It doesn't sound like you played it, he was being facetious.

In terms of marketing gimmick..... care to elaborate? Based on the games that were on display (both full games and tech demos), the DS is a lot more than a "marketing gimmick"...... the wireless multiplayer seems very smooth, the dual screens were shown to have a lot more purpose beyond just one screen being used for something goofy like a map or stats.... and the touch screen clearly has a lot of potential for some new and interesting functionality (if you would check out the various movies and demonstrations you'd see it goes far beyond being a gimmick).

And aside from that, they showed that it will be a really fun device even for games that don't use all of the functionality....... the main point is that it's a system with a lot of possibilities, and even at it's most basic, if it is just 2D and 3D games it will still be a nice device........ but seeing how developers are taking advantage of all the new features (and most all of them were on display, except for the voice recognition), I think it will be something really special.

For what it's worth I think the PSP will be a pretty nice device too.