Jack Tretton calls Nintendo Handhelds a "Babysitting Tool"

 "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."

"They're starting to run out of steam now in terms of continuing to be relevant in 2011 and beyond," he 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?"   

"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 says. "He's too old for that."

"With the NGP, we asked, what is it that is lacking? We looked at every technology out there, every [bell and] whistle, and how can we make those flexible as possible for consumers to experience."   

It's true though. That goes for all platforms too.

" It's true though. "

It's hard to deny the fact that there's still a stigma of sorts involved.

@Jack - And that is why you fail.....

I suggest you don't get too riled up over some remarks a suit makes. Microsoft execs say the Kinect is the future because traditional controls are outdated, Nintendo believes people should still play games in the same room and achievements detract from the game, and now Sony comes out with comments like these among others from the past. Just ignore them and support the games you like on all platforms. 

Looks like the old Sony is back.

Shame too, because it felt they were growing up for a little while.

Sony is fuckin garbage on all fronts. Fuck'em.

I don't believe for a second that Tretton actually thinks Nintendo are making handhelds which are only played by male young children. I really wish all console manufacturers, publishers, and developers could promote their own products without feeling the need to make these cheap shots at the competition. It's also interesting that Tretton refers to motion gaming as "cute" when Sony themselves have motion gaming peripherals they've been strongly trying to push on the Playstation 3.

I feel pretty good about my 3DS purchase.

oooooooh dip!

Oh Mr. Tretton, jealousy is a stinky cologne. By the way, has the next generation started yet? We're all still waiting for Sony to say that it has.

"LOL Sony."

Strong words coming from last place. I wonder how adult he feels waving around his Move glow pop. 

I love my PS3 but anytime you have prop yourself up by denigrating your competition just further emphasizes your position of vulnerability. This goes for many things.

" It's hard to deny the fact that there's still a stigma of sorts involved. "

I'm too old to play my DS/Gameboy? I didn't know that! Thank goodness this guy told me. What was I thinking? And here I was all this time playing things like Professor Layton and Radiant Historia and thinking I was having fun. Boy, was I wrong.

If we were talking about a company that understood the handheld market, these comments might be remotely surprising.

i dont babysit outside

*Reggie Fils-Aime looks at DS sales, looks at PSP sales, looks back at DS sales, smirks as he reads news story, then goes back to swimming in his pool full of money*

I'd rather be seen with the girl colour 3DS than with any colour PSP.

PS3 does have a tech advantage over 360, which is useful for all of two exclusives a year - nobody else bothers using it.  Sony and Microsoft might as well just agree to use identical hardware in their next consoles.  Both could still have their exclusives, and multi-plat development would be way cheaper and easier.

"

on the plus side all this talk from him about how new hardware needs to be cutting edge kind of lays my fears of the ps4 being a slightly redesigned ps3.  (like the gamecude was to wii)

   

"

Honestly, unless I am on a plane, whipping out my DS or PSP makes me feel a bit judged. So it seems that I am the opposite example that he is giving.

I'm still waiting for my $1200 for finding PS3s on store shelves.

" @SpudBug: Why bother posting a quote from a PR guy trying to hype his product while bashing others? An obviously biased statement holds no water for people who are able to think at a higher than ninth grade level. Are you offended because a guy marketing his product made fun of something you like? "

Considering that when facing the DS or even the GBA you could call the PSP a "Dismal failure", I think nintendo still wins this one.

He's got a point. I'm too old to take the bus anymore, I have nowhere to actually play handhelds anymore.

JACK TRETTON HAS NO TIME FOR THIS BULLSHIT KIDS STUFF.

" @keyhunter: You're too old to take public transportation? I see people of all ages on the bus everyday. "

a lot of people do commute with public transportation though. Not everyone can.

Tretton is hilarious, I <3 all these PR guys. 

He's right. Every once in a while I bring my DS on my morning commute, but rarely pull it out because I'm fairly certain I'll be perceived as a weirdo. Probably speaks more to my self-confidence than DS' and Game Boy's, but still...

I guess I just don't give a shit what random people think that much. 

" *Reggie Fils-Aime looks at DS sales, looks at PSP sales, looks back at DS sales, smirks as he reads news story, then goes back to swimming in his pool full of money*

"

" I guess I just don't give a shit what random people think that much. 
Or being entertained while bored on a commute or waiting somewhere is more important than what someone walking by thinks of me, lol.
"

This sounds like a bunch of phrases created by a guy who is out of touch with the community he's trying to talk about.

-Yes, the PS3 hardware is very good.  The PS3 exclusives are incredibly impressive graphically and blu-ray is a huge advantage.   But it's online capabilities is just now reaching what Xbox 360 had at launch. 
-Casual fans buy systems without hard-drives.  SKUs without hard-drives can sell for less to people who don't know any better.  It sort of screws over those fans in the long run, especially if they really get in to the system, but it sells to people who would otherwise not buy the system.  It's intelligent from a business sense but not really from a fan or developer sense.
-The Gameboy perspective is a broad generalization based off of a minority of parents who have children who play with the DS.  This comment is just a lame, lazy push of the 'Nintendo is for kids' mantra by a salesman who doesn't understand what he's talking about.
-I don't have a lot to say about the NGP.  I don't know if the 'everything but the kitchen sink' is a good approach or not.  It is certainly an expensive approach for Sony and consumers.

So, I guess in closing, he's an out of touch salesman.

" @Snapstacle said:

" It's true though. "

Yep.  The PSP does the same thing as well. "

Maybe Sony should try making a babysitting tool instead of something nobody wants to buy.

he's right though, who the hell still plays their game boy?

i'm more amazed people are afraid of playing their DS in public incase some stranger thinks they are weird. Some serious insecurities right there, does it really matter what someone you will never see again thinks? if they're the type of person to think videogames are for kids then they're probably someone you wouldn't get on with anyway.

" @Ben_H said:

" *Reggie Fils-Aime looks at DS sales, looks at PSP sales, looks back at DS sales, smirks as he reads news story, then goes back to swimming in his pool full of money*

"

PSP outsold 3DS this week in Japan. "

Nintendo is basically the Apple of the console world. It's cool to own a Nintendo, at least in the communities frequent.

Jack Tretton is a fool to come out with such comments, he only makes the company look desperate in doing so, and it's easy to see why when you look at the sales figures and content available for DS. On another note, 3DS is getting mature software, it's already happening, I've already played it.

Hey look its a Sony dude slinging mud at the others...
You never ever saw that before, right?

I'm 22 so I guess I better throw my Ds lite away now. Thanks Jack for the enlightenment.

Guess you really need to attack the industry leader when your own product will come out a year or more later, will probably be fucking expensive and will stay behind the DS again.