Havok83
Avenger
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- Aug 25, 2006
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A recent report says that the price cut on the PS3 has helped sell over 100,000 consoles in America last week. Thats obviously great news for you guys. Do you think things are starting to turn around a little bit?
While Im thrilled about the price move and the impact thats had, what Im more excited about is that we really get our first holiday selling season on the PlayStation 3, and I think thats lost on a lot of people. Its the first time that we have the PlayStation 3 in stock, that we have a great software library for it and weve got very attractive pricing. So I really feel like were able to go into the holiday season with a fully loaded weapon as compared to last year.
Exclusive titles can help the momentum that youve gained here and they can make or break a system. Tell us about some of the titles youve got coming over the next couple of months.
Weve got 19 exclusives, and again, I think thats something thats a pretty amazing feat in the first year of a platforms lifecycle. And theyre not just games that are exclusive for the sake of exclusivity, theyre games that are built and differentiated for the PlayStation 3 and just couldnt be done on any other platform.
Some of the bigger titles, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, arent due out for a bit longer. Thats got to be a nail-biter for you guys because those are huge titles.
The beauty of this business is that it isnt all about one day, it isnt all about one title, or one month. I think theres a tremendous amount of software for the holiday season 160 games coming out on PS3 alone for this holiday, on top of the 200 games that have already been out there, so theres more than enough great software for consumers to sink their teeth in for the holidays. And as you pointed out, theres some absolute blockbusters coming post-Christmas. So, hopefully, a lot people go out and buy the hardware and enjoy the great software thats available for this holiday but I think they also have some great software to look forward to in the first quarter of 2008.
Bloggers, reporters and analysts have not been terribly kind to Sony or the PlayStation 3 this year. Were there missteps on Sonys part, or do you think that the criticisms have been unfair?
I dont think theres any question that there were missteps, but I dont think anybody is being honest with you if they say that the first year of any platform goes perfectly according to plan. I think the biggest miss for us was the launch, in that we had easily a million consumers in North America alone that wanted to get their hands on a PlayStation 3 and we had roughly 200,000 units to take advantage of that demand. I think that that was probably the biggest disappointment for the first year.
The reason why we dont end up on window ledges, where other people might not have the perspective, is weve been through this many, many times, and were the only company thats gone out and had 10-year product lifecycles and sold over 100 million units and we havent done it once, weve done it twice.
Fair enough. But I think the early quotes that I was seeing prior to launch were things like this system will sell itself because of the fans of the previous iterations. This couldnt have been the year that youd hoped for.
I think it fell short of what wed ideally like. But if you put it into perspective, were not taking the safe route. We didnt take the PlayStation 2 and add a few bells and whistles to it. What were trying to do here is refocus the game industry towards high-definition gaming, a real state-of-the-art, future-proof machine for the next decade.
I look at it very much like we looked at the business when we entered back in 1995. Youve got two very formidable competitors, and we debut the original PlayStation which is a complete departure from what our competition is doing and we sold a million and a half units in the first year. Well, we exceeded that with PS2, and I see this as the dawn of a new generation of gaming. I think if you have that long-term perspective, while I fully admit wed like to have sold more units, its hardly cause for panic.
The PS2 is still selling extremely well, as are, of course, the Wii and the DS and those are much graphically weaker systems than the PS3 or the Xbox 360. Do you think you and Microsoft jumped the gun with these machines? Are consumers ready for broadband and high-def yet?
I think in the case of Microsoft, theyd taken the Xbox as far as it could go, and so if they wanted to remain in the business, they had to go back to the drawing board. As for us, we had the luxury of dipping a lot more into the future than maybe our competitors could because of the strength of the PlayStation 2.
We realized that not every consumer is going to be ready for what the PlayStation 3 offers in the first year and I dont know that we expect or need them to be ready for it. We need them to be ready for it over the next decade. And if you look at the PlayStation 2, as you just pointed out, we sold 120 million machines so far but we certainly didnt sell them all in the first year.
We really feel like we have the luxury of being a little more forward-thinking with our technology and not coming up with something thats a little more of a casual game experience. If price is an issue for consumers, and they want a diverse library and they want a more casual gaming experience, the PlayStation 2 is a great machine that addresses all of the above.
How long will you support that system?
I really dont think theres any reason to back away from it, unless the consumer tells us theyre not enjoying the experience and theyre not looking for more software. But the reality is that well sell more PlayStation 2s this year than we sold last year. Our seventh year is bigger than our sixth.
