Interviews// Sony Europe Founder, Chris Deering

SPOnG: Going back to the original launch of PlayStation – how did you manage to take it so successfully mainstream?

Chris Deering: Well, essentially it was a great product. It had some built-in amazing benefits, because you could turn around and make software in five days instead of eight weeks. Before the disc-based game software game along – in console form at least – it was quite common to have too much of what wasn’t selling and too little of what was hot to capture the market in time. So, it really changed the risk-reward profile such a lot, by simply overcoming this basic logistics issue.

We also felt – and this was not as such me, but it was the philosophy of the company - it was Ken’s philosophy really that came from the music mentality at Sony (Sony Music Japan was a 50 per cent owner in PlayStation in the early years). The music business tries to grow stars and to poach other labels big money producers and stars… But underneath it all it is about finding talent and helping it to get exposed and making money in that way. So, we felt that the wider the net you cast, the more likely you are to come up with something interesting. So, we changed the paradigm from treating third-party, independent developers and publishers from being a kind of a sideline into being the main event.

Of course, over the ten years, Sony has a much more global organised approach to first-party development and probably has a share of the market for its systems over 25 per cent. But still it’s nowhere near the market share which Nintendo has, even to this day.

If you’re a third party and you are deciding to borrow money or use your stockholders money to make a Nintendo version of game, you have to know that you are going to be competing with some pretty big first-party Nintendo franchises. You can make money in that knowledge, but you are less likely to make a wide number of attempts.

So, with Sony, while there is a much bigger first-party contingent than there was when we were starting, I think philosophically it’s third-party oriented. It tries to be friendly, to encourage development investment using independent money rather than the company’s own money. There’s an element of selfishness to the concept, but it’s also a philosophy that has proven to be a correct one I think – in terms of ensuring that the best brains and the best number of attempts at good games and new, fresh, good ideas get a chance to be seen. Then you let the consumer decide.


SPOnG: Just to say a little bit about PS3 – obviously there has been quite a bit of negative PR surrounding the price point, do you think in retrospect that they could have set the initial price under the £400 mark.

Chris Deering: Well, you know, the first PS1 was launched at £300, when the Yen was 89 to the dollar. Compared to 1995, the price of a litre of petrol or a pint of beer is nowhere near where it was then. So, if you take it in terms of 1995 money, PS3 is pretty good value! It’s just that there is an element of ‘sticker shock’.

Ken is such a perfectionist; it (the PS3) is a tank really. I mean, 0.2% defect rate. ‘Over-engineered’ is not a good word, but the price is consistent with the engineering of what you are getting. And over time they’ll figure out how to make it for less and maybe the currency rates with the Yen will change. It will gain momentum and its true capabilities will be exposed now that people are learning to program it. And when you consider that you have an Internet interface, a media PC and a Blu-ray player for under £400 there’s a lot worse ways to spend that kind of money.


SPOnG: Is that right? 0.2 per cent defect rate?

Chris Deering: Yes, unbelievable eh? Better than we ever had before.


SPOnG: Particularly of note if you compare that with the recent troubles that Microsoft has had with the Xbox 360’s red rings of death!

Chris Deering: Well, sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw you know! But it just proves that it was very soundly engineered. There are a number of back-up systems and other things that, maybe if they weren’t there, would make it cost a little less.


SPOnG: Sure, so what really sets PS3 apart for you?

Chris Deering: The Cell chip and its capabilities in the artificial intelligence area as well as in the graphics area – it just hasn’t been, sort of, unearthed yet or experienced by a large number of people. But we’re going to see a number of titles which I would say were truly up to PS3-spec by this Christmas.


SPOnG: Such as?

Chris Deering: Well, off the top of my head Colin McRae: DIRT, FIFA 08, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Heavenly Sword and the new Grand Theft Auto (since delayed to spring 2008).