A Sony executive has criticised Nintendo, saying any competition with them in the handheld market is "irrelevant".

Phil Harrison, executive vice-president of Sony Computer Entertainment has talked to MCV about the PSP's upcoming launch in Europe, and used the article largely to attack Nintendo, claiming "the idea of a handheld rivalry with Nintendo is an irrelevance. Those formats don't appear in our planning. It's not a fair comparison; not fair on them, I should stress. That sounds arrogant, maybe, but it's the truth."

He went on to say that "Nintendo knows its target audience, because it has really narrowed that down; and it's pretty much defined by a boy or girl's ability to admire Pokémon."

In the longterm, he said he saw the DS expanding Nintendo's upwards "to the high teens," whereas Sony's PSP will "see Sony's PSP expanding the 'mobile' demographic to the 30s."

"With the DS, it's fair to say that Nintendo stepped out of the technical race and went for a feature differentiation with the touch screen," Harrison continued. "But I fear that it won;t have a lasting impact beyond that of a gimmick � so the long-lasting appeal of the platform is at peril as a direct result of that."

Strong words indeed! More industry squabblings as we get them...