Phil Harrison — Executive Vice President, Sony Computer Entertainment
A Brit who comes off worse in writing than person.
(For an explanation of what this article is, please read this.)
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Bitchy comments
“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 Pokemon.”
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“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.”
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Something the PS2 was widely criticized for – and which Microsoft in particular has played up very much – is being extremely hard to develop for. How does PS3 compare in that respect?
It always made me chuckle, that comment from Microsoft, because yeah, it’s true, but it didn’t stop us having thousands of games and 80 per cent market share. Having said that, there is an element of truth to it – PlayStation 2’s architecture was more challenging for your average developer to get their heads around. Some were capable of getting their heads around it, some weren’t.
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Too much bravado
“We don’t need the PC.”
[I assume all Sony employees now use only PS3s at work.]
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If the graphics were themselves a major selling point, why was the whole lifestyle angle so important?
If we were successful in positioning PlayStation as an aspirational product we would differentiate ourselves from the old “toy” image of the Sega and Nintendo market. We were not simply selling a game system, we were promoting an entertainment lifestyle. PlayStation was the first game system to make it “cool” to play games and you had to join in, or be left out. We pioneered many marketing techniques that are now commonplace in our industry – things like PlayStation chill-out rooms in top nighclubs, celebrity product placement, guerrilla branding at music festivals, and the PlayStation skate-park in west London. All of these were totally innovative concepts for launching a game system in 1995, although the echoes of these campaigns still resonate today. The advertising was innovative, talked-about, edgy and unlike anything that had been used in the category before. I think that we made some of the best ads, in any industry, for PlayStation.
[Sega built their now crumbling empire on “cool.” They also made many “edgy” commercials for the Genesis and Game Gear that are still highly regarded.]
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Are you going to be at a competitive disadvantage with Xbox 360 having a full year head start on the PS3?
We’ve actually never been the first platform to the market in what would be considered the generation shift. I think what you’ve seen today and in our previous announcements is that we have a tremendous powerful hardware coupled with an excellent software backing. We’re not concerned.
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This is your third PlayStation launch. Is it much more complicated now than in the good old days?
Yes. It only gets more complicated, but matched with that complexity comes opportunity so I don’t think it’s a negative. It’s only positive.
We are at a unique point in technology history where you have four technology trends all lining up like four big planets. You’ve got HD displays, becoming mass market, must-have purchases. You’ve got Blu-ray disks becoming the pre-eminent standard for hi-def movies. You’ve got the establishment pf a game format in PlayStation 3 that can have HD games and HD movies. And you’ve got the explosion of broadband and the continuing fattening of the pipe. Those four things are happening right now, it’s a rich soil in which the future will grow.
[Blu ray in not yet and may never be a standard.]
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Misleading
“What we should be clear about is that the functionality is identical in both machines… It’s just that the technical method of extracting audio and video from the devices is slightly different.”
[Outputting in HDMI is very arguably a function.]
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So, right from the beginning, Sony was marketing the machine as a lifestyle accessory rather than a toy. Where did this idea come from?
PlayStation games looked, sounded and played better – and really delivered an “arcade quality” experience on the TV in the living room. Although by today’s standards the graphics were relatively simple, you have to remember back then it was a revelation. By making games more realistic, more consumers found them interesting and were attracted to play games perhaps for the first time in their lives.
[It is generally agreed upon that the Genesis brought the arcade experience home, not simply because of the hardware’s capability, but because Sega has nearly always had an enormous role in the arcade industry and their games came to the system. The Saturn arguably had better arcade ports of many games when compared to the PSX, like most 2D Capcom fighters.]
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Did you not show the new version of the PS3 controller because of the Immersion lawsuit?
That has no impact on why we didn’t show the controller. The controller will be revealed at E3.
[Tilt sensing technology has been used in conjunction with rumble technology. I believe Sony is simply lying when they claim the Immersion suit had nothing to do with the rumble removal.]
