We relied on Namco an awful lot, with the Tekkens, Toshindens and so on. We don’t rely on Namco so much any more, although those games were really good for us. We made the decision three to three-and-a-half years ago to do our own IPs.
We could have gone the route of renewing, maybe with GTA and other things, and we have chosen to do it, for example, with Konami. With some of them, you do need to, for certain reasons, in Japan. But the conscious decision is, for Phil and his group, to develop IPs like Uncharted, God Of War a little bit earlier, Killzone and so on. I also feel that things like FIFA and PES are good now, but just like things like Bebo and Facebook come out, they’re going to be leapfrogged in the end.
Let’s try something different – we make more money from our IPs (intellectual properties). EA goes for licences, but our conscious decision is to go for our own IPs, and we’ve given Phil (Harrison), maybe not enough money, but money to develop for PS3. And he will deliver, but he won’t deliver them all before Christmas. Killzone 2 won’t be ready for Christmas, but it will come, probably, in the middle of next year. It will be an absolute blockbuster, and it won’t be on any of the other platforms.
SPOnG: What are the IPs that really stand out for you beyond Killzone 2?
David Reeves: They haven’t been announced, but I’ll give you the thought process. We have now every quarter something called Gameshow where we all get together globally and look at what Worldwide Studios are producing.
Now, we don’t see every game at every session, but every session, we see five or six new IPs which we can rate. I can, hand on heart, say that there are six or seven such games, coming in the next 18 months, which are absolutely spectacular.
There are some that are very emotional – one of the objectives we gave Phil (Harrison) is to make people cry. We know that in the middle and the back end of next year, these are going to come out and people will say: “I have never seen anything like that before”. We just have to be a little bit patient – there will be more God of Wars and so on.
What has been remarkable is that there was a crash programme to put games on the PlayStation Network – LittleBigPlanet was originally designed for that. We’ll see that some of them will be online, but some will be done as full-blown games. We started that over three years ago.
SPOnG: A load of games that use Unreal Engine were supposed to be out at launch but didn’t make it until recently. Now we see that Unreal Tournament 3 is going to be a PS3 exclusive. Is that payback for Epic not finishing the PlayStation port of Unreal Engine 3 when it should?
David Reeves: We have put a lot of human resources into North Carolina to make sure it works. We believe in their technology, and there are quite a lot of games that depend on their technology, so we felt that it needed turning up a notch.
SPOnG: Thanks for your time, David.
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Comments
DoctorDee 19 Jul 2007 14:03
1/7
Asda comes out of hiding once a year. Claims that it will dominate the computer games market - gets an MCV cover and then goes away again without doing anything.
realvictory 20 Jul 2007 01:35
2/7
He makes it sound planned and under control, but that is irrelevant - what is relevant is what people actually think. Whether there's a reason or not for something, if it looks bad, then it's a problem.
Making a bundle and not putting the price down isn't intrinsically going to make more people buy a PS3 - because the point was, it was too expensive in the first place. You get more in a box now, but it's still the same price. In some shops, you get any game included for £399. Why would anyone want a bundle, which is inferior to what you can already get?
The Wii was too expensive, but it was within a range that was affordable. The XBox 360 has had an advantage since the PS3 launch, as now it's not the most expensive games console.
If everyone wanted Blu-ray, then people might see extra value, but if they don't care, it's unnecessary extra cost. Speaking of which, my opinion is that, although people "want" a PS3, they don't want one enough - they need a significant reason to get one - a reason to pay £400 for what's basically a toy. People (well, not all people) who buy these things aren't as stupid as they are made out to be - it's a better deal now, but if I could afford it and/or if I wanted one enough, I would have bought a PS3 already. To me, at least, the new price doesn't seem much different.
Making a bundle and not putting the price down isn't intrinsically going to make more people buy a PS3 - because the point was, it was too expensive in the first place. You get more in a box now, but it's still the same price. In some shops, you get any game included for £399. Why would anyone want a bundle, which is inferior to what you can already get?
The Wii was too expensive, but it was within a range that was affordable. The XBox 360 has had an advantage since the PS3 launch, as now it's not the most expensive games console.
