Kaz Hirai
Speaking to SPOnG regular Steve Boxer, on the semi-official Sony PlayStation blog recently, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO, Kaz Hirai has taken a reality check on the idea of exclusives.
When Steve asked him if he had SCEI has changed Phil Harrison's policy of not paying for exclusives, Hirai skated around the subject, saying, "That’s something that we can re-evaluate, but it’s also something that the publishers need to make a business decision on."
The reality of the situation, however, appears to have penetrated SCEI HQ. That reality being that unless paid for, exclusives simply do not make as much cash for third-party publishers as multi-platform games.
Hirai states, "But generally speaking, because of the investments that publishers need to make in this round of hardware, it’s going to be more difficult for publishers to make that decision."
He then explains how Sony intends to make multi-platformers more compelling, "Let’s face it – all the games are coming out on a Blu-ray disk which has 50Gb capacity, so let’s put in some making-of content, or maybe additional levels."
So, a point to Blu-ray after all. All this downloadable content, well, that's just not on. Kaz points out, "You also have to realise that different countries all have broadband, but the speeds are different, and then there are some territories where there isn’t too much broadband infrastructure at this point in time. When you look at it from a worldwide business perspective, the most efficient way of delivering 50 gigabytes, say, is going to be on a disk for a while to come."
Finally, it's good to know that the PS3 is once and for all a games machine and not an uber-super-multimedia computer. This is because Hirai repositioned it as such - and now he thinks its going in the right direction. After all, as he points out, "It hasn’t been a year yet since Kutaragi-san left, but I think things are heading in the right direction..."
Ouch!
Threespeech
When Steve asked him if he had SCEI has changed Phil Harrison's policy of not paying for exclusives, Hirai skated around the subject, saying, "That’s something that we can re-evaluate, but it’s also something that the publishers need to make a business decision on."
The reality of the situation, however, appears to have penetrated SCEI HQ. That reality being that unless paid for, exclusives simply do not make as much cash for third-party publishers as multi-platform games.
Hirai states, "But generally speaking, because of the investments that publishers need to make in this round of hardware, it’s going to be more difficult for publishers to make that decision."
He then explains how Sony intends to make multi-platformers more compelling, "Let’s face it – all the games are coming out on a Blu-ray disk which has 50Gb capacity, so let’s put in some making-of content, or maybe additional levels."
So, a point to Blu-ray after all. All this downloadable content, well, that's just not on. Kaz points out, "You also have to realise that different countries all have broadband, but the speeds are different, and then there are some territories where there isn’t too much broadband infrastructure at this point in time. When you look at it from a worldwide business perspective, the most efficient way of delivering 50 gigabytes, say, is going to be on a disk for a while to come."
Finally, it's good to know that the PS3 is once and for all a games machine and not an uber-super-multimedia computer. This is because Hirai repositioned it as such - and now he thinks its going in the right direction. After all, as he points out, "It hasn’t been a year yet since Kutaragi-san left, but I think things are heading in the right direction..."
Ouch!
Threespeech
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Comments
Joji 30 May 2008 11:49
1/12
Exclusives don't matter as much as they once did, back in the PS1 and 2 eras. With each console being on par (except Wii), there's very little differernce in each version if done a multiformat way. We can understand why we see more multiplatform games, as it makes better business sense.
If you take MGS4 for example, keeping that game exclusive to PS3 has not helped Sony or Konami at all, and the less said about FFXIII the better.
If you take MGS4 for example, keeping that game exclusive to PS3 has not helped Sony or Konami at all, and the less said about FFXIII the better.
ohms 30 May 2008 12:00
2/12
um, well, since neither of those games are out yet, it's a little early to make that kind of claim.
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SuperSaiyan4 30 May 2008 15:57
3/12
Exclusives meant nothing last gen, where was the competition exactly? PS2 userbase was huge!
This gen its very important and Sony have lost many of its exclusives to the Xbox 360 and considering the userbase of the 360 I dont blame developers to move over or make cross platform games.
If Microsoft want to be more successful they need to buy up more exlcusives.
This gen its very important and Sony have lost many of its exclusives to the Xbox 360 and considering the userbase of the 360 I dont blame developers to move over or make cross platform games.
If Microsoft want to be more successful they need to buy up more exlcusives.
thefactsdon'tlie 30 May 2008 18:28
4/12
MGS4 is going to drive PS3 sales in the same way GTA4 did last month(Extreme demand for the game has been well documented in recent times), except this time the 360 has no corresponding releases to do the same anywhere on the horizon(NG2 is not going to be a hardware seller, that series never has been, simple as that). So whether or not it has 'helped' Sony or Konami is not a matter to be spoken of in the past tense. It's sales will speak for themselves.
As to Sony losing 'so many exclusives' this generation, it appears to me the reverse is far more true, as far more games I would have thought would only release on 360 have also appeared in some form on PS3(eg. Elder Scrolls, Half Life, Ninja Gaiden, Bioware games will now be on PS3 and of course Bioshock, which Microsoft themselves touted very hard as a big 360 game when it came out last year, is now getting an upgraded PS3 release), whereas the worst that has happened on the PS3 front has been that a few mid tier series like DMC and Ace Combat have ended up on 360.
Oh, and as for 'less said about FFXIII'... what an utterly stupid thing to say. Given the deluge of overhyped, 20 year old gameplay flooded crap that the 360 has been poisoning the JRPG genre with the past year, it's likely once again down to FF to swoop in and give these games a much needed kick in the ass, as it always has.
