoft actually has so much money to defend this. Plus, they have a good infrastructure with the [Xbox Live Arcade], with their online world.”

Even though he makes a strong point, I am still skeptical. Most game developers would want to synchronize their PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 releases at the same time so I am not sure his vision will ever come into force.

Bushnell’s final dig at Sony was a criticism of what he calls their “God awful” online infrastructure and that he thinks they really need to get their act together.

Microsoft’s Xbox 720 is expected to be announce in May and arrive this holiday season. Sony’s PlayStation 4 has already been announced and is also expected to arrive this holiday season.

What do you think of Bushnell’s comments? Does he have a point or is he acting like a fanboy?

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