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“I know what Peter was getting at with his price point issue but he’s not comparing apples to oranges. He’s not even comparing the same kind of food products at all. It’s clearly a case that PlayStation 3’s price is justified by PlayStation 3’s value. That’s what consumers base their purchasing decisions on — value.”
[The concept that PS3 is a computer and other systems are not is a PR line. Xbox and Xbox 360 are computers. As such, it is unclear why comparing them to the PS3 is erroneous.]
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Half truths
Considering that you are doing a worldwide launch, what sort of steps are you taking to ensure that there will be sufficient numbers of units available at launch?
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“Don’t look them in the eyes. That’s how they know you’re lying.” |
I’m in charge of the software studios, not the manufacturing plant, but as you can see from our history, Sony has been very good about supporting our hardware launches. Yes, some consumers will be disappointed, unfortunately. But our ramp-up of over 1 million units per month is the fastest we’ve ever had.
[Sony was not “very good” about supporting the PS2 at launch.]
Whoops
“Are there two versions of the Xbox 360 that people want to buy, is my question,” he continued. “I don’t know.”
“This is my personal view, not my corporate view, but when I look at those formats, I think it just confuses the audience. They don’t know which one to buy, developers don’t know which one to create for, and retailers don’t know which one to stock.”
“So I think we wouldn’t take that strategy. We wouldn’t create confusion,” he concluded.
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Yet some media outlets are still getting it wrong. USA Today reported that there will be a two-tiered pricing structure for PlayStation Network Platform?
I think that some analysts must have been in a different presentation. Some things they got wrong, and others they speculated on areas that we did not even touch upon. Obviously we hope that this conversation can help to clarify the message.
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In terms of your devkits – obviously some people have them already, so what’s the schedule going forward for delivering them to developers?
Well, clearly Monday and Tuesday have been our big coming-out parties. We’re now public, so we can now be a lot more open with all of our partners about what we’re doing. You’ll see a lot more devkits rolling out – but exact schedules, who they’re going to and what they do is not something I can discuss here.
You’re going to start rolling them out more rapidly now, though?
Yeah, for sure. We’ve been making them for some time, but obviously they’re not in abundant supply at the moment. (5/05)
[Many developers have reported not yet receiving dev kits.]
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You showed demonstrations of the console running multiple applications across the two HDMI outputs – is that something which is actually built into the system’s operating systems, or do games have to support it specifically?
Depending on the features that you exploit, some of it’s handled by the OS, some of it will be handled by the applications. I should also explain that although yes, there are two HDMI outputs, you don’t have to have only high-def devices attached to PlayStation 3 – there’s also a standard PlayStation AV Multi-Out connector. So one of them could be an HD output, and one of them could be an AV Multi going to the TV.
[The PS3 will have one or zero HDMI outputs.]
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Sense of humor
There’s going to be a worldwide simultaneous launch?
We decided to restrict it just to this planet.
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Modesty
How much input did game developers have into the specs of the PlayStation and its APIs?
Not a huge amount, to be honest.
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Some of the developers who worked on demos for the launch have said that even those aren’t running on hardware approaching the full power of the final unit – so what percentage of the full performance was that running on?
It’s really hard to say, because as technology gets more and more complicated, there’s no concept of the “perfect” engine. We used to say on 16-bit that a game used 90 per cent of the machine’s power, or Gran Turismo uses, you know, 94 per cent of PlayStation 1’s power… There’s no concept of the perfect game engine that uses everything. So it’s hard to say.
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Admission of mistakes
The PS2 was widely regarded as difficult to program for – will the PS3 be similar?
One of the criticisms of the PS2 was that while it was very powerful, it was also to harness this power. I accept that it was difficult to program for. That came down to the proprietary nature of the processors.
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Compliments
Online is one area where, without a doubt, Microsoft did get it rather more right than Sony last generation – Xbox Live being a much more comprehensive worldwide service than what Sony rolled out…
But more people play online games on a PlayStation 2 than on any other game console.
