Phil Harrison Answers Your Questions 185
Right around this time last month, we asked for your questions to pass on to President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison. With the launch of the PlayStation 3 console in Europe, Mr. Harrison has had kind of a full month. He still found us the time to answer your questions, and today we have them to read. Below are his very thorough responses to the questions you posed, ranging in subject from the European delay to the public perception of SCEA. Make sure to give them a look, and many thanks again to Mr. Harrison for his time.
1.) 'Ask 1996-Phil' by The-Bus According to your Wikipedia bio, you joined SCEA in 1996. If you could go back in time and give professional advice to your 1996 self, what would you say? If you were to give professional advice to people interested in entering the industry today, what would it be?
Phil Harrison: Wikipedia is great, but as you probably know, my bio was not written by me, so I'd not trust it completely...I actually joined Sony's game division in 1992 just before SCE was formed. I joined the nascent Computer Entertainment Project to help bring PlayStation to the European developer community, while simultaneously kick-starting our in-house development team in London. I moved to the US in 1996. To answer your time travel question, the professional advice I'd give myself is to "think bigger". When we launched PlayStation we really had no idea we'd be talking about an industry that would more than triple in size and reach a 3rd of US homes so quickly. If I'd had the chance to revisit my 1996 self I would have encouraged him to be more ambitious, bigger scale, more aggressive in changing the way games were made and also to have invested more heavily in creating online experiences - however experimental, however unsuccessful.
As for professional advice to how to get into the industry, the way I came in to the business was a rocky road which, frankly, has got even harder since I made it my full-time career in 1987. The entrepreneurial, freelancer approach is very difficult without a portfolio of work or very good contacts. My advice to anyone thinking about joining this industry is first and foremost get as much formal education as you possibly can. If you are interested in a programming or technical career, a degree in a computer science-related area is vital, as is a very high level of mathematics. Specialize as late as you can in your educational path. For an artist or designer, the need for a degree is less vital if you have a clearly demonstrable talent, but that puts the emphasis on a brilliant, and differentiated, portfolio of work. Even so, I would encourage anyone to get a well-regarded degree-level education as a minimum before even considering applying for a position. Animators and 3D modellers should take advantage of systems at school to start building a portfolio of work. Putting up your own website is a great way of pointing potential employers at your work - even if it's a selection of 10 second clips or a gallery of rendered stills. But please make them different and unusual. Finally, when you come to an interview make sure you are prepared! Research the company you are applying to, play their games, be prepared to comment on industry trends and issues and know as much as you can about the area you are interested in working in. Go to GDC if you possibly can, make friends through the various online communities and societies dedicated to game developers and start building up an industry "buddy list". It will come in very useful.
Both really great questions, by the way.
2.) 'Philosophy of gaming...' by 7Prime
What is your personal philosophy regarding the future of videogames as a genre? For example, where do you see games, in terms of social and cultural identification, 20 years from now, and how do you think the nature of the PS3 plays into the culmination of this overall vision?
Phil Harrison: Another very good question - and hard to answer properly in the space available. My personal philosophy is to make the entertainment experience of videogames available to everyone. I want to see the audience of people who play videogames, of any type, on any device, include practically anyone on the planet. Whether it be an immersive action game that appeals primarily to young adults, or a casual game that is enjoyed by the entire family, I hope that videogames and electronic forms of interactive entertainment continue to expand to new audiences, all the time. Linked to that, I want to see videogames given more credibility as a mainstream form of entertainment through appropriate cultural commentary and criticism. If you read a newspaper in pretty much any country in the world, you will read intelligent discourse on the cultural impact of film, music, literature, theatre, television, radio, art and fashion every day - although it's unusual to read anything about videogames apart from occasional reviews. There are, of course, exceptions - and it is thankfully changing, but we've still a long way to go as category or a genre before we can be considered culturally and socially significant. This is changing - and anyone who plays games will see the influence game graphic design has today on general graphic design in a multitude of ways - from websites and posters to TV commercials. What I hope is that 20 years from now the distinctions will be completely overcome and videogames as a passtime will be given the same cultural and social currency as a book, a film, a TV show or a piece of architecture. After all, the popular culture creators of 20 years from now will all, largely, have grown up playing, or at least being intimately aware of, videogames. The writers and commentators on those same popular culture creators will all have had the same experience playing videogames growing up - at which point the circle is complete. I don't think there is a culmination to this overall vision - it will be a constant process. Each successive platform brings new technology to the experience of games and helps expand the audience still further. I hope PS3 will be seen 20 years from now as a crucial influence in the growth of our industry.
3.) 'Choices' by mothlos and drinkypoo
Now that you have a few months with PS3s in the hands of consumers and plenty of reviews to pour over, is there anything that you would have done differently in designing the machine? Given the problems that seem to have come with Blu-Ray, does it still look like including the drive in the system was worth it? And if so, was it worth it for the PS3, for the Blu-Ray format, or for both?
Phil Harrison: First of all, I would not take credit for designing the machine. As Chairman and CEO - and head of the architecture lab in SCEI Tokyo, Ken Kutaragi is responsible for the hardware design strategy for SCE. I think that PlayStation 3 is a masterpience of design and technology - it packs a huge amount of performance into an amazingly small (and quiet) box. Now it may not yet be apparent what all that technology is actually for - something that gives us plenty to focus on for the next few years - the overall design of the machine is very good. The Cell processor is wildly powerful and developers are now beginning to understand what that means for game design. The choice of putting a hard disk drive in every machine was the absolute right decision technically, but is a tough choice financially. There is no denying we had some start-up challenges with Blu-ray at the beginning but that is the price you pay for leading edge technology. Thankfully, those challenges are behind us and I stand firmly by the decision to include BD-ROM as the physical media format. Next generation game design demands the capacity of Blu-ray. Once we'd adopted BD as a game format, there was little incremental cost to support BD as a movie format. Given that the majority of BD movies are now using dual layer (50GB) discs, we're seeing the importance of the higher BD capacity much earlier in the life of the format compared to DVD. First and foremost, I believe it was the right decision for PlayStation 3 to use BD for games - and the fact that is helps kick-start BD as the next generation movie format is a bonus for all of us, players and game-makers.
