Sony director takes swipe at Nintendo DSi

Suggests only attracts kiddy demographic

7 October 2008 16:05 GMT / By Verity Burns

Sony has taken a carefully hidden swipe at its competitor Nintendo and its recently announced DSi console.

Director of hardware marketing at Sony, John Koller, said that he expected the new handheld to be just as successful as the DS Lite, but followed the compliment swiftly with a comment that suggested Nintendo's handheld is only used by children

"I can see the DSi being successful. The DS Lite was obviously very successful," he said.

"Will DSi do well with [the DS's] demographic? It probably will. Will it be a product that expands their user base [beyond] under 12? I'm not sure," he added.

Not sure that was enough, he added in a sly dig about the new DSi features, saying: "Nintendo has kind of a history of these [moderate] kinds of updates, and even with DS Lite, there was a lot of discussion, 'Is that enough?' And they seemed to do pretty well there."

Although it is true that Sony has targetted an older audience than Nintendo, to say that Nintendo's DS only attracts children is slightly unfair - especially considering sales figures.

The DS has sold more than double the number of PSPs in Japan since its release, as it has in the UK - with 7.1 million installed units compared to the PSPs 2.9 million units.

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