Right, but then a lot more people own PlayStation 2s than any other game console.
Yeah, but it is something that is worth pointing out – although, personally I have a great deal of respect for what Microsoft has done with Live, and I think they’ve got a lot of it right.
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“Microsoft has done a lot of things right, and there are certainly things that are going to form the model for many of the high quality consumer experiences that we will deliver with PS3.”
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“I think Peter Moore is exactly right. I think Nintendo will be the second system consumers purchase after PlayStation 3. I haven’t had a chance to check out the Wii myself, but Nintendo has a great history of innovation and has always done great things for gaming and long may they do so. But as it relates to our strategy they are very much in a different market.”
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Closing quote
“We are a business, we do have to make a profit. We can’t just do this for the fun of it – we’re not art house theatre. We have to balance the two.”
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Sources:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3143180
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=11209
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/phil-harrison/phil-harrison-semantically-argues-ps3-versions-identical-in-functionality-173055.php
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2004/12/14/origins_of_playstation_a_chat_with_phil_harrison.html
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3148957
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=9051
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2609&Itemid=2
http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=55089
When you hear one quote about Nintendo being the Pokemon company, and another one later praising them for being innovative… none of it is sincere. Its all just silly remarks that they make depending on the situation. When they’re contradicting themselves, its a lot harder to take anything they say seriously. Not the best impression to give of a company’s higher ups.
I dont believe I am going to do this…….
Your classification of his comments are all a matter of point of view. For the most part his comments are dead on.
“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 Pokemon.â€?
Truth.
“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.â€?
Truth
Something the PS2 was widely criticized for – and which Microsoft in particular has played up very much – is being extremely hard to develop for. How does PS3 compare in that respect?
It always made me chuckle, that comment from Microsoft, because yeah, it’s true, but it didn’t stop us having thousands of games and 80 per cent market share. Having said that, there is an element of truth to it – PlayStation 2’s architecture was more challenging for your average developer to get their heads around. Some were capable of getting their heads around it, some weren’t.
Truth.
“We don’t need the PC.â€?
[I assume all Sony employees now use only PS3s at work.]
Out of context comment?
[Sega built their now crumbling empire on “cool.â€? They also made many “edgyâ€? commercials for the Genesis and Game Gear that are still highly regarded.]
Obviously not good enough if Sony was able to edge them out of the market with thiers.
Are you going to be at a competitive disadvantage with Xbox 360 having a full year head start on the PS3?
We’ve actually never been the first platform to the market in what would be considered the generation shift. I think what you’ve seen today and in our previous announcements is that we have a tremendous powerful hardware coupled with an excellent software backing. We’re not concerned.
yup… in the last generation it was dreamcast.
[Blu ray in not yet and may never be a standard.]
“becoming the pre-eminent standard” Ok what is the definition of standard? Now look at that comment again , this time armed with the knowledge that every single major motion picture companies in the united states ( which happen to be the biggest in the world) ,with the exception of universal , are actually on the Blu Ray Disc Association Board. The major motion picture companies oretty much have a large say in where and how Blu ray is going to be used. “becoming the pre-eminent standerd” statement makes more sense yet?
“What we should be clear about is that the functionality is identical in both machines… It’s just that the technical method of extracting audio and video from the devices is slightly different.â€?
[Outputting in HDMI is very arguably a function.]
He was refering to HDMI as the techincal method of extraction. He cleary stated that “what”( functionality) the systems can do is identical.
[It is generally agreed upon that the Genesis brought the arcade experience home, not simply because of the hardware’s capability, but because Sega has nearly always had an enormous role in the arcade industry and their games came to the system. The Saturn arguably had better arcade ports of many games when compared to the PSX, like most 2D Capcom fighters.]
Oh but it goes both ways the PSX had better 3d arcade ports and that is the point he was trying to get at. Not only could the PSX port the 2d games but did an adequate job of porting 3d games as well.
