Sony CEO: DS is a "babysitting tool"

The Nintendo DS is nothing more than a kids-only "babysitting tool", reckons Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton.

"Our view of the 'Game Boy experience' is that it's a great babysitting tool," Tretton said in a bruising chat with CNN, "something young kids do on airplanes, but no self-respecting 20-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those. He's too old for that."

Elsewhere in the interview, Tretton also leveled his sights at the Wii and Xbox 360.

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

"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?"

Sony, on the other hand, is all set, he claimed.

"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 four 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."

According to a recent sales report, the global Wii install base currently sits at 75.5 million, with PlayStation 3 at 43.4 million and the Xbox 360 on 42.9 million.

As for Nintendo's babysitting tool, that's now sold around 145 million units, while Sony's PSP sits at 67 million.