Tretton warns that Wii may be a fad, and investment there may yield a high price

In a recent interview, Sony bigwig Jack Tretton shared his thoughts on the success of the Nintendo Wii and gave some comments on the subject of developers and publishers investing corporate resources on the hottest-selling console to date.

Tretton pointed out that the Wii may be a fad that could fizzle out in time, leaving investors out in the cold. To illustrate his point, Tretton came up with this interesting analogy:

We have seen it time and time again. Tomb Raider was a revolutionary product on the PlayStation. Everyone tried to do a rip off. By the time they got there, it was too late. When Grand Theft Auto came out, everybody gravitated to Grand Theft Auto. Now the Wii is having success. They are touting casual gaming. Supposedly everybody is going to race over to casual games. The unfortunate thing is the fruits of those labors will show up two years down the road, and if the consumer tastes shift, they will find themselves all dressed up with no place to go.

Tretton then continued referring to the Wii as he explained that technology, in his 21 years in the business, has never stopped or taken a step back. “From the Atari to the NES to the Super NES, the technology got better. The graphics got better. The game play got more immersive,” he says.

However, Tretton did concede the success of Nintendo’s platform and said that the Wii has a market entirely its own and that comparing how Sony does business with how Nintendo does it is a bit difficult. “I made a comment in one interview that comparing us to Nintendo is like comparing us to Nike,” he recalls. “We are more divergent than we have ever been. We have different views on how to approach the consumer for the long term.”

Along with these points, Tretton answered a slew of other interesting queries. If you want to read the full length of the interview, simply follow the read link posted below.

In a recent interview, Sony bigwig Jack Tretton shared his thoughts on the success of the Nintendo Wii and gave some comments on the subject of developers and publishers investing corporate resources on the hottest-selling console to date.

Tretton pointed out that the Wii may be a fad that could fizzle out in time, leaving investors out in the cold. To illustrate his point, Tretton came up with this interesting analogy:

We have seen it time and time again. Tomb Raider was a revolutionary product on the PlayStation. Everyone tried to do a rip off. By the time they got there, it was too late. When Grand Theft Auto came out, everybody gravitated to Grand Theft Auto. Now the Wii is having success. They are touting casual gaming. Supposedly everybody is going to race over to casual games. The unfortunate thing is the fruits of those labors will show up two years down the road, and if the consumer tastes shift, they will find themselves all dressed up with no place to go.

Tretton then continued referring to the Wii as he explained that technology, in his 21 years in the business, has never stopped or taken a step back. “From the Atari to the NES to the Super NES, the technology got better. The graphics got better. The game play got more immersive,” he says.

However, Tretton did concede the success of Nintendo’s platform and said that the Wii has a market entirely its own and that comparing how Sony does business with how Nintendo does it is a bit difficult. “I made a comment in one interview that comparing us to Nintendo is like comparing us to Nike,” he recalls. “We are more divergent than we have ever been. We have different views on how to approach the consumer for the long term.”

Along with these points, Tretton answered a slew of other interesting queries. If you want to read the full length of the interview, simply follow the read link posted below.