Sony PlayStation CEO Punks Nintendo for Making 'Babysitting Tools'
Sony PlayStation CEO Punks Nintendo for Making 'Babysitting Tools'
Posted 04/12/2011 at 5:08am
| by Paul Lilly
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Sony CEO Jack Tretton didn't mince any words when discussing Nintendo's Wii and DS gaming consoles. He isn't concerned about the recently released 3DS, nor is he losing any sleep over third party numbers, which has the PlayStation 3 sitting in third place with 49.2 million PS3's sold globally, compared to 86.3 million Wiis. If you ask Tretton, and CNN did, Nintendo builds 'babysitting tools.'
"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 CNN. "He's too old for that."
As for the Wii, and the Xbox 360 for that matter, Tretton was equally critical, saying that the PlayStation 3 is much better positioned to remain relevant for years to come.
"They're starting to run out of steam now in terms of continuing to be relevant in 2011 and beyond," Tretton says. "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?"
What's interesting about Tretton's comments is that he blatantly ignores the sales figures. While dismissing the 'Game Boy experience,' as he puts it, he ignores the fact that Nintendo has sold more than 146 million DS devices worldwide, compared to 67 million PSP devices. The same holds true in the console space. Even though the PS3 lags behind the competition in terms of number of units sold, Tretton holds firm that Sony holds the advantage.
"If you're really going to sustain technology for a decade, you have to be cutting edge when you launch a platform," he says. "Here we are 4 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."
Image Credit: infendo.com
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ProtoJMB
April 14, 2011 at 12:00am
PSSSSHHHHHHH !!!!!!
My PC blows away anything Sony has to offer. As for consoles, any console I by is Nintendo cause I still like Mario, Zelda, and the other Nintendo games. Anything else I can play on PC!
Thoren
April 12, 2011 at 11:44am
My NES and SNES still work perfectly, decades later. My Playstation and PS2 (both gifts) both died within 2 years of gentle ownership. Other than a Sony VCR and my old Trinitron CRT (which lasted about 5 years), every Sony product I've seen has been over-hyped and over-priced.
nealtse
April 12, 2011 at 10:16am
Superiority (in technology) doesn't necessary mean "advantage" as he is trying to argue. Although, all the shovelware is starting to pile up for the Wii. The PS3 Move isn't exactly innocent either.
D00dlavy
April 12, 2011 at 8:38am
++ for Sony.
I used to support Nintendo for their last-place GameCube. The Wii, however, has forced me to desert this previous position; it’s cuteness, childishness, shoddy motion controls and lack of compelling hardcore gaming content is inexcusable.
The fact that millions and millions of morons (myself included) bought a Wii doesn’t imply true quality. I’ll bet half of the Wiis sold, like mine, are collecting dust.
PC gamer first. PS3 gamer second.
someuid
April 12, 2011 at 8:22am
"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?"
"If you're really going to sustain technology for a decade, you have to be cutting edge when you launch a platform," he says. "Here we are 4 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"
My PC is laughing so hard, its crying.
Blab all you want about cost or sales or fanboy noise. Our PCs crush anything the consoles can serve up. We have mutliplayer gaming like no other. We have multimonitor gaming like no other. We are scalable like no other. We have access to cutting edge technology faster than anyone else.
The only reason this guy doesn't mention the PC as competition is because he and the other console makers are in a very, very distand 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and can't even see the PC out there in 1st place.
rawrnomnom
April 12, 2011 at 8:48am
win.
My i7 and dual 560's are going to crush the graphics on any xbox or PS3.... I actually was playing with my roommates 360 and the graphics look like crap after playing PC games. My fav argument though is the price one. Pc gaming isnt too expensive if you think about it. For an xbox you spend ~250, for your computer you spend ~450, now if you didnt buy the xbox, and put that money into a gaming computer... well duh. You have ~700 to play with, can still use your tv as a monitor, and get the ability to perfrom your own upgrades, and to play games with the graphics turned up! Console gaming only exists because of PC gaming, and without PC's pushing ahead in the race you console fan boys would still be playing super mario bros. Now to get corperations to release the console ports with dx11 so we can actually challenge our hardware...
Oh, and there isnt really a technology that "remains relivant for years to come" in this day and age... The console wars are over.... They all lost because they are out of date, and have no way to fix that particular problem.