4.) 'Homebrew Gaming' by Anonymous Coward, maynard, and flitty
If someone manages to get homebrew games running on the PS3, will there be firmware updates to stop this kind of development, to protect your software developers, or is homebrew something you are planning on and even encouraging? Is there a chance that the policy of restricting access to PS3 graphics hardware (via the hypervisor) could be revised to encourage us homebrew developers? How does this strategy differ from your strategy with PSP homebrew? Has Sony considered offering kernel patches and an RSX optimized OpenGL library for PS3/Linux?
Phil Harrison: Now, let me first say that Homebrew is sometimes a misused term and so for the purposes of this answer I will exclude pirates and hackers with illegal intentions from the definition.
I fully support the notion of game development at home using powerful tools available to anyone. We were one of the first companies to recognize this in 1996 with Net Yaroze on PS1. It's a vital, crucial aspect of the future growth of our industry and links well to the subtext of my earlier answers. When I started making games on the Commodore 64 in the 1980's, the way I learned to make games was by re-writing games that appeared in magazines. Really the best bit about a C64 was when you turned it on it said "Ready?" with a flashing cursor - inviting you to experiment. You'd spend hours typing in the code, line-by-line, and then countless hours debugging it to make it work and then you'd realise the game was rubbish after all that effort! The next step was to re-write aspects of the game to change the graphics, the sound, the control system or the speed of the gameplay until you'd created something completely new. I might share this with a few friends but not for commercial gain at that time. But the process itself was invaluable in helping me learn to program, to design graphics, animations or sounds and was really the way I opened doors to get into the industry. Now, those industry doors are largely closed by the nature of the video game systems themselves being closed. So, if we can make certain aspects of PS3 open to the independent game development community, we will do our industry a service by providing opportunities for the next generation of creative and technical talent. Now having said all that, we still have to protect the investment and intellectual property rights of the industry so we will always seek the best ways to secure and protect our devices from piracy and unauthorized hacking that damages the business.
5.) 'Retaining PS3 Exclusives' by Sciros
With a number of previously-PS3-exclusive titles having gone multiplatform, are there any efforts to prevent this from occurring in the future, or is it of little concern to SCE?
Phil Harrison: We have the widest selection of meaningful exclusives on PlayStation 3 - by virtue of our own investments in our development studios and strategic support of independent developers and publishers. I really don't believe gamers mind who makes the game, so long as the games they buy on their system are the best games they can get anywhere - and that their system investment is secure in the knowledge that there are plenty more coming in future. Within SCE Worldwide Studios we have the largest platform-dedicated development resource in the industry - with more people, and more teams, dedicated to making games exclusively for PlayStation 3. So my main "concern" is to make sure those games are absolutely the best they can be.
6.) 'Rumble' by SuperCharlie
How long will we have to wait until we see a first party controller with rumble?
Phil Harrison: As we've only recently resolved our legal differences with Immersion, it's a little early to answer this. However, you can play games on PS3 that support devices that have force-feedback already, most notably driving games through steering wheels. 7.) '20 GB PS3' by !ramirez Why is Best Buy discontinuing sales of the 20 GB PS3?
Phil Harrison: I can't comment on any specific retailer's stocking decisions, but I think that retailers know their customers very well and make their product selections based on anticipated demand. In Europe, we've only sold the 60GB version based on retailer demand and over 800,000 units have already been sold in just over 2 weeks.
8.) 'Europe?' by Ant P. and Zonk
Given that the hardware sold in Europe has less robust backwards compatibility than in the US and Japan, and the high price the console sells at because of the VAT, do you feel that you've in any way alienated the European gamer? Can you give us some insight into why the EU launch of the system has been so long delayed?
Phil Harrison: It was an unfortunate and unavoidable problem caused by the slower-than-anticipated ramp up of the production on the Blue Laser Diode, a key part of the BD drive technology. Although this is now well behind us, we could not predict the production volume with any degree of certainty to launch globally in all markets at the same time back in November 2006. However, we have more than recovered from this situation with what is objectively a very well-executed launch in Europe with a great selection of games on disc and network. Gamers have responded really positively and purchased over 800,000 units already making it the most successful launch in the history of the video games industry in Europe. I accept that is not entirely satisfactory compensation for having to wait, but we were able to reward European gamers with a free copy of Casino Royale on BD when they registered for the PlayStation Network.
9.) 'Public Image' by Gothic_Walrus
People on the internet and in the tech media in general have been raking the PS3 and Sony over the coals, with a noticeable backlash directed towards Sony's PR department. Debacles like Jack Tretton's 'you can't find the PS3 in stores' comment, and 'All You Want For Christmas is a PSP', has left some gamers with the impression that Sony thinks poorly of them. You in particular have taken a lot of fire as one of the main figures connected to the PlayStation 3, and the consensus seems to be that Sony has a lot of work to do to win over the gaming public. I'd like to ask you, then, how is Sony going to go about changing this mindset? Are there any plans for this you'd be able to share with us?
Phil Harrison: I really don't know how to answer that question entirely to your satisfaction, but allow me to try: I don't deny that we've made some mistakes and have been rightly flamed for some of them. We learn, we cringe slightly at the memory of some of them from time to time but we move on. And hopefully we're not stupid enough to repeat them! But I also have to point out that millions of people around the world have bought PS3s and are loving the experience - and frankly they become our advocates and evangelists far more effectively than I could ever be. If we continue to deliver great software, services and experiences to our gamers they'll become even more comfortable in recommending PS3 to their friends and family - that's what builds a loyal fanbase. We absolutely have a lot of work to do but I'm convinced we have the right strategy - and recent announcements like Home and Little Big Planet have resonated very positively with our audiences around the world, including some commentators who had been previously critical of us.
10.) 'Price drop?' by RyanFenton
I understand the strategy of never announcing price drops until they're imminent, but the PS3 is not even on many people's radar at the moment, because of the staggering price. Sony's CEO Howard Stringer has even stated that the price might be too high. Are you even considering price drops on the PS3 hardware?
