Kaz Hirai: Far Sighted or Farcical?
Sony Computer Entertainment boss and the clinging of straws.
Hirai
The ongoing war of words between Microsoft and Sony has now ascended to the sublimely surreal. Usually, both sides are happy batting history at each other or simply name calling. Not this time...
The latest salvo in the scrap of words, however, is truly awesome in its double-speak. Sony Computer Entertainment president, Kaz Hirai, has decided that difficult is not bad or if it is then bad isn't bad, it's good. In doing so, he has given the definitive answer to the question: "Is the PlayStation 3 actually difficult to make games for?"
Kaz indicates that yes, yes it is - and not only that but it's a deliberate strategy by SCEE.
"We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that developers want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do."
Right. That ability falling into the hands of game designers is apparently a bad thing.
Surely the man who replaced 'Father of PlayStation, Ken Kuturagi' to lead Sony's once flagship division must have some incredible strategy that we can't get to grips with? He says, "...so then the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?"
Without wanting to sound to ignorant and unaware of business-related issues, we'd suggest that developers could spend the next nine and a half years... DEVELOPING GAMES for the PS3.
But we're obviously not in his league. Where we figure that giving the consumer the value for money that the expense of the PS3 should offer by way of enabling developers, he figures that this difficulty "...means the hardware has a lot more to offer".
Official PlayStation Magazine via PS3center
The latest salvo in the scrap of words, however, is truly awesome in its double-speak. Sony Computer Entertainment president, Kaz Hirai, has decided that difficult is not bad or if it is then bad isn't bad, it's good. In doing so, he has given the definitive answer to the question: "Is the PlayStation 3 actually difficult to make games for?"
Kaz indicates that yes, yes it is - and not only that but it's a deliberate strategy by SCEE.
"We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that developers want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do."
Right. That ability falling into the hands of game designers is apparently a bad thing.
Surely the man who replaced 'Father of PlayStation, Ken Kuturagi' to lead Sony's once flagship division must have some incredible strategy that we can't get to grips with? He says, "...so then the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?"
Without wanting to sound to ignorant and unaware of business-related issues, we'd suggest that developers could spend the next nine and a half years... DEVELOPING GAMES for the PS3.
But we're obviously not in his league. Where we figure that giving the consumer the value for money that the expense of the PS3 should offer by way of enabling developers, he figures that this difficulty "...means the hardware has a lot more to offer".
Official PlayStation Magazine via PS3center
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Comments
Kiroziki 21 Jan 2009 16:47
1/12
Is it me, or is the Playstation 3 turning out like the SEGA Saturn more and more every day.
joe 21 Jan 2009 20:14
2/12
maybe, the ps3 is a really good console
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Daz 21 Jan 2009 22:32
3/12
makes me laugh every time when dev's complain about difficulties developing games for PS3, maybe if they didn't want to work they shouldn't have gotten jobs. I've said it before and I'll say it again maybe Factory Work is more suited to their IQ
OrMaybe 22 Jan 2009 08:50
4/12
Or maybe he's been misquoted or mistranslated and hes saying that the ps3 is hard to progam for because its so powerful and they didnt give a easy to program console cos that would make it not as powerful?
PreciousRoi 22 Jan 2009 12:27
5/12
or maybe...
nope, no maybe about it.
This is just further expression of the arrogance that the success of the PlayStation brand has inspired in its corporate overlords. Third-parties should be grateful for the opportunity to exert themselves developing on Sony's machine. Don't they know its a PlayStation? They should relish the extra time it will take compared to that Western upstart. Why would they want to spend man-hours improving the AI or polishing up the gameplay when they could be tackling unique challenges peculiar to our console just to get the damn thing to run at all? Pfft. And Nintendo's no better...they might be selling more consoles and first party titles, but the 3rd parties are making their money via Redmond.
Anyway, Kaz-kun is just spouting typical Japanese corproballocks (now in Sour Grapes flavor*), but the clear implication is that Sony feels no obligation to 3rd party devs to KISS, despite all evidence that such a policy is counterproductive in the extreme. No wonder MS is gathering all the 3rd party support, and has become the de facto lead console vis-a-vis multiplatform titles. Sony still maintains its deathgrip on unnecessarily long cutscenes though.
