Your top 5 next gen disappointments

Fork · Jul 8, 2007

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libregkd · Jul 8, 2007

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Fork · Jul 8, 2007

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libregkd · Jul 8, 2007

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orgXIIIfan · Jul 9, 2007

I wasn't talking about you! ^^ I was talking about all those f******* in Youtube who won't stop flaming the consoles.

Jube · Jul 9, 2007

orgXIIIfan said: ↑

I wasn't talking about you! ^^ I was talking about all those f******* in Youtube who won't stop flaming the consoles.
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They have nothing to do with this thier just idiots no relevence at all.

Alpha Sonix · Jul 9, 2007

Question: PSP has entered the market and established an installed base, but software sales are not strong. What do developers need to do to create PSP content that's more compelling?

Answer: Well, whether you're talking about PS2, PS3, PSP, or any platform, it's to play to the strengths that the technology has and the differences that the technology represents to the consumer. I think we've done that successfully in some titles and those have proven to be very successful. We can always do more to exploit the mobile, Wi-Fi, web connectivity of the machine. You can look at titles that have done very well - Monster Hunter Portable in Japan is a great example. This is a title that has taken advantage of that the PSP is about, and it sold over one million units. I wouldn't agree that the software sales have been unsatisfactory, but I do agree that we can always do more to take advantage of the machine's capabilities.

Question: You're beta testing the Home online service right now. Will it have all the features that have been talked about and shown so far when it launches?

Answer: And some more. We're obviously in a beta trial right now, so it's very difficult for me to make very definitive statements. Part of the purpose of a beta trial is to work with an extended audience of real users in the community to find out what works and what doesn't, what they like and don't like. Some things that we thought were really important have resonated less strongly with users and the universe - things we hadn't considered important users love . . . . We're starting to see some really valuable feedback from the user base. We're really very pleased with the progress so far and the way technology and infrastructure is scaling out. I think by the time we get to September, we'll be able to make some definitive statements as to exactly the content that's going to be in the deployed service day one.

Question: Could you give an example of something you thought would be important but has been ignored by the users? Or vice versa, something you thought was a minor detail but they are really excited about?

Answer: It's too early to really share those details. I don't mean to evade your question, but I don't think we've gotten all the answers we're looking for yet. But I think clearly the functions of communication between users are what people love. That's not necessarily a surprise, but we'll look to increasing the sophistication of the methods of communication.

Question: Do you expect Home to be launched some time this year?

Answer: We have said that, if the beta trial is successful, that the service will go live in October. I'm only two weeks into that beta period right now, but nothing has changed our outlook.

Question: One area in Sony has succeeded in the past is platform exclusives. But recently, many traditional Playstation exclusives have gone to Xbox 360 as well - Virtua Fighter, Grand Theft Auto, and Devil May Cry, for example. Is there anything you can do to combat this trend, or is the era of exclusives coming to an end?

Answer: Well, from a third-party exclusive point of view, that doesn't fall under my remit, because I'm looking after Worldwide Studios and our first party output. But, obviously, I'm looking at the platform as an entire portfolio. And yes, I'm always concerned to make sure that the consumers can buy the best games and get the best game experiences to validate their system purchase. [But] as long as the games they get are great, [consumers] don't care if they are third-party or first-party . . . . What I do believe is that the investments we have made in Worldwide Studios globally - U.S., Europe, and Japan - will yield the best quality software and the highest quality experiences that are clearly going to be exclusive to the platform . . . . We have a larger platform-dedicated development resource than our competitors combined. So all of that goes toward that fact that the best games with the best technology are coming exclusively to [Sony] platforms.

Question: You'd announced that Sony was going to share technology and resources between all their worldwide studios for PS3 development. To what scale is that occuring right now?

Answer: Every game on PS3 has some degree of shared technology internally. There are no games that are islands in our portfolio. We have a common online functionality, we have a common sound engine, we have a common graphics engine, we have a common low-level rendering, which are used variously by different titles. What we did at GDC was announce that we were taking large portions of that technology, base that were easy to support and sharing that with our third parties, in a program we call Playstation Edge, which is taking the highest performing low-level libraries that we have on the platform and making them available for all developers.

Question: Playstation 3 has been positioned as a very powerful, high-end machine. One problem you have right now is that we haven't seen any games thus far that look like they couldn't be done on Xbox 360. When do you think we'll see games hit the market that showcase the PS3 over and above what the 360 can do?