Phil Harrison: Probably no surprise to hear that we've no plans to drop the price but it's also no surprise to anyone reading this that core to our business plan is growing the installed base of hardware. But price is only one part of the motivation to purchase a system. We need to maintain the high desire for the product through great software, services and support combined with great awareness. I want to make sure we're focused on the best possible gamer and user experience and that will bring PS3 onto more people's radar - to use your expression - much more effectively than simply dropping the price.
Phil Harrison
SCE Worldwide Studios
I Love Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I Love Slashdot (Score:2, Insightful)
Translation: Abandon hope, all ye (independant developers) who enter here!
What a bunch of PR speak about "having an open community" and yet killing it all at the same time.
Re:I Love Slashdot (Score:2)
Bah. I remember typing in programs from COMPUTE! magazine that were more than half DATA statements that would be POKEd in. I felt stupid for not being able to understand what these long sequences of numbers meant, I thought all programming was like this, and for years it stunted my interest in learning. To say nothing of MLX
Re:I Love Slashdot (Score:2)
Back in the day, some of the Spectrum magazines published assembly code and I remember being somewhat baffled as to what exactly to do with it, until I received the guidance of a grey-beard at the local computer club who gave me a simple assembler that had been given away on a cover tape. The closest I had come until then (aged about 11 or 12) was poking the ASCII for the assembly source code into memory and attempting to run that (needless to say, that didn't really give the results I was after!). I was only one stage away, though, as in the ASCII charts in the back of the manual, there were additional columns for the Z80 mnemonics, so eventually I may have tried manual assembly of my own accord!
Perhaps I'd have grokked assembly quicker if the Spectrum had a built-in assembler, like the BBC did...
Is the PS3 supposed to play games? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think you need to get on-target with the message, if indeed, this thing is a video game console.
Re:Is the PS3 supposed to play games? (Score:2)
The sales pitch is that it lets you play modern video games with decent graphics!
That's exactly the same as the sales pitch for the XBox 360. Yes, it costs 25% more than the XBox. On the other hand, it has some technical advantages over the Xbox and has different exclusive games. Remember that the blueray disks aren't just for movies - they also allow game developers to have something like five times as much game data as an XBox 360 game can have.
Disclaimer: I don't own a PS3, and I won't buy one until there is an official patch from Sony (not some hack) that allows the graphics system to be accessed by 3rd party operating systems. The platform has amazing potential, but I'm not going to start buying hardware that prevents me from using it for Sony.
Re:Is the PS3 supposed to play games? (Score:3, Insightful)
Overpriced based on what? What a PS2 or Original XBox costs now? What they cost when they were first released, ignoring inflation?
Consoles have always been expensive when they first came out. These two consoles (PS3 and Xbox360) happen to be the first generation of consoles that supports HDTV resolutions - that's a giant jump from supporting SDTV in terms of computing power. If you consider what a decent TV that takes advantage of that power costs, a couple hundred bucks of console price really doesn't seem like that big a deal.
If you're not interested in high def gaming, fine. Don't buy the currently-high-end consoles. That does mean that you won't be able to get some of the new games - but that's the choice you've made, sorry. Those people who do want to play games with nice graphics on their nice TVs aren't going to stop having an awesome time gaming to feel sorry for you.
Re:Is the PS3 supposed to play games? (Score:2)
Yea, and the market is for the most part ignoring the Wii and clamoring to get a PS2.
The Wii is interesting in that it was introduced at a price in-line with consoles that have been on the market for a while. It was quite a while before the PS2 or the XBox got down to that price level. It'll be the same with the PS3 and the Xbox360 - the early adopters buy them in the first year or two, and then there are price drops and everyone else joins the current generation. Then a couple years after that new systems will come out that only the early adopters will buy.
Re:Is the PS3 supposed to play games? (Score:2)
I like this guy now. (Score:3, Insightful)
What kind of corporate head uses flame with its internet definition? Fucking awesome.
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:3, Interesting)
These are the same guys who put root kits on audio CDs. I don't like him no matter how many times he refers to the "Web 2.0 blogosphere"
And the PSP and PS3 are, frankly, both dogs.
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:2)
Uh, no they aren't. Sony Japan bought a record label many years ago. Nothing to do with SCEA of which Phil is the president. He probably doesn't know anyone from the record side..
And PSP is awesome. Besides the hundreds of commerical games, the emulators are amazing. I Can't imagine being tied to stupid TV set for gaming anymore..
JON
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:2)
It's still Sony, and they've still shown themselves to be untrustable - not just untrustworthy, but totally unable to be trusted - on many occasions and across almost all divisions.
Now the PS3 may be awesome, and you can rationalise your Playstation-love with your hatred of Sony's music & movie divisions any way you like - but it doesn't change the fact you're putting money in one hand while the other hand reaches around and rams a stick up your arse...
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:5, Insightful)
The kind with a marketing department the size of Rhode Island. No doubt there were countless focus groups, surveys, polls and statistical aggregations behind the decision to use that one word alone.
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:3, Funny)
He's edgy, he's hip, he's "with it," he's using the kind of lingo the kids today are down with!
Far out, man!
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:2)
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:2, Funny)
Term officially jumped the shark Friday April 20, @02:43PM.
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I like this guy now. (Score:2)
Evasive (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Evasive (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Evasive (Score:5, Insightful)
He mentioned a strong desire to protect their investment and IP. Given that money for the system comes from licensing of the games and the movies from their manufacturers, that response amounts to the answer I gave. That is, unless the creators pay royalties to Sony. If they do not pay royalties, then they simply provide less incentive for people to buy products from the companies who do pay said royalties.
Countering the first obvious argument that will probably come up - yes the homebrewed may not cost money, and thus not compete in the players pocketbook, but they do take time to play, and if a player doesn't thing he or she will have enough time for all the games he or she might like to play, some may not be purchased, or may be purchased more warily (say by trying them at a friends house first, and/or a rental at a blockbuster). If they had more time, they might buy a game tested, that they wouldn't with less time.
Re:Evasive (Score:2)
Does it have 3D hardware access? Nope, but somebody could and should write a Cell powered driver for Mesa. Hook up Mesa to a couple of SPUs to do rapid transforms and other 3D operations. It would probably be comparable to most IGP offerings and would suffice for most homebrew games.