[Tilt sensing technology has been used in conjunction with rumble technology. I believe Sony is simply lying when they claim the Immersion suit had nothing to do with the rumble removal.]
I agree with you there but that really has nothing to do with why they didn’t show thier haptic-less controller.
“I know what Peter was getting at with his price point issue but he’s not comparing apples to oranges. He’s not even comparing the same kind of food products at all. It’s clearly a case that PlayStation 3’s price is justified by PlayStation 3’s value. That’s what consumers base their purchasing decisions on – value.â€?
[The concept that PS3 is a computer and other systems are not is a PR line. Xbox and Xbox 360 are computers. As such, it is unclear why comparing them to the PS3 is erroneous.]
The value arguement was not about what was a PC and what is not it was more about the parts in the PS3. Look on the market and see what a 256mb stick of ram cost…… now try to find one that operates at 3.2 GHz and tell me the price. A 60 gig hard drive, the RSX, the Cell and the Blu ray. Logically speaking if one was to upgrade thier computers with parts like these the price tag would easily run to $2000 or more. You misunderstood that one.
[Sony was not “very goodâ€? about supporting the PS2 at launch.]
Sounds like an opinion to me. There were memory shortages in japan at the time of manufacturing the PS2. Prices sharply rose and made things difficult for toshiba (sony’s partner) They managed to get the PS2 out but with less memory than they initially had planned….. but they did the best that they could.
“Are there two versions of the Xbox 360 that people want to buy, is my question,â€? he continued. “I don’t know.â€?
“This is my personal view, not my corporate view, but when I look at those formats, I think it just confuses the audience. They don’t know which one to buy, developers don’t know which one to create for, and retailers don’t know which one to stock.â€?
“So I think we wouldn’t take that strategy. We wouldn’t create confusion,â€? he concluded.
Main point here….. the main difference between the PS3 versions is the HDMI port. And dev’s wont fret over that, The misshap that MS did was to offer a version of thier 360 without a hard drive…. that is thier only one really… but that affects how devs make thier games now.
Yet some media outlets are still getting it wrong. USA Today reported that there will be a two-tiered pricing structure for PlayStation Network Platform?
I think that some analysts must have been in a different presentation. Some things they got wrong, and others they speculated on areas that we did not even touch upon. Obviously we hope that this conversation can help to clarify the message.
They mentioned the pricing of thier Network platform?
[Many developers have reported not yet receiving dev kits.]
Hence the “not in abundant supply comment”. Its a year later and quite a few devs have recieved one but there are alot of devs in the world.
[The PS3 will have one or zero HDMI outputs.]
Considering the specs “Still” are not final objecteivity has to come into play.
The PS2 was widely regarded as difficult to program for – will the PS3 be similar?
One of the criticisms of the PS2 was that while it was very powerful, it was also to harness this power. I accept that it was difficult to program for. That came down to the proprietary nature of the processors.”
yep…. an IBM RISC proccessor…… who on earth uses those? Oh yeah… thats right… Nintendo. The difference is that thier chip was less specialized. The ps2 was able to perform some amazing things at the end portion of its life time because of the foward thinking of the chip designers. The same story is going to happen with the Cell except this time It has been put out ther on the almighty interweb that deving for the PS3 is easier than deving for the PS2.
Online is one area where, without a doubt, Microsoft did get it rather more right than Sony last generation – Xbox Live being a much more comprehensive worldwide service than what Sony rolled out…
But more people play online games on a PlayStation 2 than on any other game console.
Right, but then a lot more people own PlayStation 2s than any other game console.
Yeah, but it is something that is worth pointing out – although, personally I have a great deal of respect for what Microsoft has done with Live, and I think they’ve got a lot of it right.
What he means to say is that if Sony got it “that” wrong people would not be playing thier games online with thier PS2’s. He does have a point.
