Sony PSP Ad Nibbles at Apple

Sony takes a slap at the iPhone in one of its upcoming ads for its PSP handheld game player. Don't blink, though, or you'll miss the reference.

The ad, which pays homage to "Burn Notice" with its jocular use of titles, opens with a geeky-looking kid identified as "Josh Rose: Kidding Himself" holding up his iPhone and proclaiming, "Check out this sweet game I got." Then it cuts to the star of the PSP's latest ad campaign "Marcus Rivers: Deputy of Great Game Deals."

"That ain't built for Big Boy games," Marcus chides. "That's built for texting your grandma and calling your girl."

Although the reference to Apple in the ad is only slight, in the world of Big Boy games, where, until a year ago, the "suits" at One Infinite Loop and their iGadgets were dismissed by the major game makers as non-contenders, the mention is worth notice, if only because it suggests that Sony may be seeing eye to eye with its rival Nintendo about Apple's threat to their business.

Nintendo has already said such. In May, The Times of London reported that Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata told his senior executives that the company could claim victory in its battle with Sony and that Apple should be treated as the enemy of the future.