Re:Evasive (Score:2)
So much gaming is done through MS, via Windows or XBox360...
By providing GPU access, even in binary form, to the PS3/Linux system... They are taking a cheap and simple pot-shot at MS that has the potential to be quite effective.
Re:Evasive (Score:2)
Re:Evasive (Score:2)
On one hand it's aggravating not being able to get a straight answer out of these guys. We know he's capable of speaking honestly after reading the first couple of questions. On the other hand, what did we expect? If he really felt that Blu-Ray was a bad idea or that homebrew should be supported do you really think he'd speak his mind on the issues considering his position within Sony?
Re:Evasive (Score:2)
The biggest secret that Sony has is how little support developers get (hell Early versions of the PS2 only allowed printf debugging, attaching to process didn't even seem to work.)
Re:Evasive (Score:2, Insightful)
* It cost a little under US$1000 for someone to get the kit (yeah, because amateur developers are rich -- hahahaha),
* Despite there being no region lockout on the black Yaroze units, there was efforts near the end of the project to introduce that ""feature"",
* You were limited to 1MByte of space to play with and absolutely nothing more,
* You had to use Sony's Yaroze-specific API (which many people tried to bust out of, because it was retarded (both in the literal and slang sense of the word) and unnecessary),
* You were limited to Sony-provided development tools (which were useless in most cases, and downright broken in others),
* Documentation was, to put it lightly, fucking atrocious,
* You could not share or interact with other Yaroze members who were in different countries; Japan could only talk to Japan, and US could only talk to US. Net "Cold War" Yaroze...
Most hardcore amateur developers I knew at the time went out and illegally obtained blue PSX units (which were actual development units being sold on the black market). I knew of one guy who went to E3 solely to steal a blue PSX unit (for development, not resale). Aforementioned fellow, and more than a handful of other developers ended up working at gaming companies around the globe. No one I know of gained ANYTHING from the Yaroze project, because the environment made development worthless -- well, except for Chris Chadwick.
Thus, I cannot believe the present-day CEO would even bother bringing up the Yaroze project. He'd have been better off stating that the Yaroze project was a failure because Sony was too paranoid of its competitors and of its users. Sony's the same way with other departments too; it's not limited to their PS3 group. Look at Aibo -- amateur hobbyists finding ways to get Aibo to do things by bypassing the API and accomplishing goals they couldn't due to Sony's ignorance. Sony, of course, went apeshit about it. AMERICA, FUCK YEAH, GONNA SUE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING YEAH!!!
So what it is going to take for large companies to actually embrace amateur developers and stop worrying about piracy? I swear, every time there's interest in such things, corporate legal or IP fucks come along and destroy it for fear of piracy. Piracy is going to happen no matter what -- limiting your development platform because of it makes no sense. Give people what they pay for, and imprison anyone who breaks the law. Otherwise, let developers do what they do best: use their minds.
Re:Evasive (Score:2)
No doubt with PS3GL people would make other things that compete with stuff you have to pay for. (Quake 3 on linux anyone?)
Sony wants PS3 linux so people can write things that take advantage of the powerful CELL CPU, not the RSX GPU.
Re:Evasive (Score:2)
Yeah. That's why all of the Windows users I know keep a Linux install on a separate partition, just for playing games.
Re:Could GPLv3 prevent such hypervisor lockouts? (Score:2)
Interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
"My personal philosophy is to make the entertainment experience of videogames available to everyone. I want to see the audience of people who play videogames, of any type, on any device, include practically anyone on the planet."
If that was truely his guiding principle the PS3 would not cost more than 50% (Min) of gamers can afford. It's also pretty much an exact copy of Nintendo's goal. Something tells me this principle is relatively new...say it began about when the 4 millianth Wii sold...
Other than that an interesting interview.
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
Furthermore, a quick look at the list of games being developed for the PS2 shows that it is already a dead system anyway. Sony priced themselves out of the market, and for years wankers at the SCEA have been sabotaging their own market share by blocking releases of Japanese games in the US. Sony is reaping what they sowed.
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
Less PR Questions (Score:2)
Which planet is he on? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hang on, Sony missed Christmas, gave us hobbled backwards compatibility and priced the thing so you can't get a console and a game for less than $900 here. Stores are full of people queueing for the Wii and ignoring stacks of unsold PS3s. I'd hate to see this guy's idea of an unsucessful launch!
Re:Which planet is he on? (Score:3, Insightful)
Certainly if you defined "best launch" by attendees and purchases at launch parties then Sony haven't earnt that title for the PS3, it was a flop in that respect. Whilst Sony has used the first 2 weeks as their measure of time for judging best launch I'd bet that the Wii/360 would claim this title back if you used say, the first 6 hours or perhaps even first few days as the measure of time for judging it instead.
Re:Which planet is he on? (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes...and despite that, they still sold more in the first two days than the Wii or the 360 did in their respective first months. Despite all that was wrong with the launch, they still sold more. That is far more successful than I think they had any right to even hope for. "Selling more" is a far more meaningful success than "perceived internet public opinion." As demonstrated by Snakes on a Plane, all the talk on the internet can mean next to nothing in reality.
Re:Which planet is he on? (Score:2)
Hobbled?
How come no one asked him about (Score:3, Funny)
The solution to a high price is... more features? (Score:4, Interesting)
Given the unique experience offered by the Wii and the more reasonably-priced Xbox360, I think Sony has made a bad move. There's a reason BMWs are not the most prevalent cars on the road, and I suspect it's the same reason the PS3 is not likely to be the most prevalent game console in homes.
failed again! (Score:2)
Hyundai had 29.5 Billion [wikipedia.org] USD in revenue.
So, bottom line, BMW might move fewer units, but they make more money.
Re:failed again! (Score:2)
I'd also rather compare BMW to Toyota which has revenue in the trillions or Honda which has revenue around 86 billion...Hell just combine the two.