“Microsoft has done a lot of things right, and there are certainly things that are going to form the model for many of the high quality consumer experiences that we will deliver with PS3.â€?
I am fully of the mind that sony new network is directly inspireed by MS’s live.
“I think Peter Moore is exactly right. I think Nintendo will be the second system consumers purchase after PlayStation 3. I haven’t had a chance to check out the Wii myself, but Nintendo has a great history of innovation and has always done great things for gaming and long may they do so. But as it relates to our strategy they are very much in a different market.â€?
See nothing wrong with this comment.
“We are a business, we do have to make a profit. We can’t just do this for the fun of it – we’re not art house theatre. We have to balance the two.â€?
Right and this makes more sense if you would stop looking at sony as one large hunkering beast. I am pretty sure as a whole they are concerned about money but individual departments within Sony most likely have a different point of view. David Jaffe, Fumito Ueda and thier respective departments are a perfect example.
I guess people derive thier own meanigs from what other people say.
oh christian just because a company is obviously gearing toward a younger demographic does not mean that they cannot be innovative. Sony has not contradicted themselves it is a matter of comprehension that is the case.
Thanks for the detailed response. Let’s see…
““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 Pokemon.â€?
Truth.”
You are right that this is a matter of interpretation. Phil is insulting Nintendo by calling them a kiddie company. Those who agree with him will not read it as an insult but as a fact. Others will see it as a cheap jab at a company who still makes some of the best video games around. The intent of his comment, whatever language he used, was to write Nintendo off.
““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.â€?
Truth”
Comparing hardware specs may not be good for the DS, but that’s assuming you can quantify technology neatly. Is a second screen worth anything? How many tech points does the PSP get for playing movies? If we base technological prowess on cost alone, then the PSP is a superior gadget. Technology aside, why is it not a fair comparison to Nintendo? They seem to still be in control of the handheld market. Even though I prefer the DS, I think it’d be arrogant for a Nintendo rep to claim that the PSP is irrelevant. Writing off an actual competitor is just an arrogant thing to do, no matter who is doing it.
“Obviously not good enough if Sony was able to edge them out of the market with thiers.”
I never said Sega’s empire was good. Their business mismanagement has no bearing on the fact that they were doing “cool” advertising for their consoles long before Sony.
““becoming the pre-eminent standardâ€? Ok what is the definition of standard? Now look at that comment again , this time armed with the knowledge that every single major motion picture companies in the united states ( which happen to be the biggest in the world) ,with the exception of universal , are actually on the Blu Ray Disc Association Board. The major motion picture companies oretty much have a large say in where and how Blu ray is going to be used. “becoming the pre-eminent standerdâ€? statement makes more sense yet?”
The motion picture companies will drop Blu Ray like a bad habit if the tide turns in favor of HD DVD. I am not saying it will not become the standard, just that it is not now. There are plenty of well informed people on Audio Visual websites and forums discussing the possible outcomes of the format war. I do not believe the winner is as cut and dry as you make it seem.
“Oh but it goes both ways the PSX had better 3d arcade ports and that is the point he was trying to get at. Not only could the PSX port the 2d games but did an adequate job of porting 3d games as well.”
Yes, the PSX had better 3d, but you’re missing my point. Phil is saying the PSX was THE system to bring home the arcade. Rise from your grave, you know it just ain’t true.
“I agree with you there but that really has nothing to do with why they didn’t show thier haptic-less controller.”
So you agree that Sony is lying about the tilt sensor? Then my point was made.
“The value arguement was not about what was a PC and what is not it was more about the parts in the PS3. Look on the market and see what a 256mb stick of ram cost…… now try to find one that operates at 3.2 GHz and tell me the price. A 60 gig hard drive, the RSX, the Cell and the Blu ray. Logically speaking if one was to upgrade thier computers with parts like these the price tag would easily run to $2000 or more. You misunderstood that one.”