*"We didn't want those guys developing for our console anyway...they aren't cool enough"
nope, no maybe about it.
This is just further expression of the arrogance that the success of the PlayStation brand has inspired in its corporate overlords. Third-parties should be grateful for the opportunity to exert themselves developing on Sony's machine. Don't they know its a PlayStation? They should relish the extra time it will take compared to that Western upstart. Why would they want to spend man-hours improving the AI or polishing up the gameplay when they could be tackling unique challenges peculiar to our console just to get the damn thing to run at all? Pfft. And Nintendo's no better...they might be selling more consoles and first party titles, but the 3rd parties are making their money via Redmond.
Anyway, Kaz-kun is just spouting typical Japanese corproballocks (now in Sour Grapes flavor*), but the clear implication is that Sony feels no obligation to 3rd party devs to KISS, despite all evidence that such a policy is counterproductive in the extreme. No wonder MS is gathering all the 3rd party support, and has become the de facto lead console vis-a-vis multiplatform titles. Sony still maintains its deathgrip on unnecessarily long cutscenes though.
*"We didn't want those guys developing for our console anyway...they aren't cool enough"
OptimusP 22 Jan 2009 16:01
6/12
PreciousRoi wrote:
And Nintendo's no better...they might be selling more consoles and first party titles, but the 3rd parties are making their money via Redmond.
You mean the same third parties that are laying off hunderds- thousands of people because they made so much money making over-expensive HD-games for shrinking markets? Fantastic logic!
Anyone notice any job cuts at Atlus? or Marvelous Interactive? or other third parties that make a lot of proper DS and Wii-games? No you don't because they have adapted to Nintendo disruptive values and processes and profited from them.
These kind of recessions are actually very good times to shake out the companies being disrupted and letting the disrupting companies shine. How to notice the first ones? if they're calling for goverment funds...bingo!
PreciousRoi 22 Jan 2009 18:03
7/12
What shrinking markets? You're making s**t up again dude...keep on drinking that Ninty Kool-Aid and spouting that pseudo-intellectual rhetoric.
Seriously though, shrinking markets? Good thing you're only a history student, and not a business major. I think you may have gotten into a bad batch of waffles or something...shrinking markets, indeed...
Also, I thought someone here already poked several holes in your whole HD as harbinger-of-the-gaming-apocalypse hypothesis already, or are you just stubbornly clinging to that nugget?
Seriously though, shrinking markets? Good thing you're only a history student, and not a business major. I think you may have gotten into a bad batch of waffles or something...shrinking markets, indeed...
Also, I thought someone here already poked several holes in your whole HD as harbinger-of-the-gaming-apocalypse hypothesis already, or are you just stubbornly clinging to that nugget?
OptimusP 22 Jan 2009 19:23
8/12
No, he nuanced by stating that developers could also make HD-games that use a actual art-style and that would make a game cost less to make. I agree on that though, too bad marketing departments don't think that way.
Really, what have all the game-companies announcing job-cuts have in common? They focused on making games for the HD-consoles. Which makes great sense, they take in heaps more manpower to make which results in companies making less games, at higher costs for the most demanding tier of customers, which happens to be the smallest one too. So finally, they are selling more expensive to make products to fewer customers.
A great indicator for that is the amount of games that sell over 10 million copies. The last "high-tier" games that got there where the GTA-games for the PS2. The new ones are Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing DS, Brain Training, WoW, New Super Mario Bros, WiiPlay, WiiFit. Mario Kart Wii and maybe Brawl could reach those stages too though.
The Wii is a disruptive product afterall so it's natural that Sony and MS as the established firms have a shrinking consumerbase. All part of the Disruption Innovation Theory by C.M. Christensen of the Harvard Business University.
Really, what have all the game-companies announcing job-cuts have in common? They focused on making games for the HD-consoles. Which makes great sense, they take in heaps more manpower to make which results in companies making less games, at higher costs for the most demanding tier of customers, which happens to be the smallest one too. So finally, they are selling more expensive to make products to fewer customers.
A great indicator for that is the amount of games that sell over 10 million copies. The last "high-tier" games that got there where the GTA-games for the PS2. The new ones are Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing DS, Brain Training, WoW, New Super Mario Bros, WiiPlay, WiiFit. Mario Kart Wii and maybe Brawl could reach those stages too though.
