Following a backlash against previous claims that technical comparisons between Xbox One and PS4 were meaningless, a Microsoft executive has sought to clarify his comment.

Xbox product planning boss Albert Penello suggested that his comments were not intended to play down any computational advantages that any system may have, but instead to emphasise that it is the games themselves that are of paramount importance.

"I'm not diminishing Sony's performance claims and I wasn't trying to be arrogant or dismissive," Penello wrote in a NeoGAF thread which reacted to his initial comment: "The problem is that Sony decided to go out and publish a bunch of numbers, which are in some ways meaningless".

Penello clarified: "What I was trying to say is, I'm not Sony's engineering team. So I can't comment on what they have published as specs.

"The guys who are building these machines on both sides are unbelievably talented and experts in their field. Nobody knows the specifics of how the machines are architected or if there may be bottlenecks in one system or accelerators in another that change the impact of the published specs.

"What I believe is that our games are going to be great and they are going to look next-gen, and I think E3 sort of showed that. And great games are what matters".

Penello expressed some regret about his previous claim.

"It's always hard, after sitting doing interviews all day, and you're trying to have an engaging conversation with someone, and... the tone what you're trying to say didn't come out how you meant it."

It is generally considered that PlayStation 4 has the raw computational advantage, though Microsoft has not been as forthcoming with its Xbox One specs.

"Games on both systems looked awesome," Penello told other NeoGAF members.

"I was at E3, and while I know RISE [sic] took a hit on the gameplay that was shown, I thought it was the most next-gen looking game I saw on either platform. Of course, I get I'm biased and I didn't have time to see everything.

"As always, I love taking the hits. And I appreciate that while the words I used may were probably worth some scrutiny, I do appreciate that some of you got what I was trying to say."

Posted: Jul 01, 2013 12:57 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/417068/microsoft-exec-explains-meaningless-ps4-specs-comment/