The PS3 is on the rise right now, coming off the system's best December on record. Peter Dille, Sony Computer Entertainment America's senior vice president of Marketing and PlayStation Network, knows this and talked about how branding and software quality are two main contributing factors to IGN. He also talked about the evolution of PSN and even the prickly issue of subscription fees.
“It's been our philosophy not to charge for it from launch up until now, but Kaz recently went on the record as saying that's something we're looking at. I can confirm that as well. That's something that we're actively thinking about,” said Dille. “What's the best way to approach that if we were to do that? You know, no announcements at this point in time, but it's something we're thinking about.”
Dille emphasized a long-view approach when it came to the console cycle and talked about how the PS3 will outlast the Xbox 360. “I'm confident we'll be around in 10 years and I can say that because we've done it twice. PS3 will be around in 10 years and probably much longer than that,” said Dille. “We can be passionate fans, but I don't think [the Xbox 360] will be around in 10 years so I'm very confident we'll pass them within that time frame. I mean, we've got 31 million [units sold] worldwide right now -- they've got 39 million [units sold]. I don't even need to go out 10 years. I'm not going to make any predictions for your interview today other than we'll pass them, but you look at where we are today and where they are today, and they had an opportunity to sprint as far ahead of us as possible when they had the head start. Well, we're breathing down their necks and they can see us in the rear-view mirror and it's not going to take too long to pass them.”
As an aside, Dille emphasized that Gran Turismo 5 will release in 2010, despite a recent delay in the Japanese version. “We've got GT5 coming later this year,” he said.
3 Comments
February 3, 2010
Sony has been spouting this BS for 3 years. First, i'm not sure Sony can even afford to have the PS3 last 10 years (they are STILL losing money on every system sold). Second, the only market that PS3 is beating Xbox 360 on a regular basis is Japan. I am not surprised though, Sony has always been arrogant (remember Kaz Hirai saying they could sell the first 10 million PS3's without even releasing any games, or that he predicted it would outsell PS2?).
It's all a moot point though as PS3 and 360 will both be a distant second to the Wii. Hell, last month the Wii outsold all 3 of Sony's systems COMBINED.
February 3, 2010
Well what do you expect from a Sony exec. And you are right TJ, the PS3 only beats the 360 in Japan. The 360 outsold the PS3 9 months to 3 last year and even more than that the previous two years. The PS3 will never outsell the 360 in the US and in the UK it's a very close race that the 360 currently leads by a narrow margin. As for Japan, until they start supporting US made consoles I won't really worry about what goes on there.
I also think it's interesting that while he thinks the PS3 is going to catch up to the 360, they are still taking cues from Microsoft. First they added trophies because achievements were such a masive success and now they are going to start charging for online play because Microsoft does and is very successful at it. I know that they won't charge everybody and it will most likely be for premiums but it still goes to show that they are trying to become more like Microsoft in order to beat them.
February 8, 2010
T J ever business around the world talk this way so i don't get why you are upset when sony does it , you don't think Microsoft act this way ? Sony will catch up with Microsoft in console sells and it won't take them ten years to do it and there going to do it with great games , a 299 console price and ps3 features that you can't get nowhere else lol they don't need to be Microsoft they need to be Sony.