Kim doubts Sony's ability to deliver Home

Microsoft Game Studios' Shane Kim has attacked Sony's ambitious PlayStation 3 Home service, stating that he doubts the company can create a compelling virtual environment.

The corporate vice president also said that Sony's PlayStation Network wasn't in the same league as Xbox Live, in an interview for Shack News.

"I doubt [Sony's] ability to implement it and execute it in a really rich and compelling way," commented Kim.

"PlayStation Network is not Xbox Live, it's not even close. To think about layering [Home] on top of that — wow. The hardest part is not even creating the system, it regulating the behaviour and all of that too. That's a massive investment in infrastructure," he said.

Kim also said that Microsoft has no plans to produce a similar virtual world for it's Xbox Live service, as it would require too much work for a consumer who doesn't necessarily want that type of feature.

"I don't think we need anything like that. I've spent some time with the Linden Lab guys [developer of Second Life]. To try to build Second Life on Xbox Live — or You Tube, Facebook, any of those big social networking services — it's a lot of work," detailed Kim.

"I actually believe that most gamers will always find more value in what we have on Xbox Live and now Games for Windows Live and how we're building that out. That's what I think is a much better approach, and that's what our approach is going to be."