Tretton and Iwata Talk About the Next-Gen

From a big 'ol Forbes article on the next generation of consoles. Most of it's crap. They've got quotes from THQ, and the writer still thinks the Wii is sold out, however there are a couple decent lines in the piece.

And, as Jack Tretton,president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, pointsout, an advanced machine doesn't necessarily rule out a run at the massmarket. "As far as next generation is concerned, I think one of the distinctadvantages that we have is we don't have to go in a specificdirection," he says. "I don't think the fact that we have a high-endmachine keeps us from doing bite-sized casual entertainment. I don'tthink we're relegated to PC shooters or youth-oriented casual games. Wecan span the gamut."

Nintendo, as you mightexpect, is approaching things a bit differently. President Satoru Iwatafreely admits the company is already working on the Wii's successor(something Microsoft's Shane Kim refuses to concede). However, he addsthat he doesn't view the hardware as particularly interesting."We are always preparing for the next hardware," Iwata says. "We areunder development. … But the hardware is a kind of box that consumersreluctantly buy in order to play our games."

They're both laying relatively subtle hints for the next-gen's business model here.

Sony will be pushing hardware, again, trying to get a piece of the casual market. I mean, they can try, but Nintendo's got that sector of the market cornered, and probably will for quite a while.

eanwhile, Nintendo will have to find some sort new means of interaction, because it doesn't seem like hardware will be a huge push for them [again]. With any luck though, we'll finally get HD.

And as for Microsoft? Uh... Kim refuses to admit that they're even working on a new Xbox...

...yeah... I'd roll my eyes, but the smilies don't work. [:P]

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I might be lost here, but has THIS gen even started yet? I was under the impression that it didn't start until Sony sad so, is it official if we're talking about Next Gen, or is he talking about this gen? Some Twilight Zone shit.