Sony Boss Sir Howard Stringer has taken a swipe at the Nintendo Wii claiming “I’ve played a Nintendo Wii. I don’t see it as a competitor. It’s more of an expensive niche game device”. The comments came ahead of the E3 gaming show that is set to kick off this week in Las Vegas.
Stringer dismissed the Wii as a direct competitor due to its lack of media features and, according to the Bloomberg report, access to the Internet. The Wii is currently priced at $249 in the U.S. and the PlayStation 3 at $399 – neither company is expected to announce a price cut at E3.
Although the PlayStation 3 is still in third place overall, in terms of both worldwide and U.S. installed userbase, the console outsold the Xbox 360 in the U.S. for the first five months of 2008.
Bloomberg indicates that the Wii has sold 2.8 million consoles through to May this year, compared to 1.2 million for the PlayStation 3 and 1.12 for the Xbox 360.
