Sat, Apr 09, 2011 | 23:01 BST
Tretton: 360 “running out of steam,” Nintendo makes “babysitting tools”
SCEA CEO Jack Tretton has taken some serious pot shots at both Nintendo and Microsoft in a new interview with Fortune today, launching an unprecedented attack on Wii, 360 and Nintendo’s portable consoles.
Tretton tried to again make the case that the Playstation 3 is “just hitting its stride” with regards to the console’s hardware, which includes both a hard drive and a Blu-Ray player.
Related to Wii and the Xbox 360, Tretton said: “They’re starting to run out of steam now in terms of continuing to be relevant in 2011 and beyond.”
He added: “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?”
He also took a shot against Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller. Tretton said: “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?”
And what about Nintendo’s portable family of consoles? Tretton 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 twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those. He’s too old for that.”
Tretton’s remarks will not go down well with either the competition or fans. PS3 was claimed recently to have a higher “active user base” than Xbox 360, but is still lagging in terms of raw sales.
Wii sales far eclipse those of PS3, meaning that in terms of basic sales, PS3 trails both Microsoft and Nintendo’s current gen machines.
3DS launched in Japan in February and in the west last month.
64 comments
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#51
Christopher Jack
09/04/11, 12:52 pm
@48, That’s why Sony them self are making 3 full retail games JUST for Move, MS have 3 Kinect exclusives themselves too.
Also not every multiplat game sells better on 360, most multiplat games only sell about 10% more on the 360 than the PS3 so that’s not as drastic as you make it seem.
360 exclusives don’t easily outsell PS3 exclusives;
Halo 3 sold around 8 mil, Gears 1 & 2 sold around 5 mil each, Fable 2 & Halo: Reach & ODST sold around 3.5 mil.
Gran Turismo 5 has so far sold around 6.5 mil, the prologue a little over 5 mil, Uncharted 2 is close to 4 mil, Motorstorm, LBP, MGS all around 3 mil, inFamous, KZ2, Resistance FoM & Uncharted Drake’s Fortune all sold above 2 mil.
Just to clarify, I’m not arguing because I’m a Sony fan but because I like to debate with people.
#52
bluffbluff03
09/04/11, 1:02 pm
That´s ridiculous. Playstation move is a copy of the “babysitting tools”. And the PSN is nothing but rubbish in conrtast to the xbox Live marketplace even if one need to pay for it. What I want to say is: the PS3 is really not perfect. And the PS3 will never have the right to talk about Wii/DS and 360 that way. Please, first solve your own problems (for example the deformed PS3 controller). The hardware is good and there are many good games. but such comments make the PS3 a bid “unpleasant”!
#53
Syrok
09/04/11, 1:16 pm
“Playstation move is a copy of the “babysitting tools”
He wasn’t talking about the Wii or Playtstation move then. The babysitting remark is in reference to the Nintendo DS and what not.
#54
Christopher Jack
09/04/11, 1:17 pm
Deformed PS3 controller? That’s ridiculous! It’s not entirely ergonomic but it’s still good, hope they change the form factor to something more round, increase the analog sticks quality & finally fix the triggers with the DS4. Other than the above mentioned problems, it’s the perfect controller with the famous layout, some prefer the D-pad & left stick switched, I personally do not.
#55
kennaah
09/04/11, 1:19 pm
@51: you’re numbers are complety wrong
Halo 3: 11.43 mil
halo reach: 8,17 mil
Gears 1: 6,13 mil
Gears 2: 6,20 mil
halo odst: 5,89 mil
fable 2: 4,09 mil
gran turusmo 5: 6,11 mil
gran tusismo 5 prologue: 4,06 mil
uncharted 2: 4,55 mil
uncharted 1: 3,57 mil
motorstorm: 3,56 mil
killzone 3: 1,28 mil
killzone 2: 2,61 mil
lbp: 4,33 mil
Resistance FOM: 3,75 mil
source: vgchartz
PS3: 1 game that you mention +6mil sales, Xbox360: 4 games that you mention +6mil sales
if you like to debate with people, you better look up the correct numbers instead of saying some random number
#56
Suikoden Fan
09/04/11, 1:23 pm
@52 theres nothing wrong with the controller
#57
Christopher Jack
09/04/11, 1:29 pm
@55, You’re ignorant for using vgchartz numbers, they’re never right.
Response to Greenberg about Kinect sales:
“Every piece of data we report is an estimate. It will always be higher or lower than the actual figure and there will always be some for which the figure is favourable and some for which the figure is not. Whenever we release a piece of data that isn’t favourable for some reason, the easiest thing to do is to simply discredit the data”
#58
YoungZer0
09/04/11, 2:39 pm
@55: So people prefer to buy trash, big deal.
#59
bluffbluff03
09/04/11, 2:50 pm
Yeah, deformed sounds a bid too hard. But I think the 360-Controller is much more comfortable.
#60
Erthazus
09/04/11, 3:08 pm
@kennaah, never use Vgchartz.
Believing vgchartz is like believing your own toilet.
their numbers are circumstational.
#61
lexph3re
09/04/11, 3:55 pm
I find the 360 controller to only be comfortable with fps’s. Because the dpad is below the analog stick moving your thumb down is a lot easier for quick selects. But, other then that its a terrible controller to me for fighting games and action games
#62
DaMan
09/04/11, 5:21 pm
last time I’ve used the d-pad myself was in 2001, after some extensive use have to say analogs, triggers and the form of the gamepad make 360 one far superior all around. triggers make for better racing and shooting, analogs are properly placed and have a better feel to them, besides the whole thing is far more comfy to hold.
#63
Lounds
09/04/11, 6:07 pm
@55 who gives a shit seriously
#64
uwi121
10/04/11, 3:53 am
“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.”
No one is too old for that…he’s just pissed cause ps3 is hitting hard..and the sales is going DOWN! NOOB!
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