Q & A with Phil Harrison @ D.I.C.E.
Yesterday Sony's Phil Harrison sat down with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal for an suncensored Q&A session at the D.I.C.E. summit in Las Vegas. None of N'Gai's questions were seen by Harrison prior to the session. Much of their talk was about the PS3 and how it measures up to the Xbox 360, especially in terms of game development.
Gamasutra has some highlights from the Q&A session and
Wired.com has a blog providing a fairly rough transcript. Here are a few of the highlights from Gamasutra:
Q: "Perhaps Sony’s third-party relations have been less effective
than when you were the point person. How much intel do you have on
developer support, and how does Sony plan to improve this?"
Harrison started by admitting: "There’s no point in me being defensive.
If that’s what people are saying, there has to be an element of truth
in it." He went on to comment that "we can always do a better job", but
noted of particular apparent complaints that some key technical
documents and information originate in Japan and do not always flow
easily to other parts of the world: "Most of the key components of PS3
were created in English speaking parts of the world."
Q: "During the previous generation, it was well known that the major
distinction between PS2 and Xbox was that the integrated online
experience of Xbox Live was far superior to what Sony was providing -
can you comment about this generation?"
Harrison noted: "The launch of a platform like PS3 is not a fixed
specification the day you buy the console", commenting that: "The
chipset stays the same but what it does in software changes over time,"
addding, "We’ll continue to refine [the PlayStation 3 Network], not
just for developer experience, but for consumers too."
He also added obliquely: "This year we’ll be adding some functionality
to the PSP that will unify our approach", hinting at a more robust
download service for Sony's portable that has been rumored for some
time now.
Q: "Valve's Gabe Newell said [in a recent Game Informer interview]
that the PS3 launch was a 'total disaster'. He isn’t the only developer
who wanted me to ask this. Why wasn’t the launch postponed to say,
spring, when many issues could have been resolved?"
Harrison started by asking: "By what measure is the launch of PS3
unsuccessful? We had people lined up in stores in three continents."
However, he noted, "we can always sell more", and as for the company's
plans, the European launch is "on track for March." The Sony VP
particularly noted that "the boat with the first supply is on its way
from China as we speak. I think it’s a fantastic achievement."
Via
Gamasutra &
Wired