More importantly, youve got a tremendous software library for it. Youve got 160 games that are coming out for it this holiday season, were going to do 250 million pieces of software between our three platforms and a lot of that is coming from PlayStation 2. So I dont see any reason why PlayStation 2 has to end anytime in the near future.
Getting back to last year and the PlayStation 3 launch: What do you think worked for [Sony] in the past year?
I think we have a tremendous amount of PlayStation fans that who have seen innovation from us and seen creativity and seen risk ... I think they get bored with the tried and true. I think theres a real temptation if youve had success in the past to just take the same page out of the book. But I think consumers saw an experience in PS3 that was unlike anything theyd seen before.
Another thing that I think really strikes a chord with PS3 consumers is that were giving them everything they need, in the box, day one. Our competition talked about the fact that they want to offer consumers a choice, but then they make it clearly apparent that if you really want to have the full gaming experience, you need to go out and invest a lot more money than you originally thought you were.
Have you learned any lessons from the PS3 launch?
Lessons in that when youre making claims about when a unit is going to be available, youd better be crystal-clear on what your manufacturing capacity is.
I think we knew there would be pricing sensitivities and I think weve certainly seen that. But I think the challenge of educating consumers on the technology is something that I dont know that we underestimated, but it remains a formidable goal. The days of just Here it is, heres what it cost, plug it in and start playing are over. Theres a learning curve a consumer needs to go through before they make a decision on which platform to buy, and I think its a lot more complicated than it was five, 10, 15 years ago.
Sony was charged with being arrogant toward its fans. Would you say that here it is, plug it in could be construed as such?
I dont know that we were ever considered arrogant by consumers. I think the arrogant claims came from the press and bloggers more than true consumers. I think the arrogance claim comes with a leadership position and being unwilling to admit that youre failing. And anybody whos been through media training or been with the press isnt going to get on a soapbox and talk about their failures. If that gets construed as arrogance, then I guess thats a risk you have to take.
So, if next-gen was Internet-connected consoles and high-def, how long do you see this generation lasting?
I think it should last for 10 years. I think weve got more technology under the hood and more growth potential in terms of what developers can do with the software than weve had in previous generations.
If you summed up the mission statement for PS3, its short-term sacrifices for long-term gains. There was clearly an easier route to go, but we think the route were taking is the one thats going to pay dividends for years to come.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22044630/
While Im thrilled about the price move and the impact thats had, what Im more excited about is that we really get our first holiday selling season on the PlayStation 3, and I think thats lost on a lot of people. Its the first time that we have the PlayStation 3 in stock, that we have a great software library for it and weve got very attractive pricing. So I really feel like were able to go into the holiday season with a fully loaded weapon as compared to last year.
Exclusive titles can help the momentum that youve gained here and they can make or break a system. Tell us about some of the titles youve got coming over the next couple of months.
Weve got 19 exclusives, and again, I think thats something thats a pretty amazing feat in the first year of a platforms lifecycle. And theyre not just games that are exclusive for the sake of exclusivity, theyre games that are built and differentiated for the PlayStation 3 and just couldnt be done on any other platform.
Some of the bigger titles, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, arent due out for a bit longer. Thats got to be a nail-biter for you guys because those are huge titles.
The beauty of this business is that it isnt all about one day, it isnt all about one title, or one month. I think theres a tremendous amount of software for the holiday season 160 games coming out on PS3 alone for this holiday, on top of the 200 games that have already been out there, so theres more than enough great software for consumers to sink their teeth in for the holidays. And as you pointed out, theres some absolute blockbusters coming post-Christmas. So, hopefully, a lot people go out and buy the hardware and enjoy the great software thats available for this holiday but I think they also have some great software to look forward to in the first quarter of 2008.
Bloggers, reporters and analysts have not been terribly kind to Sony or the PlayStation 3 this year. Were there missteps on Sonys part, or do you think that the criticisms have been unfair?
I dont think theres any question that there were missteps, but I dont think anybody is being honest with you if they say that the first year of any platform goes perfectly according to plan. I think the biggest miss for us was the launch, in that we had easily a million consumers in North America alone that wanted to get their hands on a PlayStation 3 and we had roughly 200,000 units to take advantage of that demand. I think that that was probably the biggest disappointment for the first year.
The reason why we dont end up on window ledges, where other people might not have the perspective, is weve been through this many, many times, and were the only company thats gone out and had 10-year product lifecycles and sold over 100 million units and we havent done it once, weve done it twice.