Answer: Well, I would take exception to your analysis. I think we do have titles that illustrate the point of difference that PS3 brings, both in terms of gameplay, and underlying game technology. There are things we're demonstrating onscreen in games like MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, and Formula 1 that cannot be done on any other system. All three of those are launch window titles. Now, it's always dangerous to judge any system by its launch lineup . . . . You only have to look back to the games that launched Playstation 1 and Playstation 2. If you took those few dozen titles and analyzed them, you would never have imagined that either of those formats would have gone on to sell 1 million units each.

Question: From an American gamer's perspective, more and more of your triple-A titles are coming from the U.S. and Europe, where in the past, more of them came from Japan. Does that represent a shift of power within Sony?

Answer: I think that it was a conscious strategy to build strong development organizations in every geographical area of operations. Because - as we've seen with the music business and the film business - logically produced repertoire accounts for a large percentage of local sales. If you look at the music business in France, about 75 percent of the records sold in France are from French artists. And, although the games industry is probably more global than any other form of entertainment, in order to grow the industry, we have to create local entertainment experiences. That doesn't mean we've de-emphasized Japan. We have this reasonbly successful billion-dollar IP called Gan Turismo that you might be familiar with. That's obviously a major force in the market whenever that title is shipping. Any iteration of the Gran Turismo franchise has become a global event. Our Everybody's Golf series, known as Hot Shots in the States, has been very successful. And a title that is coming out in 2008, called Shirokishi [a.k.a White Knight Story], which is an amazing RPG [with] very rich and deep online features, I think will be a global hit as well.

Question: But it does seem that we aren't getting as many new IPs from Japan lately. Is that more of a timing issue?

Answer: I think it's partly that and partly taste and preference changes around the world. If you were asking me this question from a Japanese perspective, you would be referring to games like Shirokishi, Genji, and Everybody's Golf. I think we've been very fortunate, however, to have these big IPs coming out of the U.S. and Europe, certainly what the U.S. has achieved with SOCOM, with Ratchet & Clank, with Jak & Daxter, with the action category. In Europe, [we've been] recently more focused on social gaming categories like SingStar and EyeToy, all $100-200 million franchises - but MotorStorm came out of Europe as well.

Question: Mr. Kuturagi has announced that he's stepping down from his day-to-day role at Sony. How much does that affect you?

Answer: Well, it's obviously a big deal when the founder and creator of the business decides to retire. That's a moment you can't ignore in an organization's history. But when we started Sony Computer Entertainment, we could fit the entire company in a boardroom in order to have a meeting. There are now over 5,000 people in the company worldwide, and it's a very different beast then it was when he started. Clearly, he's put in place a management team he felt comfortable with taking the business forward. When he stepped up to the position of chairman last year, he really took an active decision to move away from day-to-day management of the operation of the business. So, from that point of view, it's not really a significant change to my working life. I'll miss the opportunity to interact and to work with him. He's an incredibly stimulating and demanding person to work for. But he's still going to be around; I don't think we'll escape him that easily. [Laughs] I hope you quote that as a "laugh" at the end!

Question: Your announcement of LittleBigPlanet caused a lot of excitement. How much emphasis do you place on this more casual, online gaming category moving forward over the next five years?

Answer: I think it's going to be - not just for Sony, but for the industry - one of the primary movers of our business. The idea of empowering the audience of gamers and allowing them to create, express, and share their creativity with other users is going to be an incredibly core part of the growth of our industry. I'm absolutely convinced of this. I don't think in 10 years from now we'll recognize the business we're in. But I hope that LittleBigPlanet and Home will be recognized in for their little steps in the right direction. Did you see the GDC presentation [on LittleBigPlanet]? One of the incredible things was that you were in a room full of 5,000 game developers . . . . and we actually had to stop for about 30 seconds while people were clapping. To get that kind of unprompted, emotional outpouring for me validated the entire strategy.

Question: I think that the Wii taps into some of the desires from consumers that LittleBigPlanet does - a smaller, but unique gaming experience. Were you surprised at how successful the Wii has been so far?

Answer: Nintendo clearly knows what they're doing. Whenever Nintendo introduces a platform, the world takes notice. There's no denying that. But I think the question is will the gameplay mechanics they've introduced stand the test of time? I don't mean that as some sort of veiled criticism; it's just a question mark. I'm interested in seeing how that goes, because we've experimented with some of those game mechanics ourselves with EyeToy - and social gaming with Buzz and SingStar.

