Sony Chief: Nintendo Products Are 'Babysitting Tools'

Sony: Nintendo Makes 'Babysitting Tools'

In an interview with Fortune, Sony Playstation CEO Jack Tretton lashed out against gaming competitors, particularly Nintendo, whose products Tretton said were fine for a younger market but couldn't appeal to Playstation's more sophisticated gaming segment.

Looking into the future, Tretton said that Playstation 3 is just hitting its stride and will soar in the coming years. Meanwhile, he predicted, time won't be kind to products like the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox.

"[Nintendo] are starting to run out of steam now in terms of continuing to be relevant in 2011 and beyond," Tretton said. "I mean, you've gotta be kidding me. Why would I buy a gaming system without a hard drive in it? How does this thing scale? Motion gaming is cute, but if I can only wave my arms six inches, how does this really feel like I'm doing true accurate motion gaming?"

Tretton also waved off Nintendo's line of 3DS handheld devices, including the recent glasses-free Nintendo 3DS, calling the devices mere kiddie stuff.

"Our view of the 'Game Boy experience' is that it's a great babysitting tool, something young kids do on airplanes, but no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those," Tretton told Fortune. "He's too old for that."

The Consumerist notes, however, that Nintendo has sold 146 million DS units around the world. By comparison, Playstation Portable sales measure a paltry 67 million.

Tretton went on to speak about the upcoming portable Playstation console known only as NGP, as well as Sony's plans to release more 3D games for the Playstation platform.

To read the complete interview, visit Fortune.

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