The Wii is a disruptive product afterall so it's natural that Sony and MS as the established firms have a shrinking consumerbase. All part of the Disruption Innovation Theory by C.M. Christensen of the Harvard Business University.
Joji 23 Jan 2009 19:37
9/12
Its easy to see through such japanese crap these days. It would be easier to just eat humble pie and hold your hands up, but the demons of loosing face, will whip them to death if they do.
Creating a console and making it a bastard to program for, does them no favours. This is why like someone said, 360 will get more traffic, because its easier to have something up and running quickly. Keep waving your hype flag, Sony, because I'm not fooled.
PS3 like PSP has huge potential, but I'm still amazed at how Sony have still managed to crush their nuts in a vice, spectacularly. Why on earth were PS1 and PS2 such a different story, but PS3 a problem? The answer is cost and greed.
Sony like any company want the mad monies, fairplay to that, but they want too much. Because they won't give any quarter on their price, the high expense of Blu Ray pricing out many devs, and the program difficulties of PS3, Sony have lost this generation already, and IMO not even a price cut will save them now. 360 and Wii will always look a better option, both easier to create games for.
I'm a big fan of Atlus, and it makes me happy to see a small japanese developer/publisher doing well. It seems that Atlus's decision to create Persona 3 and 4 for PS2 was a very smart decision, even in todays market. This made the devs costs cheaper, the user base already there in japan, and surprisingly it made us all in the west switch on our PS2s again too. Meanwhile Square Enix, tinker away at three FFXIII games (guess they can afford to, being partly owned by Sony), none of which we've seen a sniff of gameplay footage. The ease of PS2 development took a long time coming too (something Atlus, Nippon Ichi etc have used well), but that's a time luxury Sony and others don't have anymore.
There is no shame in admitting defeat (we are all human), but I know eastern folk might find it harder to deal with.
Creating a console and making it a bastard to program for, does them no favours. This is why like someone said, 360 will get more traffic, because its easier to have something up and running quickly. Keep waving your hype flag, Sony, because I'm not fooled.
PS3 like PSP has huge potential, but I'm still amazed at how Sony have still managed to crush their nuts in a vice, spectacularly. Why on earth were PS1 and PS2 such a different story, but PS3 a problem? The answer is cost and greed.
Sony like any company want the mad monies, fairplay to that, but they want too much. Because they won't give any quarter on their price, the high expense of Blu Ray pricing out many devs, and the program difficulties of PS3, Sony have lost this generation already, and IMO not even a price cut will save them now. 360 and Wii will always look a better option, both easier to create games for.
I'm a big fan of Atlus, and it makes me happy to see a small japanese developer/publisher doing well. It seems that Atlus's decision to create Persona 3 and 4 for PS2 was a very smart decision, even in todays market. This made the devs costs cheaper, the user base already there in japan, and surprisingly it made us all in the west switch on our PS2s again too. Meanwhile Square Enix, tinker away at three FFXIII games (guess they can afford to, being partly owned by Sony), none of which we've seen a sniff of gameplay footage. The ease of PS2 development took a long time coming too (something Atlus, Nippon Ichi etc have used well), but that's a time luxury Sony and others don't have anymore.
There is no shame in admitting defeat (we are all human), but I know eastern folk might find it harder to deal with.
Anonymous 19 Feb 2009 15:08
10/12
9 and a half years/ the ps3 is on its third year. Guy should have said "7 and a half years*
to the guy who said the ps3 is going the way of the saturn...your right..ITS JUST YOU
to the guy who said the ps3 is going the way of the saturn...your right..ITS JUST YOU
mike 19 Feb 2009 20:15
11/12
harder to develop for = more volitile code... which means you can do more.just like java =easy, but with cc++ which is harder you can actually do more with....dont open your mouth about something you dont know.
I don't actually know anytign btw. 22 Feb 2009 03:07
12/12
I'm guessing it also helps the lifecycle of the console. With games on the PS2, you could keep seeing graphic quality and quality in games improving as it went on. Comparing late releases and early releases theres quite a gap. If the PS3 was easy to code for, i would imagine that the games wouldn't 'improve' There would be no more 'wow' factor and amazing graphics come in, I expect the final games on the PS3 to put Killzone 2 to shame,