IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

PS3 Just Hitting its Stride, says Jack Tretton

Posted February 26, 2010 by David Radd

It's been a busy first quarter for Sony Computer Entertainment, having already released MAG and Heavy Rain, with God of War III coming down the pipe. SCEA CEO Jack Tretton says this trend towards year-round releases is a positive one, and had nothing but glowing things to say about Heavy Rain.

“It used to be if the game doesn't ship for Christmas, 'Oh my God! Two-thirds of the sales are out the window; it's a disaster.' And the only games that shipped in the first quarter were the disappointments. Now the first quarter is just as robust as the fourth quarter in terms of sales potential,” said Tretton to Fast Company. “And people no longer worry about whether they're going to make Christmas. In fact they say, 'What's coming out from the competition; what's the best window where we can get the most hay for our titles?' I think we are spending a lot more time now on portfolio management--not only looking at genres, but looking at timing, who the competition is, and what the consumer wants. You're not seeing 10 shooters in the month of November, like you might have seen before. Grand Theft Auto is successful, so then 10 rip-offs come out. People are really thinking a lot more creatively.”

“The game I am hoping you want to spend a little time talking about is Heavy Rain,” added Tretton. “I spent 25 years in this industry, and it's rare you see a game that sells incredibly well and that impresses you. But when you go, "Wow! That's the type of game I've never seen before!" And I think Heavy Rain falls into that category. I don't even now how to classify it or describe it. I read a review that said it's the next stage of reading the book. You don't have to be a gamer at all. I think if you read a book, unless you read the chapters in reverse order, the story is pretty much going to be the same. But with Heavy Rain, depending on what you do, you are going to get a different outcome every time.”

SCE has really established itself as a premier game studio, having acclaimed series like LittleBigPlanet, God of War and Uncharted under its belt. When asked about how his company got to this point, Tretton talked about it as a long-term investment.

"If you think back to the formation of the division people said, 'You should be able to build a good machine, but you don't have the heritage in gaming like Nintendo and Sega does.' We said, 'We understand the party of first-person software and we've invested heavily in it.' And we've done that all along--over half our employees are in development,” noted Tretton. “I think the games you are seeing are the proof that it was a wise investment. We are constantly taking a portfolio and whittling it down to the games that have the best potential. If you look at it in terms of game rankings and metacritic scores, we are absolutely at the top of the list. And that's not an accident. That's based on 15 years of hard work and investment. And I think it's something that is going to pay off for many years to come. That big investment takes a little while to get the output you are looking for, but when you hit your stride, you enjoy a nice long ride. That's what I feel we're in the midst of now.”

Similarly, Tretton sees the investment made in the PS3 hardware as one of equal importance, saying there is no hurry to get to the next version of PlayStation. “It's the investment in the hardware technology, the investment in the software, and the fact the system is the real deal. In the old days, it was, 'This thing is dead as a door nail in 5 years.' Year one is very important, year three you're already starting to get to the other side of the hill and then there's a slippery slope,” described Tretton. “We've just passed the third year of the PlayStation 3 and we're just hitting our stride. And I don't think anyone is saying, 'This is a five-year cycle; what's new on the horizon?' I can't even imagine what can be done technically beyond the PlayStation 3 in the near future. A question I often get is when we are going to see PlayStation 4. When somebody can craft the technology that exceeds what we're able to do on the PS3, but we are still just starting to harness it.”

David Radd has worked as a gaming journalist since 2004 at sites such as GamerFeed, Gigex and GameDaily Biz.