Sony has a pop at 360 HD-DVD

Following on from yesterday's revelation that Microsoft plans to launch its HD-DVD drive add-on in Japan this November, Sony has offered a reaction.

You can probably guess how it goes.

Sent to Kotaku by SCEA's senior director for corporate communications David Karraker, it reads as follows:

"It's unfortunate that Microsoft's external HD-DVD drive will not enhance the experience at all for the gamer.

"Sony realises that to truly take gaming into the next generation requires a larger data format for both games and movies.

"PS3 uses the Blu-ray format for gaming, giving developers 50GB of high-definition storage on a single disc, while Microsoft's 9GB DVD gaming format is an obstacle for storing HD content.

"Furthermore, Microsoft's announced HD games patch is really just a compatibility feature - upscaling lower-resolution content does not make it Full HD (1080p), something that PS3 can do out of the box."

Microsoft's position, of course, is that it's wrong to charge consumers extra for a next-generation DVD format that only some of them will care about.

It's argued the point vigorously in the past, repeatedly asserting that HD-DVD will not be used for games, and has also pointed out that it views 720p as a better target standard for high-definition gaming.

For more from Sony, tune in at 2AM BST on Friday morning to hear what Ken Kutaragi has to say in his Tokyo Game Show keynote address, entitled "Next-Generation Entertainment Created by the PS3".

Perhaps he's going to play a video of their E3 conference.