Last week's E3 was an exciting one for the big three platform holders. We've already shared our conversations with Nintendo and Microsoft, and now we're pleased to present to you our Sony interview with Worldwide Studios VP Scott Rohde. We spoke with Rohde about the competition, the evolving motion controls space, Sony's big push into 3D, the PSP business and more.
IndustryGamers: I’d like to get your reaction to some of the competition’s announcements. Now that Microsoft renamed Natal as Kinect and showed off all the different applications, how do you feel about how that stacks up with the Move, and of course, obviously, the Wii MotionPlus is still out there. How do you see the motion controls market sort of taking shape?
Scott Rohde: I’m actually very excited about our offering in comparison to what else is out there... I didn’t actually touch the Kinect, but walking through the show floor, watching people interact with it, I'm very confident that what we have is an offering that is outstanding. And I think there’s a lot of areas where we differentiate ourselves from what the competition does. Again, having that tactile feeling in your hand, with the rumble support... If you strike an enemy and you feel it rumble, I think that’s a really key aspect of what we offer compared to what other folks offer.
IG: Right. Do you have any reaction to their branding Kinect? It sounds almost kind of like Move, being in motion, that sort of thing.
SR: Yeah. You know it’s the natural thing. For me, the name of a product is not the most important thing and I think everyone’s going to naturally migrate to a name like that, so no real reaction from me there.
IG: It seems the whole motion trend right now… the core gamers don’t necessarily want to be standing around flailing arms around and everything. It can be fun, but at the end of a hard long day, you know maybe you’ve worked a long day and you just want to chill out on the couch and play a game. It seems like there’s been so much emphasis on motion that sort of the core traditional gaming styles are getting left behind a little bit.
SR: This is why I'm so confident with what we’re offering with the Move, because I think it’s a really nice balance. I’m going to kind of talk about how I experienced the Move because I love to play games myself. I’m going to talk a little about Sports Champions, and the table tennis game. What you just said is a common comment from hardcore gamers who just want to lay down; not even sit down, just lay down and play a game, right? You know, it’s such a different experience when I play table tennis, for example. For the first time, I actually feel like it’s a hardcore experience that I haven’t had before. I have to step in, I have to step back to return a smash. Everything I do, if I go like this [*makes subtle hand motion*] on a competitor’s machine, that’s going to be a nice shot. [With Move] everything I do is reflected with the motion that I bring, so it’s a totally new experience. Personally, and totally honest, my right arm is a little bit sore from how often I've played it and how much I've been into it. I also think the balance we offer with games like that that are fully dedicated, and some of the integration we are offering into some of our games like SOCOM 4 and Killzone... you can still play those games sitting down and what we’re offering you with the Move is an enhanced level of accuracy, quicker targeting of your enemies. So, I think it’s a nice balance.
IG: You guys have shared your pricing on Move. Were you surprised that we did not get any pricing from the competition with Kinect?
SR: I'd like to think maybe they’re waiting maybe to see what we came out with. There’s been a handful of rumors out there as to what it would be, but you know we already announced even back at GDC and then we sort of confirmed here.
IG: Well in terms of the other big Sony initiative, 3D, obviously nobody else is pushing it as hard as Sony. Sony has the corporate level, you know, TV...
SR: Support for us, yeah.
IG: To me, personally, what I've seen looks cool, but it still doesn’t feel quite right. You know? Just putting the glasses on, seeing it… I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It feels a little strange, like the tech has not really been perfected yet. And it’s almost like you lose some clarity, at the same time that you’re gaining 3D visuals. Maybe that’s just because some of the software is early, but I'm not sure.
SR: That must be what you’re seeing is the fact that you’re looking at some things that are in development. I'm not sure what exactly you looked at. There was quite a buzz at that press conference during the whole Killzone demonstration. I think that kind of like what Sony did with Blu-ray, being on the bleeding edge... bringing 3D to the market early and getting people excited about it. I think that’s what we’ve achieved at this show. It sounds like you might still be a little on the fence, but there were a lot of people on the fence that saw that Killzone 3 demo and said “wow.” You feel like you can actually look around a corner when you see that weapon sticking out in front of you and you’re looking around a corner, it’s a different experience.
IG: Is there a goal in mind for Sony for the number of titles to be 3D by the end of the year or something?
SR: I’m not sure that we’re actually saying a number, but we’ve announced a lot of specific titles, you know: Killzone, Motor Storm Apocalypse, MLB 11, Gran Turismo… those are huge titles, right, that are really cool for the experience. The short answer is that we’re going to look at it on every title we do and if it makes sense, we’re going to address it, absolutely.
IG: In terms of the portable space, it seems to me like Nintendo continues to steal Sony's thunder. PSP, as many Sony people have acknowledged, has struggled to sell, and piracy has hurt it, as well. I guess the rumor out there was that there would be a PSP2, or some sort of new model PSP, and all we got was a new marketing campaign. The new Marcus campaign with Kevin Butler is funny, but that doesn’t help necessarily the PSP business overall when Nintendo is busy dominating headlines with the 3DS. How come we've really not heard that much about PSP? What's going on with the PSP right now?
SR: I think that we did announce some new software titles…
IG: Right, but in terms of the broader view of the hardware.
SR: It’s just not something we’re announcing right now. It’s just as simple as that. It’s all I can tell you. But again, I'm going to shift focus back at the software, and I’ll sit here and tell you that… I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to look at Ghost of Sparta, you know, God of War: Ghost of Sparta. That’s a really amazing looking game. I think that this late in the PSP cycle, you're seeing the best-looking PSP game that’s been created. I think it really looks great. And I think that you still can’t have that kind of epic home console experience, you know, necessarily, on the competition that you can have on the PSP with these big games like God of War: Ghost of Sparta. I don’t usually tout a single title, and say “It’s the best ever…” but this really looks good.
3 Comments
June 24, 2010
How many times did he say "you know"?
June 24, 2010
Many, many times. I edited out a bunch of them actually.
June 27, 2010
LOL, I have a friend that say "you know what I mean?" with a heavy emphasis on 'mean'. At the end of every other sentence, it becomes more irritating than a 'word whisker' because it is a question!