It also doesn't change the fact that most people driving BMW's are pompous jerks. ;-P
Re:failed again! (Score:2)
We're just talking about moving the system itself. What about games? Games have a set cost. If every console buyer buys roughly the same number of games, having more gamers makes a lot of sense. And if the folks with money buy a few more games, they still have a lot of extra ground to cover to make up for the smaller console base. Besides that, BMW probably makes more money per car than Hyundai does. But do we know that Sony makes more off every PS3 sold than Microsoft does from every 360 sold, or Nintendo from every Wii?
We know that Nintendo has the cheapest system, the broadest console base, and the highest sales. If Nintendo makes the same money per game in licensing fees and similar profit from every console sold Sony has no hope to compete without growing the user base.
Price (Score:3, Insightful)
The real question is if Nintendo can get their act together and sell over 15 million this year. If Nintendo could have met demand; or if they could meet demand they could bury both Sony and Microsoft in this race. Every day that goes by, HDTVs go down in price and more great games come out for the 360 and PS3 AND the chance of a price drop to the PS3 becomes more of a reality.
Xbox 360 - 9.5 million consoles sold (Channel stuffed big time so numbers will remain flat, majority of games are FPS, no standard hard drive, HD-DVD add on never used for games, no )
Nintendo Wii - 6.5 million consoles sold (Supply constrained, very limited game selection, poor 3rd party support, poor online support, weakest hardware platform)
PS3 - 3 million sold (Priced WAY too high, limited game selection, slowly growing online support, no kids games)
Re:Price (Score:2)
I'd argue that the lack of exclusives (or dwindling list anyway) is a much bigger reason than price. People bought iPod when they were $500, so price really wasn't a factor there, right?
In the gaming industry GAMES drive sales in the long run, and so far Sony has not made any kind of effort showing gamers how this system is any different than the 360 other than Blu-Ray -- a technology that, I may add, no one actually asked for to begin with. What they asked for was a gaming console with exclusive titles that warranted the lofty buy-in price. Sony has also shown that it's answer to Nintendo is to introduce a motion control PS2 controller 10 weeks before Warhawk developers are set to showcase their wares at E3.
Playing catchup to a GameCube and TELLING consumers what's good for them (Second Life Sony Home, with advertisements!), instead of showing them a product they really want or need and letting them decide for themselves is a massive failure in the making.
The PS2 is still selling admirably; maybe Sony should have bolted a Blu-Ray drive onto that.
Re:Price (Score:3, Insightful)
The games I've most enjoyed on my Xbox 360: Geometry Wars, Gears of War, Crackdown, Viva Pinata, Texas Hold 'em, and Guitar Hero 2. Neither of which is an FPS. In fact, I think thats a pretty varied list of game genres. I'll agree that the library of good games doesn't go much deeper than the ones I listed, but thats a different criticism.
And HD-DVD add-on never used for games? Why is that a criticism? "This game would be SO much more fun if the disc was spinning in THAT drive instead of THIS drive". It might be a valid argument if games were running into limitations on the current drive, which other platforms were taking advantage of.
I'll agree, the 360 deserves a list of drawbacks (too loud?) - just not this list.
Re:Price (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Price (Score:2)
I also think the Gears' use of the third person perspective allowed it to introduce integral new gameplay mechanics that are not possible in an FPS. So I think lumping it in as "just another FPS" would be disingenuous.
This interview is crap, sorry (Score:5, Insightful)
It's nothing reflecting on slashdot or the users. Hell, I even had a question accepted this time, so it's not even sour grapes!
The reason it's crap is because of the responses, which were obviously all sanitized by the legal department (or are all well-informed by the standards from legal.)
SOME of the answers are good. I don't want to take that away from this interview. The answer to #1 is great. #2 is sort of rambling, but at least it seems like an honest answer. But when we get to #3 (my question) :) then it goes to hell. Every word of the answer to #3 is pure marketing speak. This is not really anything different from what I expected - mostly my goal in authoring that question was to make him aware that we realize where Sony has fallen directly on its face.
But let's look at precisely why his answers are disingenuous, shall we?
"The Cell processor is wildly powerful and developers are now beginning to understand what that means for game design." Translation: The cell processor is horribly complicated to code for, and our internal developers are just now beginning to understand how to get a useful portion of that power out of it. We didn't learn anything from the stupid processor we put into the PS2."
"There is no denying we had some start-up challenges with Blu-ray at the beginning but that is the price you pay for leading edge technology. Thankfully, those challenges are behind us and I stand firmly by the decision to include BD-ROM as the physical media format." Translation: The lack of availability of blue lasers looked like it was going to be a real problem, but those problems never materialized because people didn't actually want to buy all the consoles we could produce, unlike the Wii.
"Next generation game design demands the capacity of Blu-ray." Translation: I am a lying sack of shit, since Microsoft is successfully outselling us with next-generation games on DVD.
[...] "the fact that is helps kick-start BD as the next generation movie format is a bonus for all of us, players and game-makers." Translation: I want you to believe that Blu-Ray's dominance would be good for the consumer, so I will spout this nonsensical drivel.
That's right, it's all lies and bullshit. I didn't quote a couple of sentences, because they were obvious statements that didn't need to be made to a technical audience.
Let's move on to #4.
"We were one of the first companies to recognize this in 1996 with Net Yaroze on PS1" ...which was too expensive for nearly any of their users to afford.
"It's a vital, crucial aspect of the future growth of our industry and links well to the subtext of my earlier answers." Which makes it difficult to imagine why Sony locks out so much functionality of their consoles from Linux users, if homebrew is so important.
"Now having said all that, we still have to protect the investment and intellectual property rights of the industry so we will always seek the best ways to secure and protect our devices from piracy and unauthorized hacking that damages the business." Translation: Having said all that, it is all bullshit because we will load you down with hypervisor restrictions and bullshit DRM that prevents you in some cases from exercising your legal rights and in others simply prevents you from utilizing all of the functionality of the machine.
#5 we can skip. Everyone knows Sony is going to be hurting bad because FFXIII isn't going to be PS3-exclusive, and that squeenix is hardly the only group of guys telling them to stick their exclusivity contract up their arrogant asses.
#6 proves that he is a dumbass as if we needed any further evidence, since he doesn't recognize the difference between vibration feedback and force feedback.
