Slashdot Mirror
Ask Sony's Phil Harrison About PS3 and Games
During GDC Sony made an effort to answer questions directly from the gaming community, taking steps to put aside the problems of the past several months. Today, we have a chance to take another step in the right direction with the company. Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, has been the face of the PlayStation 3 here in the United States since before the machine launched. He's agreed to answer questions from the Slashdot community about the PlayStation 3, the console since launch, and their recent announcements about LittleBigPlanet and Home. I've linked a trio of other interviews he's done recently below, to give you an idea of topics that he's already covered. I'm sure there are plenty of questions we might ask that have yet to be put forward in a public forum. So - feel free to ask away. One question per comment, please, and keep in mind that Mr. Harrison is here to answer questions about the PS3 and games only; any other Sony-related questions are outside the scope of this interview. The highest-rated comments will be passed on, and we'll post his answers as soon as we get them.
Tell us you were joking...right?
Microsoft, even being generous with their PR numbers, had less than 8 percent of the Xbox installed base willing to pay for online gaming. There were more people playing just one PS2 game, SOCOM, than all of Xbox online games combined last gen.
And now with the Xbox 360 Microsoft won't even give out actual paying customers for their online service. Now why might that be?
Microsoft is rapidly falling behind in the online gaming market.
1. Forcing gamers to pay for the privelege to play games online
2. No dedicated servers for games - p2p networking for games which is why Xbox online games are plagued with people complaining about lag
Until Microsoft can get those two basic elements that all gamers want they are going to remain an irrelevant niche. Every single PS3 owner with a network connection will be playing lagfree online games with dedicated servers for free this gen.
Forget about trying to come up with an answer to Sony's Home, that will take many years of development, Microsoft needs to wake up and get the basics right or they risk continuing to be a target of ridicule. Even diehard Xbox fans are asking themselves:
"What exactly are we paying 50 dollars a month for, which adds up to around 250 dollars added to the price of the Xbox 360 over five years, when we can't even get dedicated servers like Sony has for free?"
Gears of War - 8 players max - no dedicated servers - massive lag and server disconnect problems
Halo 3 - 16 players max - no dedicated servers
The Xbox 360 is selling at just below the original Xbox worldwide installed base numbers right now. Microsoft will never get out of that existing Xbox demographic market niche until they wake up and start trying to match Sony's free dedicated servers. And then move on to the big stuff like Home.