Question: The continued success of PS2 is amazing. Are you worried it's stealing momentum from PS3? Is there such a thing as a PS2 that's "too successful" for Sony?

Answer: [Laughs] I'm laughing on two accounts, one because it's a funny question and two because I remember being asked the same thing when we launched PS2. Sixty percent of the sales of PSone happened after the introduction of PS2 in Japan. So we believe that PS2 has a very strong few years ahead of it. It's by no means a surprise to us. PSone continued to be the world's number-one selling console for two or three Christmases after the introduction of PS2. The market moves to new demographics and more price-conscious consumers and also geographically to more developing markets.

Question: So in your mind, it's a fairly separate set of consumers.

Answer: I don't believe anyone walking into a game store with $600 in their pocket and wonders what console to buy.

Question: Since of E3 of last year, Sony has taken a few hits in the press. Do you think you've been treated fairly in the press?

Answer: I can never answer that question, because there are times when obviously I think we haven't been treated fairly. But, other times, I think we have been responsible for setting expectations a little too high and letting our enthusiasm for the business get ahead of us sometimes.

Question: What was your reaction to the announcement of the Xbox 360 Elite package? Do you see it as a thread to PS3 or a vindication of your higher-end strategy?

Answer: Well I was surprised that it did not include an HD-DVD player functionality in the machine as standard. So I guess that says a fair amount about how our friend Microsoft view the HD-DVD/ Blu-ray disc movie value and contribution that is made so these consoles. Just this week, analysts are saying that Blu-ray disc as a movie format is going to be strong in influencing PS3 hardware sales. We're like "Yeah, we know - that's why we put it in there." It was the same with electing to put DVD in PS2. It was perhaps not so meaningful day, but it got stronger as a contributor to the decision to purchase as the format went on. I think the same will happen with Blu-ray disc.

Question: If you had to assign Sony a letter grade based on how you've executed on the PS3 so far, what would that grade be and why?

Answer: [Pause] That's a great question. Sorry, we're all out of time! [Laughs] If you were to ask me that same question in the middle of 2000 or early in 1996, and I choose those dates carefully because that was just a few months after launch of PSone and the launch of PS2, my answer would probably be the same. Which is: could do better, will do better.

Question: But so far, would you say and A? B? C?

Answer: Can I use plus or minus?

Question: Sure.

Answer: Well, what criteria would you ask me to analyze the launch by?

Question: Not necessarily the launch, but just the overall performance in terms of hardware, software, marketing - an overall grade thus far.

Answer: If it's everything including what the platform represents for the future and the value and achievements from a technical point of view, I couldn't give us anything less than an A. Now in terms of what that means for the future, I think we are delivering an incredible piece of technology into people's homes that will become validated through software and services for the next number of years. That's when things really get exciting.

Question: As a follow-up, what would you say for a grade in terms of communicating your plans and hopes for the Playstation 3 to your audience?

Answer: I think there was a period from E3 2006 through to October 2006 when we didn't do a good enough job. But I do believe that what we're seeing now with great communication about the forthcoming software lineup, delivering on our promise of frequent, free firmware updates, and what we're doing with our online services have more than made up for that period.
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Just putting it up if you hadn't seen it before.

Xemnas7355 · Jul 9, 2007

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Oxyrt · Jul 10, 2007

Kingdom-Fan98 said: ↑

How is the wii next Gen? It has the same stupid games it has, how is it next Gen, and don't give me Wii remote thing, I like action games, proper ones, the wii dosen't have them, it hasn't improved in anything except the control.
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Um...I agree the Wii is basically the same crappy Game Cube, with same crappy games. They might as well just have sold a motion control remote as an add on to the Game Cube, other wise...they're just wasting people's money.

Plus, who first had a console that ran it's games off of discs???? Huh????? Not Nintendo for damn sure...but PS did. If not...don't hit me...I read it on wikipedia...

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Your top 5 next gen disappointments

Fork These violent delights have violent ends

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Fork These violent delights have violent ends

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orgXIIIfan King's Apprentice

Jube Formerly Chuck's

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Alpha Sonix Why so asymmetrical?

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Xemnas7355 Gummi Ship Junkie

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