Speaking to the folks across the pond at the Guardian, Sony Computer Entertainment chief executive Kaz Hirai said he has no regrets about including Blu-ray in the PlayStation 3, but he does think that attempting to ship the console worldwide at launch was too difficult.
"Given the circumstances that we had we needed to make some tough decisions. Looking back if we could have done it again we probably would have not gone for the simultaneous worldwide launch. Given the cards that we were dealt we felt we made the best of the launch that we could have," he said.
Hirai then went on to stress Sony's 10-year life cycle plan for the zillionth time. "...remember that the success of a platform isn't based on the launch. It's more about the latter half of its life cycle. Look at the PS2. Nearly 10 years since launch and 140 million units later it has obviously been a huge success. But to look at the PS2 two years into its life cycle and not know what the next eight years would hold it would have been premature to judge," he added. "For other consoles which have a five year life cycle it is much easier to judge performance after two years. But for us, with the 10 year life cycle we have, it is premature to judge after such a short time."
Of course, Microsoft has started touting a longer life cycle for the Xbox 360 as well, and these new motion-sensing technologies such (Project Natal and PlayStation Motion) are likely to further lengthen the cycle for this generation. The only system that might need an upgrade sooner would be the Wii, since HD graphics are becoming commonplace and the Wii's visuals will only look more and more dated in the next couple years.
Regarding the PS3's launch, one of the issues that hampered the worldwide shipments was a shortage of the diode required for the Blu-ray drive. Nevertheless, Hirai is certain that including Blu-ray was the right decision.
"Purely from a gaming standpoint there was no other choice for us. Why? The capacity of the disc. Last year's Metal Gear Solid 4 was pushing 50GB as it was. If it was on DVD it would have been a 6 disc set. The packaging and cost would have been prohibitive and it would have been hugely inconvenient to consumers. So from a gaming standpoint there was really no choice if you wanted a high definition gaming experience," he stated. "Kojima-san has been pushing the boundaries already. And then there is the motion picture issue. The PS3 installed base certainly went a long way to making the movie studios side with Blu-ray rather then HD-DVD or supporting both. Ultimately it ended up being the right thing for the entirety of the industry as consumers don't need to hedge their bets. We had a lot to do with making Blu-ray the de-facto standard. That's great. But our decision to include a Blu-ray drive in the PS3 was mainly driven by gaming priorities and what the content creators could do with the storage space."
Hirai failed to mention the PS3's biggest problem at launch and a problem Sony's still contending with now: price. Asking consumers to pay $599 at launch was beyond absurd, and asking them to pay $399 now (in this terrible economy) is not much better.
5 Comments
June 10, 2009
What about 599 US dollars?
June 10, 2009
Good call, Buff. I was at that press conference, and it was already not going well, for Sony. Dropping "$599 US Dollars" on us just before we walked out the door felt about like Sony was punching us in the stomach. How could they not have known that that price point was going to be upsetting? I grok that they HAD to price the system that high for launch, but what they *didn't* have to do was in their conference on that note. Slip the pricing into a press release the week after E3, or something.
June 10, 2009
When is Sony gonna stop this 10 year nonsense? The PS2 wasn't in a distant third place. The PS3 is in third place in most of the world (Japan is the only major territory they aren't in third). Sony is also still losing money on the PS3. I know they are trying to spin things, but everyone who is not a Sony fanboy knows that Sony will almost certainly finish in last place this gen. Also, consumes are proving that the Wii doesn't need HD graphics to be the best and certain Wii games (like Metroid Prime: Corruption) show that developers who know what they are doing can make Wii games match top level Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games (the problem is that some publsihers treat the Wii as a easy source of money to pay for 360 and PS3 games and do a half-assed job on their Wii games),
June 10, 2009
Sony doesn't really have a choice. It's either insist that the PS3 is going to have a 10-year cycle, OR just concede defeat.
June 11, 2009
Agreed. The price of the system at launch was terrible, considering that you could get "next-gen" game console such as the Xbox360 or the Wii for less then the asking price of the PS3.