Microsoft’s group product manager for Xbox and Xbox Live, Aaron Greenberg, has defended his company’s ongoing annual £39.99 charge for multiplayer access to Xbox Live, whilst at the same passed comment on rival Sony’s developing online offering.

In an interview on Gametrailers, Greenberg stated: “To me I don’t think price is a big issue. I really think that if you look at Live almost everything we offer is free.

“You get a good 80 per cent of the Live experience for free. We feel our multiplayer offering is good value at 50 bucks a year.”

In relation to his competitor, Greenberg went on to criticise certain elements of Sony’s network:

“It’s not a unified service so if I’m playing Resistance, for example, and a friend of mine is in the dashboard, I can’t invite him into the game. There’s not that consistent experience. It’s not built into the core platform which is something for us which is very important.”

However, the Xbox man did find time for some words of praise for his competitor:

“I like their store. It’s different. It’s more like being on a web page so to me it’s a little slower and a little harder to navigate because of that but visually its familiar. I like the original PSOne games. I think bringing those back makes sense – it’s in their library.”