As to Sony losing 'so many exclusives' this generation, it appears to me the reverse is far more true, as far more games I would have thought would only release on 360 have also appeared in some form on PS3(eg. Elder Scrolls, Half Life, Ninja Gaiden, Bioware games will now be on PS3 and of course Bioshock, which Microsoft themselves touted very hard as a big 360 game when it came out last year, is now getting an upgraded PS3 release), whereas the worst that has happened on the PS3 front has been that a few mid tier series like DMC and Ace Combat have ended up on 360.
Oh, and as for 'less said about FFXIII'... what an utterly stupid thing to say. Given the deluge of overhyped, 20 year old gameplay flooded crap that the 360 has been poisoning the JRPG genre with the past year, it's likely once again down to FF to swoop in and give these games a much needed kick in the ass, as it always has.
Cipher 1 Jun 2008 01:02
5/12
Please Sony, bring back the Ace Combat series!!! espicialy Ace Combat 6.
OptimusP 2 Jun 2008 06:59
6/12
thefactsdon'tlie wrote:
MGS4 is going to drive PS3 sales in the same way GTA4 did last month(Extreme demand for the game has been well documented in recent times), except this time the 360 has no corresponding releases to do the same anywhere on the horizon(NG2 is not going to be a hardware seller, that series never has been, simple as that). So whether or not it has 'helped' Sony or Konami is not a matter to be spoken of in the past tense. It's sales will speak for themselves.
You are right, MGS4 will not be a system seller at all, just like GTA4 wasn't. As is proven again and again, system sellers are dead...except if they have Wii in their title. Also, Metal Gears have been selling less and less with every new chapter, but then again, the PS3 userbase has become desperate.
Hell, i'll even do a prediction, when MGS4 doesn't drive sales as expected (however, every increase, even if it is 5 units, will be heralded as a huge leap by the Sony boys) the next game that will magically drive sales will be God of War 3 (a series who's installements have trouble selling more then 2 million copies...now explain that...) or FF13. Too bad the PS2 already showed FF has lost much of it's system sales driving powers.
mrAnthony 2 Jun 2008 08:02
7/12
last time i checked, i thought that 2 million sales was pretty ok. why does every game have to be a cultural phenomenon in order to be deemed a success.
also, didnt FF: crisis core help the psp actually beat the ds for hardware sales in japan for the first time (or at leats the first time in a looonngggg time) so no final fantasy isnt still a console seller.
also, didnt FF: crisis core help the psp actually beat the ds for hardware sales in japan for the first time (or at leats the first time in a looonngggg time) so no final fantasy isnt still a console seller.
OptimusP 2 Jun 2008 10:49
8/12
mrAnthony wrote:
last time i checked, i thought that 2 million sales was pretty ok. why does every game have to be a cultural phenomenon in order to be deemed a success.
also, didnt FF: crisis core help the psp actually beat the ds for hardware sales in japan for the first time (or at leats the first time in a looonngggg time) so no final fantasy isnt still a console seller.
also, didnt FF: crisis core help the psp actually beat the ds for hardware sales in japan for the first time (or at leats the first time in a looonngggg time) so no final fantasy isnt still a console seller.
First point, i wonder that myself too. People were ready to call Super Mario Galaxy a flop because it had only sold 2 million copies in its first month.
And i said FF lost most of its system selling powers, not all of it. The PSP's behavior at this point resembles much that of the N64 and GC in Japan, selling more then the Playstation(2) for a couple of weeks when a really good game came out. Then it slides back down.
mrAnthony 2 Jun 2008 11:04
9/12
yeah probably. oh hum.
schnide 2 Jun 2008 11:30
10/12
OptimusP wrote:
As is proven again and again, system sellers are dead
What a ridiculous generalisation that is. The issues are the quality of a game and the advertising that surrounds it - to say that a "killer app" as it used to be known can no longer exist is just ridiculous, and there could be a title in the near future that completely proves it wrong. Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
OptimusP 2 Jun 2008 14:52
11/12
schnide wrote:
OptimusP wrote:
As is proven again and again, system sellers are dead
What a ridiculous generalisation that is. The issues are the quality of a game and the advertising that surrounds it - to say that a "killer app" as it used to be known can no longer exist is just ridiculous, and there could be a title in the near future that completely proves it wrong. Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
My bad, you're right though. It seems that in this generation that killer apps on traditional consoles don't exist in terms of driving after launch sales but do drive hardware numbers by anticipation of their release. In other words, people buy hardware so they can buy "killer-ap" game X in the future.
Games like WiiFit seem to have replaced the former form of killer-ap.
Problem is, this evolution, if true, does not bode well for Microsoft and Sony. If a vast majority of their user base buys their hardware beforehand in anticipation of the killer-apps and not after their releases, it also could mean their market potential will run dry faster. How will they expand if the "(semi-)hard-core" market is saturated? Nintendo has a practical lock-down on all the markets below that and nobody (who makes games) has figured out yet how the hell they did it.
NUMBer 2 Jun 2008 15:04
12/12
u sound very ignorant like u kno wat da hell u talkin bout .. how do u kno dat metal gear has not helped sony/konami...wen da game aint even drop yet....i doubt any1 knows dat yet bang bang splurge