I disagree. Kutaragi has repeatedly gushed over the idea that the PS3 is a computer and not a game system, while the whole “value of the PS3” is a much more recent PR line after the negative reaction to the price. Sony uses the computer line every chance they get and it seems clear that they are implying they are the only computer console makers.
“Main point here….. the main difference between the PS3 versions is the HDMI port. And dev’s wont fret over that, The misshap that MS did was to offer a version of thier 360 without a hard drive…. that is thier only one really… but that affects how devs make thier games now.”
That’s a fine point, but has no bearing on him coming off as very down on a two different packages release in this interview. No where did he say that it’d be ok for MS if they just modified the outputs but not the harddrive.
“Sounds like an opinion to me. There were memory shortages in japan at the time of manufacturing the PS2. Prices sharply rose and made things difficult for toshiba (sony’s partner) They managed to get the PS2 out but with less memory than they initially had planned….. but they did the best that they could.”
Yes, it is an opinion. To me, “very good” support means I can buy one whenever I want. Something like “spotty” or “iffy” support means huge shortages.
“yep…. an IBM RISC proccessor…… who on earth uses those? Oh yeah… thats right… Nintendo. The difference is that thier chip was less specialized. The ps2 was able to perform some amazing things at the end portion of its life time because of the foward thinking of the chip designers. The same story is going to happen with the Cell except this time It has been put out ther on the almighty interweb that deving for the PS3 is easier than deving for the PS2.”
My point of quoting that was supposed to show something positive about Phil. Your assumption that I was attacking Sony is clear in your immediate comparison to Nintendo, as if both were doing something bad. I happen to be a big Sega fan but I know the Saturn was a bitch to program for. My point is, I am not too petty to admit to shortcomings in the things I like. And besides, like I said, the content of this qupte was less important than the fact that it showed Phil earning up to something.
The next few quotes are also supposed to be positive quotes from Harrison so they really don’t need to be defended. The classification I put them into was “Compliments,” meaning they are nice things Phil said about other people or companies.
I agree with your conclusion. I dislike Sony the corporation but have huge amounts of respect (and envy) for Jaffe and Ueda. My opinions on specific companies may change with the times but I know talent when I see it. Take a look at our Shadow of the Colossus review, or read some of my editorials and notice how many times I mention the game (or bad mouth Microsoft or Nintendo).
The point of this series of articles on PR people I’m working on is not to say company X can’t make a good game. It’s to call out highly paid and highly respected individuals who are habitually petty and arrogant.
ehh, are you tired of me yet? :)
“You are right that this is a matter of interpretation. Phil is insulting Nintendo by calling them a kiddie company. Those who agree with him will not read it as an insult but as a fact. Others will see it as a cheap jab at a company who still makes some of the best video games around. The intent of his comment, whatever language he used, was to write Nintendo off.”
Here is my interpretation, instead of it being a jab he is showing where nintendo is directing most of their resources too. He has even said in later comments that Sony and nintendo are going in different directions and I think, again my interpretation, that he is only encapsulating nintendo advances as a family safe and family fun system.
“Comparing hardware specs may not be good for the DS, but that’s assuming you can quantify technology neatly. Is a second screen worth anything? How many tech points does the PSP get for playing movies? If we base technological prowess on cost alone, then the PSP is a superior gadget. Technology aside, why is it not a fair comparison to Nintendo? They seem to still be in control of the handheld market. Even though I prefer the DS, I think it’d be arrogant for a Nintendo rep to claim that the PSP is irrelevant. Writing off an actual competitor is just an arrogant thing to do, no matter who is doing it.”
“those formats don’t appear in our planning” I took this as more of him saying that Sony has not really focused on tackling Nintendo on this front. I agree, I think that Sony has the money and the know how to do better….. maybe I should say feel. As I owned a PSP I felt neglected as a gamer because Sony did not throw considerable weight at the PSP.