If everyone wanted Blu-ray, then people might see extra value, but if they don't care, it's unnecessary extra cost. Speaking of which, my opinion is that, although people "want" a PS3, they don't want one enough - they need a significant reason to get one - a reason to pay £400 for what's basically a toy. People (well, not all people) who buy these things aren't as stupid as they are made out to be - it's a better deal now, but if I could afford it and/or if I wanted one enough, I would have bought a PS3 already. To me, at least, the new price doesn't seem much different.
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DoctorDee 20 Jul 2007 08:55
3/7
realvictory wrote:
Making a bundle and not putting the price down isn't intrinsically going to make more people buy a PS3 - because the point was, it was too expensive in the first place. You get more in a box now, but it's still the same price. In some shops, you get any game included for £399. Why would anyone want a bundle, which is inferior to what you can already get?
I have to disagree. The bundle gives you an additional controller - and two good games. That is a real saving - very few people would buy a PS3 without a game, and most people would choose one of the games included in the pack. The fact is, you can walk out of the shop with the console, something to play on it and the means to play with your brother/pals and you will have spent less money. There's no way that is not a saving. Since the bundle has the same rrp as the console previously had, shops will discount the bundle exactly like they discounted the console - so you'll see it for £399 either immediately, or soon after launch.
While it may not appeal to you, it will appeal to some people. That is likely to increase sales - not necessarily greatly - but then the console is selling as well as PS1 and PS2 did, and we all know what they went on to achieve.
hollywooda 20 Jul 2007 16:27
4/7
"they’re going to stick with the PS2, because they still enjoy the games, don’t have a high-definition TV and don’t necessarily want to play Blu-rays"
Thankyou!.... see Sony thats why the PS2 is successful!... its a games console!?!?... 1st!....with games....you see?..no?...
Thankyou!.... see Sony thats why the PS2 is successful!... its a games console!?!?... 1st!....with games....you see?..no?...
deleted 21 Jul 2007 18:45
5/7
come on there is no price drop, and the deal is crap,
hmv currently offer,
a PS3, Any 2 Games, An Extra Sixaxis, HDMI Cable, Any 2 Blu ray Moviesand a voucher book with £100.00 discounts for ----------- £425.00 err isnt that what sony is giving us minus the bluray discs and hdmi, yes it is so if hmv can do that and is either making or breaking profit, then sony can do better, they should of given us that pack for £350 and ps3s would fly off the self even 399.99 would change then mentality thats its over £400.00 quid, and it could compete with the elite?
hmv currently offer,
a PS3, Any 2 Games, An Extra Sixaxis, HDMI Cable, Any 2 Blu ray Moviesand a voucher book with £100.00 discounts for ----------- £425.00 err isnt that what sony is giving us minus the bluray discs and hdmi, yes it is so if hmv can do that and is either making or breaking profit, then sony can do better, they should of given us that pack for £350 and ps3s would fly off the self even 399.99 would change then mentality thats its over £400.00 quid, and it could compete with the elite?
tyrion 24 Jul 2007 07:34
6/7
haritori wrote:
a PS3, Any 2 Games, An Extra Sixaxis, HDMI Cable, Any 2 Blu ray Moviesand a voucher book with £100.00 discounts for ----------- £425.00 err isnt that what sony is giving us minus the bluray discs and hdmi, yes it is so if hmv can do that and is either making or breaking profit
HMV are not making a profit on that bundle. What they are doing is driving business and encouraging repeat business with the vouchers. They are banking on making back their losses on the PS3 offer with the increase in profit on the repeat business.
DoctorDee 24 Jul 2007 10:53
7/7
haritori wrote:
come on there is no price drop, and the deal is crap,
The deal is not crap. As for no price drop, it is important for Sony, for pride, honour or whatever not to drop the price right now. Bu they have delvered a far more appealing package for the same price... it's NOT a price drop, but it IS a value increase. You can argue all day about how it isn't... but you'll be wrong all day long.
even 399.99 would change then mentality thats its over £400.00 quid, and it could compete with the elite?
But the fact is, retail were selling the stanf alone PS3 for £399 - they'll sell the bundle for £399.
So you'll get exactly what you are asking for.