#7 is not very interesting IMO, hardly anyone bought the 20GB model to begin with.
In his answer to #8 he utterly ignores the fact that they're paying twice in Europe what we are paying in Japan and the US. Which of course, he has to, because there's no way to not look like an asshole when you're saying that people are being charged more for no reason whatsoever other than Sony thinking they will pay.
I do want to address point #7 in one other way: "However, we have more than recovered from this situation with what is objectively a very well-executed launch in Europe with a great selection of games on disc and network." What? Well-executed? There were more members of the press on their little launch party boat than there were gamers, which shows that they care not about gamers, but about their image. And sales in the second week dropped over 80%. That is not a well-executed launch. That is a lie.
#9 can be summarized as "We are evil bastards, but people keep buying our shit, so we have no motivation to ever change."
#10 looks like fun.
"Probably no surprise to hear that we've no plans to drop the price but it's also no surprise to anyone reading this that core to our business plan is growing the installed base of hardware." Translation: we don't announce price drops - it was indeed a stupid question. We don't plan to drop the price so we can sell more hardware, but we would like to sell more hardware -- you figure that one out for yourself.
"But price is only one part of the motivation to purchase a system. We need to maintain the high desire for the product through great software, services and support combined with great awareness." If he continued this sentence honestly it would have gone something like "And it would be great if you weren't aware that we as a corporation have distributed rootkits, sued your favorite web retailer into oblivion, and done more to further the cause of DRM than the next three companies combined (not counting Microsoft, to be fair.)"
And what? Maintain the high desire for the product? Dude, there never was high desire for the product. You guys fucking blew it. That's why there's been piles of PS3s sitting on the shelves.
This guy is paid to lie. I guess next time I shouldn't even bother reading.
Re:This interview is crap, sorry (Score:2)
This one I disagree with you on. While Developers aren't demanding the extra space it does make their lives easier. Most games go through a phase where they need to shrik their assets down to size to fit the media. High res textures, uncompressed audio, multiple channels, bigger models, bump maps, normal maps, lighting maps, The increasingly less common FMV, The increasingly more common NPC audio, etc... Most developers will tell you before the shrikage games are easily 10-30 gigs. They shrink it by lowering texture resolution dropping stuff, compressing stuff etc...
Re:This interview is crap, sorry (Score:2)
The chip in the most-sold longest-produced console in history? Yeah, what a bunch of idiots trying to repeat that.
Re:This interview is crap, sorry (Score:2)
We get that you hate Sony.
Admittedly, I own a PS3, and I'm happy with it. And so your comments irritate me.
But Every. Single. Sony. Thread. Has you in. Discussing how Sony vivisected your grandmother and killed your gerbil.
Ok, we get it.
Even if I didn't like Sony... it's getting old...
Re:This interview is crap, sorry (Score:2)
First of all, I didn't pay for shit. Sony is not getting any of my money if I can help it. They are the enemy of freedom-loving consumers everywhere and to patronize them is to be their ally.
Second of all, people who paid for the PS3 did pay for a development platform, because the ability to run Linux on the system was an advertised selling point, listed on the official PS3 website, and has been part of the buzz since long before the console was released. So you are plainly and simply wrong about this point. End of story. Do not try to argue, because you are wrong.
If they had advertised the linux support as being castrated, you might back a backup point there. But they didn't, so you simply do not know what you are talking about.
I also specifically discussed that subject in light of what he had said, specifically because to say those things while the console's Linux functionality is castrated the way it is... well, that's simply hypocritical.
Come back when you know what you're talking about, and have a point.
Re:This interview is crap, sorry (Score:2)
I don't disagree with that statement at all, but if you buy a 360 or a Wii instead because of it, you're a fucking idiot.
Re:This interview is crap, sorry (Score:2)
Yes, but they didn't design the damn thing so that you couldn't rip it apart either. If you wanted to get at its innards, you'd just need a screwdriver. Perhaps you should stick to car metaphors.
He didn't really answer my question (Score:2)
Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah. I like my PS3. (Score:2)
*shrug*
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:4, Informative)
That said, I have no buyers remorse. I really do love it. I think the reason you don't see a huge amount of PS3 supporters here is not only because there still aren't a ton of systems out there, but because being Slashdot most likely they'll get flamed to hell or called retards for spending $600 on a game console etc etc.
To give you an idea of how I use it, I currently have Resistance, Virtua Fighter 5, and Motorstorm. Resistance was a blast, and while I have no idea how it stands up to Gears (and it's definitely not a Halo killer) it still was great fun, especially with the imaginative weapons Insomniac loves putting in all their games. VF5 is great, lack of online play slightly disappointing but to be expected due to the nature of the fighting engine. Motorstorm I think was the title that most shocked me. I had been looking forward to it for quite a while after the demo but near release the reviews game out and it got relatively mediocre reviews, mainly because of the lack of game modes. So..I held back on my purchase for quite a while but ever since picking it up I'm glad I did. Not only are the graphics amazing, but the gameplay never ceases to be just downright fun, even with the lack of modes like single race and time trial.
I'd also like to mention my thoughts on the PSN. Having very briefly used XBox Live I don't feel I'm qualified to give a comparison between the two, but my experience has overall been very nice. My only complaint is that Resistance didn't integrate it's buddy list with the PSN, something that my other online title, Motorstorm, does very nicely. However, both games are lag free, and Resistance has awesome matchmaking, clan support, and all that jazz built in. I always hear people with XBL touting those features and I just thought I'd point out that we too are enjoying them. As for the Playstation Store, they could use some fatter download pipes, but other than that it's decent. I definitely think the XBLA interface is much nicer though. The PS Store is basically a webpage, and can be sluggish.
I did get Casino Royale to check out Blu-ray, and I was quite impressed. Not impressed enough to go and rebuy old DVDs though, however new purchases will probably be in Blu-ray if available. The picture quality is quite awesome, I just wish my receiver was newer so I could take advantage of the uncompressed LPCM 5.1 audio over HDMI. Oh, and I also convert a bunch of shows I download into a PS3 suitable format and transfer them over to watch them on the big screen.
