Curiously, Hirai told the Official PlayStation Magazine, as relayed by CVG, that "official leadership" was not contingent on a console's install base or which system sells more and when.

He then criticized the Xbox 360 as "something that lacks longevity," explaining that "[Microsoft has] never had a console that's been on the market for more than four or five years and we've committed to a ten year life cycle, so you do the math."

"Unless things go really bad," he added, "there's no way that at the end of a life cycle our competition is going to have a higher install base."

Conveniently, Nintendo and its ever-popular Wii console aren't part of that competition, as Sony doesn't "look at their console as being competitors" because "they're a different world and we operate in our world." Microsoft has previously snubbed the Wii as well, claiming that the Xbox 360 dominated worldwide so long as the Wii wasn't counted.

While Microsoft replaced the original Xbox with the Xbox 360 after four years, Microsoft president Robbie Bach recently told Mercury News that he expects this generation to "be a little longer than previous generations" as "just coming up with something that's faster and prettier isn't going to be sufficient."

Currently, the Xbox 360 has an almost 2:1 lead on the PlayStation 3 in North America, with an 8 million unit lead worldwide. However, the Nintendo Wii has outperformed both systems in all territories, having sold 34.55 million units before the holiday season.

Many analysts expect Sony to cut the price of the PlayStation 3 this April, with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Patcher informing GameDaily of his belief that the PlayStation 3 would eventually outsell the Xbox 360 if both consoles were priced equally.