Sometimes, major console manufacturers can be just as catty as high school girls. In laying out Sony corporate strategy, SCEA’s Scott Steinberg has stated that the company is primarily focused on getting PS2 owners to "upgrade" to a PS3, all while taking a shot at Nintendo and its reliance on "senior citizen" gamers.

"I think the reality is that we will win hands-down if we convert the PS2 owners to PS3. When we look at the total available market, we salivate at the notion of converting our existing PS2 universe.

"Every million units we drop into the PS2 is an annuity that’s going to pay out later on for PS3 upgrades, and we’ve got some interesting ideas on how to reach out to those PS2 owners in the US and convert them up."

Some news outlets have been following rumors of a new PS3 "break apart" motion controller, which would be largely considered as inspired by the Wiimote, but Steinberg is quick to put those rumors to rest.

"I think the notion of that controller is a non-trivial point that you’ve brought up, that control and that familiarity is like comfort food - from my perspective, we lead, we don’t follow. And as a brand, Nintendo’s got their thing, and we’re not trying to get the senior citizen group to get into gaming, we’re looking to convert the PS2 owners and the tens of millions of installed base that were playing DVDs and playing games on their PS2, to now play Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray games with their PS3."

Translation: "Our controller is just fine thanks, and we’re not really worried if Grandma thinks the PS3 has too many buttons."

Stories like these make me hope Denis Dyack is wrong about the one-console future. I mean, if there’s only one source of hardware, how will we get our fill of console execs sounding just like Internet fanboys? That would be a dark day for gaming indeed.