Overall it's a pretty great experience. I always had plans to get an XBox360 sometime down the line, but what I'm getting now from the PS3 will tide me over until there are a bunch of titles that interest me on the 360 (and maybe a price drop). With Heavenly Sword looking like it's shaping up to be a great game, Lair looking promising (although I'm not completely convinced yet) and some blockbuster hits coming at the end of this year I'm pretty excited. Honestly, I hope this doesn't sound too much like some PR zombie taking advantage of the situation, because I'm not. It's the first time I've really got into about how much I enjoy the experience in hopes of shedding some light on the parts of the PS3 that aren't that bad (namely everything but the price
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
Yep. (Score:2)
Pros:
First to get Virtua Fighter 5
No extra fees for online gaming
Blu-Ray movie playback (it's very difficult to go back to DVDs now)
Hard drive in every unit
Most comfortable next-gen controller
PS1 and PS2 backward compatibility
Cons:
No built-in 720p upscaling for 1080i-only TVs
No rumble (though this will be changing soon)
No online play for Virtua Tennis 3
Pricey
Once they get rumble into the Sixaxis and some marquee exclusives come out later in the year, the PS3 should be on much more solid footing.
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
I bought it because it's the first console I could get hooked up to my LCD. (Mainly, I'm sick of playing the PC-gamer upgrade cycle and sick of bug-ridden PC games and the shitty, bug-ridden copy protection they use.) I thought about a Wii, and may still pick one up, but honestly the sort of games it has don't excite me.
I didn't even consider an XBox, because I refuse to put any money towards Microsoft's efforts to expand their monopolistic bullshit beyond the PC. Honestly, I'm surprised a slashdotter can admit buying an XBox without holding their head in shame.
Beyond that..."excited enough to promote it" usually means "fanboy". Fuck that. I have fun...you can buy whatever console you want and as such, am completely uninterested in arguments about which console is "better". I stopped doing that sort of shit back in the "Apple ][ vs c64" days.
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
And yet somehow stuffing the coffers of the same company responsible for the rootkit debacle makes you a model slashdotter (whatever the fuck that means)?
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
I have no complaints about the capabilities or operation of the system. It needs more great games and a better online store that sells video though.
I think I clearly made the right choice in buying it. It's still the best choice for HD movies at a semi-reasonable cost.
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
A week after I bought the PS3, I went to someone's house, they had a Wii. It was pretty cool. But, I was there for about six hours, and in that time, I became bored with it. The motion sensing gimmick got boring fast, and it didn't really work that well. After spending a week playing the PS3, the Wii graphics were appallingly poor. After my Wii experience, I'm 100% satisfied in my decision to not wait.
I can't really speak to the 360 vs. the PS3, but the ability to play HD movies on my 61" 1080p TV set definitely makes up for any difference in price.
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
I'm not the guy who replied to your original question, but I also own a PS3 and am pretty happy with it. Not as a console, mind you...
My roommate bought an hdtv and even though I used to one of the people who claimed standard def dvd's were "good enough" that changed quickly when I started watching high definition stuff. I also have a huge dvd collection, so I figured I'd start buying high definition discs from now on, since there is such a huge difference. Plus, high definition HBO is all well and good, but you get the same movies over and over again for a long time period, so it doesn't really compare to just having a huge netflix blu-ray queue.
Yeah, an xbox-360 + hd-dvd drive would do just as well. However, if you buy the hd drive, the price is comparable to the ps3. And my roommate's tv won't do 1080p over component, only over hdmi. So the ps3 suits that purpose better in our case.
As a result I own a ps3 and watch lots of blu-ray movies. I don't own a single ps3 game. I haven't even tried to see if I could rent a ps3 game. I played some of my old ps1 and ps2 games mostly just to see if they work. Can't really recommend it as a videogame console, at least not yet, but it is the cheapest blu-ray player you can get, so if you want to get one of those, I'm happy with mine.
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
IMO, VF5 is the king of fighting games, period -- and it looks absolutely stunning on the PS3. VT3 is also a lot of fun, though its lack of online play compared to the 360 is annoying. M:UA is nice too, though the lack of voice chat is a head-scratcher, especially because the PS2 version supports it.
I currently own 4 Blu-Ray movies, and the increase in quality over DVD is so large that I can't imagine going back. My local Blockbuster is also the only place in my area that rents Blu-Ray movies, so I've given them some business on the rental front.
The SD slot is also nice for quick previews or slideshows of digital camera photos -- they look great in HD on my 50" TV.
So, the answer to your question is that I use it for everything you asked about, and my only real complaints are with the developers who choose not to provide 1080i compatibility, or who provide weak or nonexistent online support.
Re:Any PS3 Fans here? (Score:2)
Eh... fair enough.... (Score:2)
They're stuck. They have the opportunity to present themselves as the BMW of game consoles, offering the most sophistication for your buck. Yet, they're constrained by being a MASSIVE company, that needs to eat 2x its weight every month to survive, meaning that it can't afford to be that picky. So, its forced to charge luxury rates for a gaming experience that may or may not be any more sophisticated than anyone else's.
Henry Ford wouldn't have had much credibility, had he started out making Lexus's, now, would he?
Free copy of Casino Royale? (Score:2)
Not that it matters much. I already own it on DVD. And I'm actually quite impressed with my PS3. It has a lot going for it, though the game selection could stand to improve. I'm currently playing Resistance, and after playing Gears of War on the 360, Resistance is not very impressive.
Next time can we ask better questions. (Score:2)
Next time we get an interview with a marketing big wig please demand they answer the questions and non compliant answers will be remove. I hate seeing slashdot being turned into a game of softball.
Re:Next time can we ask better questions. (Score:2)
"Yeah that whole Blu-Ray thing? Man, don't even get me started."
"Price cuts for the PS3? HAHAHA if you're too poor to buy our PS3 then you're too poor to buy our Blu-Ray movies. We don't want you as a customer anyway."
"Our developers are kind of slow, which is why we haven't leveraged the PS3's power fully, yet."
I mean, really. What's in it for them if they're honest?
