Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Last year Ken Katuragi was heavily criticized for calling the PlayStation 3 a computer. Last week Bill Gates called the Xbox 360 a computer in a 1Up interview mentioned on EvilAvatar. And Gates has basically been given a free pass by the press.

I’m having a hard time trying to figure out why Gates got this free pass from the gaming and tech press. So far I’ve built two theories, based on the products themselves and the companies behind them.

In terms of products, Microsoft has announced they’re going to put IPTV and DVR-like functionality for it into the Xbox 360. It’s a computer-like product, I suppose, something that doesn’t necessarily play games. Back when the Xbox was rumored, the PC industry was afraid of it, believing that Microsoft was going to start selling locked-down PC hardware, so Microsoft made sure to convince them and the public that the Xbox was a gaming machine only. This makes the new claim unusual. Sony’s PlayStation 3 browses the web and reads RSS feeds, as well as plays back a variety of video and audio formats. It even allows you to install an alternate operating system, and even now not one but two distributions of Linux are available for it. Sony’s product is closer to a computer, and I don’t think anybody expected Sony to make it as configurable as it is, but these are details that were unknown at the time Kutaragi made his much-ridiculed comment. Timing seems to be the key thing if we think about the products themselves. The PS3′s capabilities weren’t known, and the Xbox 360′s computer-like capabilities are, well, vaporware. They’re not launched yet. Is this a draw?

My second theory is just plain American bias. Microsoft is an American company, and not just any American company, THE American company. They’re massive, powerful, rule the PC world, and have a very strong international presence. Sony has big brand status and a wide set of products, and they are definitely not an American company. They’re a Japanese company. Sony has been around a long time, and maybe there’s some animosity towards their success. Is there a quiet movement in the US hoping that a homegrown company can take the crown from foreign ones, a movement with perhaps unconscious sympathizers that forgive marketing doublespeak from a US company and tears down foreign companies that speak it? Could it be that we allow and expect talk from US companies that try to bend the truth about the core nature of their product in the US and don’t tolerate it from foreign companies?

I’m more inclined to think that the products are at the heart of this. The PS3 wasn’t well known, and the Xbox 360 has more capabilities coming to it that some would call PC-like. What do you think?