Sony PlayStation CEO Jack Tretton was interviewed this week by Fortune and he made some interesting comments including calling Nintendo's handhelds "babysitting tools" and stating that Sony is on the verge of having its best year, ever.
Despite losing as much as $300 per PS3 console sold at launch in 2006, Tretton says Sony is set to have its "best year ever" thanks to the expensive tech inside the powerful console, including a Blu-ray drive, CELL processor and Nvidia GPU.
Sony has sold over 49 million PS3s, to date, slightly behind the Xbox 360 and its one-year head start at 53 million but well behind the Nintendo Wii at over 85 million.
Into the future, Tretton believes the PS3's hardware will help it remain strongly successful:
Although the PSP has been handily destroyed in the handheld gaming market, Tretton still took some shots at the DS:
The DS line has sold 146 million units compared to Sony's 67 million PSPs. Furthermore, Nintendo has just released their 3DS handheld while Sony expects to release the NGP (PSP2) by the end of the year boasting cutting edge specs, just like the PS3 had at launch.
Sony has sold over 49 million PS3s, to date, slightly behind the Xbox 360 and its one-year head start at 53 million but well behind the Nintendo Wii at over 85 million.
Into the future, Tretton believes the PS3's hardware will help it remain strongly successful:
If you're really going to sustain technology for a decade, you have to be cutting edge when you launch a platform. 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.
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?
Although the PSP has been handily destroyed in the handheld gaming market, Tretton still took some shots at the DS:
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. He's too old for that.
The DS line has sold 146 million units compared to Sony's 67 million PSPs. Furthermore, Nintendo has just released their 3DS handheld while Sony expects to release the NGP (PSP2) by the end of the year boasting cutting edge specs, just like the PS3 had at launch.
