SCEA's Jack Tretton claims PSP owning the DS

Normally, we wouldn't care who SCEA's executive VP Jack Tretton is talking to, but when he starts to bust on our beloved DS, we take notice.

When a GameDaily interview turned to the subject of Nintendo, Tretton said, "I think obviously our competition ... they're appealing to the same audience that Game Boy has always appealed to. And if you look at the adoption rate of the DS over the first 17 months, not only does it trail the PSP but it also trails their other platforms ... They're potentially losing some of their core audience and they're not really expanding beyond that ...."

Wow. We're not even sure where to start. First, of course, come the sales numbers. Worldwide, the DS in no way trails the PSP. Maybe Tretton, in his role at Sony Computer Entertainment America, is only interested in the U.S., but there is a wide world of gamers out there. And the numbers, at least, don't lie -- not only does the DS consistently outsell the PSP worldwide, but people keep buying new and different versions, because one DS just isn't enough. And sure, okay. Many of the same people who buy GBAs also buy a DS or DS Lite, since the GBA often outsells the PSP as well, not to mention smashing the ten years' worth of numbers they keep touting for the original Playstation.

But what's really giggle-worthy in Tretton's remarks is his comment that Nintendo is not expanding beyond their traditional handheld market. Perhaps that's true in bizarro-Sony-world, a world in which Brain Age, Nintendogs and Electroplankton don't exist. We shudder to think of such a place, but apparently, that's what's keeping Jack Tretton warm between bong hits. And that's not all when it comes to Tretton's rich fantasy life. When James Brightman, GameDaily's interviewer, asked how Sony was trying to combat Nintendo's effort to reach into the market of older gamers, Tretton pulled some numbers out of the air. "I would tell you for a fact that there are much more people in their 50s and 60s playing PlayStation platforms in terms of console, than there are playing Nintendo platforms." Oh! Well! The scientific polling work behind those numbers is truly edifying. Gallup, take note.

But hey, at least Tretton is upbeat about the future. "We'll ultimately appeal to that vastly Earth wide audience we carved out with the original PlayStation," he said. We didn't have the heart to tell him that all those people already own a DS.