With yesterday announcing word that the HD-DVD external add-on for the will be out in come November, have hit back against the rival format on the eve of their Tokyo Game Show conference. Recognising that the new format is crucial to the PS3's success, Sony spokesperson David Karraker took the liberty of emailing gaming site Kotaku with his take on the situation as it stands.

"It's unfortunate that Microsoft's external HD-DVD drive will not enhance the experience at all for the gamer," the director of corporate communications explained sardonically. "Sony realises that to truly take gaming into the next generation requires a larger data format for both games and movies."

Karraker continues, explaining that the PS3, thanks to Blu-ray, gives developers 50gb to work with per disk, as opposed to the 9gb 360 game creators have to content themselves with. He added that this is an 'obstacle' to HD (high-definition) content in games. "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 can do out of the box," he concluded.

For their part, Microsoft believe the best high-definition approach currently targets the 720p resolution standard on the 360 console - Sony, meanwhile, are maneuvering to portray the PS3 as the 'true' high-definition gaming experience. More on this interesting tussle as it emerges.

By Luke Guttridge