The battle cry in the battle for next-gen supremacy would seem to be "Pile on Sony!" these days. The accusation of copycatting has been flying lately, first with Nintendo accusing the PS3 of stealing their controller design. Now, Microsoft has their verbal guns pointed at Sony over the inspiration for their upcoming free online feature.

I'm flattered that they've followed our clear direction," Chris Lewis told Eurogamer TV, in the second part of an exclusive interview broadcast today. "Plagiarism is a good thing - that in itself isn't such a problem, it's what the market wants. But we've known that's what the market wanted all along."

"It's good to see them catching up in that regard," he noted. "I think the service is still hazy in my view in terms of how it's really going to work for the consumer - how the pricing is going to work still to me seems very unclear."

So Bill Gates doesn't like the PlayStation 3 controller, and Chris Lewis isn't sold on Sony's online service. But these are merely words from competitors, the true test will be whether gamers prefer the PS3 and everything that comes with it.

In the immortal words of The Carpenters: It's only just begun.