Fair enough. But I think the early quotes that I was seeing prior to launch were things like this system will sell itself because of the fans of the previous iterations. This couldnt have been the year that youd hoped for.
I think it fell short of what wed ideally like. But if you put it into perspective, were not taking the safe route. We didnt take the PlayStation 2 and add a few bells and whistles to it. What were trying to do here is refocus the game industry towards high-definition gaming, a real state-of-the-art, future-proof machine for the next decade.
I look at it very much like we looked at the business when we entered back in 1995. Youve got two very formidable competitors, and we debut the original PlayStation which is a complete departure from what our competition is doing and we sold a million and a half units in the first year. Well, we exceeded that with PS2, and I see this as the dawn of a new generation of gaming. I think if you have that long-term perspective, while I fully admit wed like to have sold more units, its hardly cause for panic.
The PS2 is still selling extremely well, as are, of course, the Wii and the DS and those are much graphically weaker systems than the PS3 or the Xbox 360. Do you think you and Microsoft jumped the gun with these machines? Are consumers ready for broadband and high-def yet?
I think in the case of Microsoft, theyd taken the Xbox as far as it could go, and so if they wanted to remain in the business, they had to go back to the drawing board. As for us, we had the luxury of dipping a lot more into the future than maybe our competitors could because of the strength of the PlayStation 2.
We realized that not every consumer is going to be ready for what the PlayStation 3 offers in the first year and I dont know that we expect or need them to be ready for it. We need them to be ready for it over the next decade. And if you look at the PlayStation 2, as you just pointed out, we sold 120 million machines so far but we certainly didnt sell them all in the first year.
We really feel like we have the luxury of being a little more forward-thinking with our technology and not coming up with something thats a little more of a casual game experience. If price is an issue for consumers, and they want a diverse library and they want a more casual gaming experience, the PlayStation 2 is a great machine that addresses all of the above.
How long will you support that system?
I really dont think theres any reason to back away from it, unless the consumer tells us theyre not enjoying the experience and theyre not looking for more software. But the reality is that well sell more PlayStation 2s this year than we sold last year. Our seventh year is bigger than our sixth.
More importantly, youve got a tremendous software library for it. Youve got 160 games that are coming out for it this holiday season, were going to do 250 million pieces of software between our three platforms and a lot of that is coming from PlayStation 2. So I dont see any reason why PlayStation 2 has to end anytime in the near future.
Getting back to last year and the PlayStation 3 launch: What do you think worked for [Sony] in the past year?
I think we have a tremendous amount of PlayStation fans that who have seen innovation from us and seen creativity and seen risk ... I think they get bored with the tried and true. I think theres a real temptation if youve had success in the past to just take the same page out of the book. But I think consumers saw an experience in PS3 that was unlike anything theyd seen before.
Another thing that I think really strikes a chord with PS3 consumers is that were giving them everything they need, in the box, day one. Our competition talked about the fact that they want to offer consumers a choice, but then they make it clearly apparent that if you really want to have the full gaming experience, you need to go out and invest a lot more money than you originally thought you were.
Have you learned any lessons from the PS3 launch?
Lessons in that when youre making claims about when a unit is going to be available, youd better be crystal-clear on what your manufacturing capacity is.
I think we knew there would be pricing sensitivities and I think weve certainly seen that. But I think the challenge of educating consumers on the technology is something that I dont know that we underestimated, but it remains a formidable goal. The days of just Here it is, heres what it cost, plug it in and start playing are over. Theres a learning curve a consumer needs to go through before they make a decision on which platform to buy, and I think its a lot more complicated than it was five, 10, 15 years ago.
Sony was charged with being arrogant toward its fans. Would you say that here it is, plug it in could be construed as such?
I dont know that we were ever considered arrogant by consumers. I think the arrogant claims came from the press and bloggers more than true consumers. I think the arrogance claim comes with a leadership position and being unwilling to admit that youre failing. And anybody whos been through media training or been with the press isnt going to get on a soapbox and talk about their failures. If that gets construed as arrogance, then I guess thats a risk you have to take.
So, if next-gen was Internet-connected consoles and high-def, how long do you see this generation lasting?
I think it should last for 10 years. I think weve got more technology under the hood and more growth potential in terms of what developers can do with the software than weve had in previous generations.
If you summed up the mission statement for PS3, its short-term sacrifices for long-term gains. There was clearly an easier route to go, but we think the route were taking is the one thats going to pay dividends for years to come.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22044630/
