Slashdot Mirror
A Chat With Phil Harrison
Next Generation sat down with Phil Harrison after the Sony keynote last week, and they discuss the PS3, the PlayStation Network, and Harrison's place in the company. From the article: "Q: Aren't retailers going to be slightly annoyed that they're selling this hardware for next-to-no margin, just so the software can ultimately be sold directly via downloads? A: I completely disagree with that. The software business for PlayStation 3 will continue to grow. PlayStation 2 has more software on it than PlayStation 1 - more units sold in more countries to a wider demographic of consumers. PlayStation 3 will continue to grow the market and will generate a bigger opportunity for everybody - retailers, developers, and publishers alike. So I do not accept your statement that retail is going to be in any way affected by this other than positively."
you can't download the hardware yet, so they should just be happy Sony's using them for anything.
My name is Wootzor von Leetenhaxor
Q: How is PS3's new distribution model going to affect retail?
A: PS2's old distribution model was great at retail, therefore PS3's new model will also be great at retail.
Seems like a valid question to me, but then again, I'm really looking forward to not having to stand outside EB at midnight to get the hot new game of the month. (But I'm also not looking forward to waiting a week for it to download because they don't have adequate bandwidth.. let's hope Valve's streamed release of Half-Life 2 taught the industry some lessons).
Sure, but most people are going to have the Hi-Def TVs that make the blu-ray component useful. I don't have any numbers, but I would imagine more people have cable/DSL than HDTVs. That's just what I think though.
"Clearly, you are not going to use a keynote by the head of first party studios to announce the price of PlayStation 3. I don't think anybody was surprised yesterday when I neglected to include that slide in my deck."
Maybe not surprised, but disappointed certainly. While there may be smaller concerns for consumers right now, the biggest one (and one that will affect every consumer and their wallet) is the price. That little tidbit of news probably would have caused more articles, blogs, and rumors on the web than anything that was in the GDC keynote.
Funtime Candy Wow! - my plan for eventually conquering Japan.
I thought it said a chat with Phil Hartman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hartman and I pictured a seance.
So what's this PS3 thing? Did IBM make another PC?
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow
I don't think Sony can afford to have much(if any) complete works distributed as digital download. Think about it, they're using this thing as a trojan horse for BluRay. How is that going to work if you can download stuff without using BluRay at all?
Looks like Sony is banking on increasing market penetration. (At the price they'll be charging? Are they insane?). Nintendo says that the market is pretty much tapped out and a new market needs to be targeted in order to grow.
(Yeah, -1 for obviousness, but I find it interesting.)
So will Nintendo be releasing updated dev kits for their older consoles? I see a lot of potential in this. Especially if Nintendo steps in and helps with the online distribution of these games.
This guy doesn't seem to get (probably on purpose) what the interviewer was getting at. Sony's business strategy in electronics has always been to cut out as many 3rd parties as possible (much like Apple). It is obvious this is happening right now in games, and that some day not far off Sony will not be selling anything meaningful through Gamestop, having created their own distrobution channels online and with branded stores.
That, and what kind of video game executive plays golf in the afternoons?
Aren't retailers going to be slightly annoyed that they're selling this hardware for next-to-no margin, just so the software can ultimately be sold directly via downloads?
Game retailers have rolled over and taken it up the... well... you know.. for publishers thus far. Why should they think they won't continue to do otherwise? There isn't a single big gaming retailer that hasn't done whatever the publishers have asked out of fear that they'll go WalMart only and cut the game stores out. Places like EB and Gamestop are willing to shit on their customers to appease the random restrictions imposed by the publishers. They'll roll over for low margins too (just like they did last generation).
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.