D00dlavy
April 12, 2011 at 8:41am
No, it's because PCs are a respectable niche market. Elite, if you would. But our numbers have never swelled to the console ranks.
This is capitalism, and the largest, dumbest mass of spenders always "wins."
rawrnomnom
April 12, 2011 at 8:04am
Nintendo makes babysitting tools, sony makes glorified BlueRay players... now which company recently pissed off a large portion of it's consumer base? OOh... thats right. Now where'd I put my DS...
Caboose
April 12, 2011 at 10:51am
I'm 27 and I play my DSi all the time. How many PSPs do you see out there compared to DS'? Not to mention the horribly failed PSP Go...
jth
April 12, 2011 at 6:25am
"no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those"
Speak for yourself. That's a pretty sad way of saying, "Cool people don't do that. You're cool enough to use our products instead, right?" I'm in my late twenties and I still buy and play Nintendo systems but I don't own an Xbox and my PS3 is collecting dust. You can talk all the trash you want about Nintendo but the fact is they still have awesome first party franchises (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc) and whether you bought one or not, the Wii won the battle for this generation of gaming consoles.
Xylogeist
April 12, 2011 at 7:36am
Oh hush now fanboy. The console that "won the battle" is purely up to your preference. Even if you were to go on sales alone, Microsoft has them all beat. The Xbox 360 may have only sold 55 million units (as of March 2011), but they have over 33 million Xbox live members paying them 60$ a year. Yea, try chocking that up to nintendos just over 30 million lead in console sales. Microsoft made full profit on Xbox live, while Wii is only making half profit on each console sale. Plus the fact that Xbox has more Microsoft studios games than Nintendo has Nintendo primary games. (Gears, Halo, NG, etc VS Mario, Metroid, Zelda (which are all getting rather old and dull in some cases))
As for the Playstation 3. The statistics are actually messed up here... they don't have 49.2 mill sales. As of December they had 49.7 mill, and as of March I believe they have over 51 mill, but I can't say for sure (I haven't checked the stats in a few days).
Leave fanboyism behind, all consoles are fine. Personally, I'd have to go with Xbox live, simply because multiplayer is the dominant market these days, and Nintendo is surely falling behind in that area (as is PS3... which doesn't even have a cross-game chat).
Caboose
April 12, 2011 at 11:05am
If the battle is which console that won you over, then yes. Your console of choice won. However, in terms of sales numbers (which then translates in to customers), no. The console of your choice does not the winner make. Based on sales numbers, Nintendo has come out in 1st place between the 3. In terms on online players, Microsoft has come out in first place, and in terms of overhype and pissing off its customers, Sony has come out in first place.
Yes, Mario, Zelda and Metroid may be "getting old" but that doesn't stop people from still buying the newest one. And that also doesn't mean that games based on those franchises aren't made to very high quality/standards. Metroid is continuing a very long story, and each game is telling a different aspect of that story, or continuing the existing one.
The Metroid Prime trilogy and Metroid Hunters (DS) took place between Metroid II and Super Metroid. Other M took place after Super Metroid. Metroid Pinball is... its own game.
Zelda is a different story, as each game is in its own timeline. Except for Orcarena of Time and Majora's Mask. I think those are in the same timeline...
And Mario... Except for a couple of games (Galaxy, Sunshine) the rest are its own story/timeline.
I will agree w/you on the online aspect. I'm not a fan of the PSN, and Nintendo really needs to step up their game with the next release. But online isn't everything.
Jasker
April 12, 2011 at 5:44am
A better product doesn't always sell more. It's obvious that between the 3 major consoles that the PS3 is the most powerful one of the bunch. But marketing, audience, and pricing also sell.
Cheapest PS3 sells for $300? Xbox 360 $200? And Wii $180? That's what I pulled up from a major US retailer. Selling a family/child oriented gaming console cheaper than the competition. That worked? Holy cow it makes no sense!
Caboose
April 12, 2011 at 10:48am
The Dreamcast is a good example. It was more powerful than the competition and now it doesn't exist any more.
r6srider
April 12, 2011 at 5:34am
Sounds more like someone is a bit jealous and trying to compensate by bad mouthing the competition. I don't think nintendo is going out anytime soon, they are a smart company, regardless of how "kiddie" you think their products are. Sega used to talk trash about nintendo, and look how that worked out, they came out with an advanced system for the time, it flopped, and now they make games for nintendo.
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