Nintendo makes 'babysitting tools' - Sony

Earlier this week, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton made headlines for saying the Japanese earthquake and tsunami might delay the launch of the NGP. While that assertion was later dismissed by Sony, the executive has now once again found himself in the news for some scathing comments about his company's competition.

Speaking with Fortune magazine, Tretton was blunt in his assessment of the suite of DS devices, which he referred to collectively as the "Game Boy experience." He said, "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 20-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those. He's too old for that."

He went on to offer some choice words about the Xbox 360 and Wii as well, saying: "They're starting to run out of steam now in terms of continuing to be relevant in 2011 and beyond. 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?"

Naturally, Tretton praised his own company's platforms, particularly the PlayStation 3. "If you're really going to sustain technology for a decade, you have to be cutting edge when you launch a platform," he told Fortune. "Here we are four years into the PlayStation 3, and it's just hitting its stride. We'll enjoy a long downhill roll behind it because the technology that was so cutting-edge in 2006 is extremely relevant today and is conspicuously absent in our competition."

The executive also talked up 3D gaming, saying, "Conceptually, it's hard for people to put their head around. But when you put them in front of a 3D TV and you have them play Killzone [3] or Uncharted [3] or you let them watch the National Championship in 3D, they get it. Just like with HD, people have to experience it, there has to be content that takes advantage of it, and I think this is going to be a pretty nice breakout year for that."