“The motion picture companies will drop Blu Ray like a bad habit if the tide turns in favor of HD DVD. I am not saying it will not become the standard, just that it is not now. There are plenty of well informed people on Audio Visual websites and forums discussing the possible outcomes of the format war. I do not believe the winner is as cut and dry as you make it seem”.
Actually the Movie studios stand to make money no matter which format wins because the Sam people on the BDA are the Same companies on the DVD forum. What I am saying really is through business tactics each respective movie house, since most of them are on the BDA, are in a position to flood the market with Blu Ray versions of thier movies to a greater level of market saturation than the HD-DVDs. In the end it is up to each respective production company to choose what format and how many to release on. Now they will make money no matter which format sells but the stand to make a greater amount of money off of Blu Ray. If you were in charge of a Movie production company what would you do?
“Yes, the PSX had better 3d, but you’re missing my point. Phil is saying the PSX was THE system to bring home the arcade. Rise from your grave, you know it just ain’t true”
Actually its tougher than you make it seem. At first I would say no… but over the years the PSX developed a stronger line of arcade ports than the saturn. Don’t get me wrong I love the saturn but the PSX started riding the winds of its own success.
“So you agree that Sony is lying about the tilt sensor? Then my point was made.”
oops….. you are one sly devil.
“I disagree. Kutaragi has repeatedly gushed over the idea that the PS3 is a computer and not a game system, while the whole “value of the PS3″ is a much more recent PR line after the negative reaction to the price. Sony uses the computer line every chance they get and it seems clear that they are implying they are the only computer console makers.”
I, …err … counter disagree. The value arguement was about the parts in the PS3. The PC ploy was a clever trick to escape some taxes and levy’s. Sony didn’t fool anyone though.
“That’s a fine point, but has no bearing on him coming off as very down on a two different packages release in this interview. No where did he say that it’d be ok for MS if they just modified the outputs but not the harddrive.”
I’ll give you that. But the reality is that the PS3 packages have no weight to how a game is made vs MS decision about the hard drive and HD-DVD addons.
“Yes, it is an opinion. To me, “very goodâ€? support means I can buy one whenever I want. Something like “spottyâ€? or “iffyâ€? support means huge shortages.”
Sony’s support can refer to many different things, but givin the subject of system availability support is not that same as ability. Just because they could not have made enough PS2’s doesn’t mean that they did not try.
“My point of quoting that was supposed to show something positive about Phil. Your assumption that I was attacking Sony is clear in your immediate comparison to Nintendo, as if both were doing something bad. I happen to be a big Sega fan but I know the Saturn was a bitch to program for. My point is, I am not too petty to admit to shortcomings in the things I like. And besides, like I said, the content of this qupte was less important than the fact that it showed Phil earning up to something.”
I’m sorry it was my misunderstanding, I saw it under Admission of mistakes and I thought that you were implying that they made a mistake. He admitted that the processor was hard to dev for and that the system was proprietary but I don’t know if he thought it was a mistake. I don’t….. I think the worst thing that could happen to the gaming industry is for every console use a x86 proccessor for thier consoles. Yes it would be easier to program for but looking at the games from last generation, i am more afraid of a cookie cutter form of game development then the amazing R&D that goes into making a radically different and unique game.
“The point of this series of articles on PR people I’m working on is not to say company X can’t make a good game. It’s to call out highly paid and highly respected individuals who are habitually petty and arrogant.”
I fully understand that but I see it as if , even though they can be misconstrued alot, these PR guys are doing the best that they can. I mean givin that nature of the current environment of thier upcoming console release and the attention that they have been getting what else can they say or do? I think the only mistake from the 360 camp would be those that are made about backwards compatability and I will be really interested in what ever mistakes or petty comments that you can find from nintendo recently.
Awesome work and I look foward to seeing your other run downs!
-StaticNeuron
[…] mortal enemies and it just so happens I compiled some of his best quotes and posted them right here. He may be more talented, successful, and smell less than I, but he is still a douche bag. You see, […]