Re:Next time can we ask better questions. (Score:4, Insightful)
At the very least don't allow them to hijack questions to sell their products or point out shit that has nothing to do with it. Why allow a person to ask a question about the european delay and then allow him to fob it off, then give the company line "800,000 units in europe being the best launch ever" (sad I know that by memory, but I've heard it about 20 times since the european launch because they are so happy) Then talking about Casino Royale? you gave it away free? I'm guessing the fact that you then made it the best selling BD or HDDVD title had nothing to do with it?
Phil Harrison has been a double talking weasel in the industry for too long. I think it's time to get him to stop.
Oh really? (Score:2)
Personally, I don't think selling a $500 console is the best way to reach "practically anyone on the planet." In fact, it seems like you're going in the exact opposite direction with each successive console generation.
Re:Oh really? (Score:2)
Wikipedia reference (Score:2)
Someone has already updated the Wikipedia entry, citing this Slashdot article as a source.
Maybe it's about time to start trusting it a bit more...
-- Terry
No RSX For You (Score:2)
He didn't even answer the question about granting access to the RSX, which is the PS3 graphics chip (9x as fast as the really fast Cell CPU). Though he did pick the question as one of the few to "answer". Sony is not going to open access to the RSX for Linux developers, because then unlicensed Linux bootable CD/Blu-Ray games could compete with licensed Sony games. Sony makes all their money on those licenses: Sony sells PS3s at least $240 below production cost just to sell more consoles so they can sell more game licenses. This has nothing to do with piracy, but it certainly does have everything to do with "unauthorized hacking". Which is always the best kind, as anyone hacking C64 or other 6502 PCs in the 1980s knows in our hearts.
Harrison is blaming Sony media/legal dept (Score:2)
This reads exactly as follows, both in form and logically (I'm not joking):
And since we know that this is exactly what's happening at Sony, it seems quite likely that that's what he meant. Of course, since he's a marketting/PR monkey he's far more likely to be simply talking total bollocks for effect. Nevertheless, his words happen to accurately reflect what is going on at Sony, so perhaps he intended to imply this very thing in a way that wouldn't land him in hot water in the company.
Re:Harrison is blaming Sony media/legal dept (Score:2)
If Harrison had ignored the question, we wouldn't have his signal that he supports Linux development. Getting full access to the PS3 HW is the #1 issue for developers (not just gamers and technophiles) on Slashdot. So now we know where the allies might lie. Continued pressure just might get them to expose at least 2D APIs to RSX, if not everything needed for at least Beryl, if not Duke Nukem Forever (;), under Linux.
Until I saw your analysis, I thought Sony would never expose RSX to Linux, as that would be the little hole in their license royalty balloon. But if their marketing execs want it, then there is very much a chance. Even if they're just pretending they do to look cool for developers they're planning to leave cold, there's still a chance to campaign on their words to get them to help. It's worth doing. That RSX is 1.8TFLOPS of graphics power, dwarfing even the Cell's 0.2TFLOPS. With Beryl, we're talking about a superfast desktop like in a SF movie (hell, we're talking about a realtime rendered SF movie in full rez on the desktop). Let's get it!
Unauthorized hacking (Score:2)
Is that when you stay up until 6am on a school night trying to get your port of Thrust working correctly?
Does this really surprise anyone? (Score:2)
Does it surprise anyone that Sony is going to fight tooth, nail, and probably lawyerly to protect its paying IP-licensees? Does it surprise anyone that his answer to "what would you have done differently?" was something along the lines of job interview answer ("what is my fault? I am a perfectionist, who sometimes likes to work too hard for too little pay") of "I'd be bigger, better!"
Really, having interviews with any companies' frontmen are a ridiculous waste of time: all their answers will be geared to making the company look good (even at the expense of the truth and the question!), they won't answer anything that they don't want to (seriously, you expect to just let it slip that a price drop is even being considered!?), and any time they come up against a question that cannot be answered without harming the company's reputation, they just dance around it with some cute anecdote.
In other news, water still wet, sky still up, news at 11.
Re:No Phil, I do care. (Score:2)
For most people, the lack of a price drop is the most significant problem. I don't own a single sony console, but I'm not impressed with the xbox 360's poor quality*. I'd consider buying a PS3 as a second console after the wii I can't find. If nothing else, its a blueray player. I won't pay $600 for it.
*The xbox360 breaks often. Everytime I'm in a game store, someone wants to get theirs repaired. All of them have been hard drive models, but that is what I would buy.
Re:No Phil, I do care. (Score:2)
Re:No Phil, I do care. (Score:2)
I know this is totally off topic... I use macs... but anyone who is considering buying one should go to an apple store and see how long it takes to get an appointment at the Genius Bar before deciding to buy one. Then again, the unreliability of the hardware doesn't define the overall experience.
Re:No Phil, I do care. (Score:2)
I also found the fact that you brought up Macs odd. I happen to have 4 Macs in my home along with many other types of systems. You don't have to be an MS fanboi to own an xbox. My original point was that people don't expect game consoles to break. They should just work. I've got a Nintendo that still works. I've got a sega genesis that still works. I've got a N64, Dreamcast, GBA, SNES, and Game Cube that still work. Why can't a 3 month old xbox 360 work? In all the years I've played video games, only two consoles have ever worn out and they were 8-10 years old at that point. My original xbox even works. Perhaps the conplexity of these new consoles makes them more fragile like a computer. Then again, I've got a working NeXT and Sun sparcstation built in the early 90s.
Re:Fsck Linux (Score:2)
Re:Mocking C64!?! (Score:2)
I don't really see how they can get around it, either - If Linux is allowed to access both the Cell and the RSX, then, official games should theoretically be playable within linux via virtualization with a minimum performance penalty.
I've played with a few in stores... (Score:2)
Then again, I did buy a Wii, primarily due to Nintendo's (and others') focus on "wacky" but fun games. The Wii is shaping up to be the only video game system that will actually increase social interaction at events when it's brought out. Oh, and the Wii Remote, of course. Games like Elebits and Rayman Raving Rabbid could be done on any other console, and in Rayman's case, already has been. But they're just not going to be the same without the Wii Remote interaction.
Re:The cultural status of gaming (Score:2)