Nintendo President Weighs In On Sony's Next Generation Portable Announcement

It's no coincedence that months prior to Nintendo's latest handheld launch, Sony should reveal a system that they're dubbing the "Next Generation Portable". Sick burn.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata doesn't seem too concerned though. After all, why should he be? While the PlayStation Portable was a reasonable success globally (and particularly in Japan), the Nintendo DS obliterated it in worldwide sales.

“They’re trying to appeal to customers from a different direction than us. The customers will decide which is correct,” Iwata said at an earnings call .

“Nintendo is not the kind of company that thinks about how we oppose other company’s product."

Looking at Nintendo's line-up for the 3DS so far, we're not sure who Iwata's trying to dupe. Obviously he knows much more about the system's long-term plans than we do, but both new handhelds look like they're targeting the hardcore gamer pretty hard. If the 3DS's glasses-less 3D USP doesn't take off [it will - Ed], we could see Nintendo getting pounded in an out and out "hardcore gamers" turf-war. But Nintendo has Mario and Pokemon, so that's never going to happen.