NGP Message Board older than one year ago

As a result of the recent earthquake in Japan, the NGP handheld may not make the holiday 2011 release window worldwide. "It may be the straw that says 'maybe we get to just one market by the end of the year,'" SCEA president Jack Tretton told Bloomberg, suggesting that Sony may opt to stagger production of the handheld and release it in just one territory this year. According to Bloomberg, damage from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has slowed Sony's production line by forcing the closure of "several" factories in northern Japan. Sony's plan as of January was already to have the handheld out in "at least one territory" by holiday 2011. It's just more likely to be just one now.

Of course, we hope we can all agree that the people of Japan have more important things to worry about right now than rushing out video game hardware. On the upside, Tretton brought up the point that increased time before release will allow developers to put more work into their launch games.

Sony's Japanese arm has told the Wall Street Journal that earlier reports suggesting Japan's recent earthquake would delay the release of the NGP in some territories -- including comments made by SCEA president Jack Tretton -- were outright "wrong."

Company rep Satoshi Fukuoka said it expects "no impact from the quake on our launch plan," and that while that plan still calls for the device to arrive later this year, Sony has never said it would launch simultaneously in Asia, North America and Europe.

Sony will, however, continue to monitor the situation in the earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged region and alter its plans if necessary.

In a recent interview with Fortune, Sony PlayStation CEO Jack Tretton spoke up the strength of the upcoming NGP handheld, while simultaneously taking off the kid gloves. Speaking on the current console cycle, Tretton said, "If you're really going to sustain technology for a decade, you have to be cutting edge when you launch a platform." He added, "[Microsoft and Nintendo] are starting to run out of steam now in terms of continuing to be relevant in 2011 and beyond," Tretton said.

"I mean, you've gotta be kidding me," Tretton added, "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?" He also called out the family of DS hardware, saying Nintendo's handhelds are a "great babysitting tool," adding, "no self-respecting 20-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those. He's too old for that."

Joke's on you, Mr. Tretton -- not only are we sitting on a plane playing with our DS, we're using it to play Pokémon. Any self-respect we may have once had has clearly been eroded into oblivion.