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SCEE's Phil Harrison | |||
At today's keynote at the 2005 Game Developers Conference Europe in
London, Sony's executive vice president for SCEE, Phil Harrison talked
frankly and at length in a Q&A format with GDC chairman Jamil
Moledina, discussing both Sony's forthcoming Cell-powered PlayStation
3, and the state of play on both the PSP handheld and the
still-thriving PlayStation 2, revealing a number of vital looks into
Sony's strategy for the future.
In the
process of the relatively conversational keynote, named simply "Keynote
Q&A on the Future of Games", Harrison and his questioner veered
into a plethora of other diverse areas, from the Cell chip to PSP
import issues, but Harrison was frank, lucid and amusing throughout,
coping with even the trickiest questions about the PSP's delayed launch
in Europe with some aplomb.
The Harrison Show
At any rate, Moledina took to the stage at the start of the keynote to
introduce Sony EVP Harrison, noting his current role in charge of three
Sony European studios and an entire network of external developers. As
pointed out, Harrison has been at Sony for 13 years, and as such, has
played an instrumental role in the original PlayStation, PlayStation 2,
and the PlayStation 3, being the first non-Japanese creator involved in
the PlayStation's genesis.
Taking the stage to some applause, Harrison sat down and, in answering
the first question, about new durations and dynamics of games to
attract new customers, he commented that this was a "pet topic of
mine", and launched into a call for developers to look more closely at
episodic content, referencing the 'watercooler' effect of TV shows like
'Lost', commenting: "Our industry should move away from putting 20
hours of content onto a 5 gigabyte disc, and shift to a model which
embraces more of an episodic delivery of content, just like
television."
He further continued: "We should look to our games become more like
soap operas", referencing "similar reliable experiences" over time,
though, as he noted, without the overblown histrionics of the soap
opera genre. Harrison also noted that episodic game creation
ameliorates a lot of risk from the commercial and production point of
view.
When asked to elaborate on the ways that Sony Europe, perhaps one of
the Sony development outposts better known for alternative
game/entertainment concepts such as EyeToy and SingStar, looked at
approaches to IP, Harrison admitted that there were notable successful
examples among his internal studios, though also added dryly: "There's
been a few that we don't talk about." He continued by noting that, with
"the privilege of being the platform holder", Sony perhaps has a
responsibility to advance things that are "a little more esoteric."
In particular, he referenced SingStar, which is, according to Harrison,
episodic in some ways, with regular expansion packs and over 20
separate SKUs available across Europe with different song selections -
the Sony EVP references the "production-line mentality" as being vital
to extending the base innovative idea and making it work in so many
territories.
PlayStation 3 - The Attitude
Next, Moledina posed a question about what unique features might help
people get a handle on next-generation development, and Harrison
replied with sentiments indicating that he hoped there are many reasons
why people would buy a next-generation console. He then notably
described the PlayStation 3 as "fundamentally a network platform from
the beginning", and continued by describing it as a platform where
"consumers easily graze content dynamically, delivered digitally,
unlike other consoles [such as the PlayStation 2] where network
functionality was an add-on." Thus, although Sony has not yet announced
its Xbox Live-like functionality, Harrison's comments make it clear
they are taking the challenge much more seriously this time round.
In fact, when challenged, Harrison agreed: "Microsoft has done a lot of
things right in this space", and suggested that Xbox Live was
"certainly a good model for a lot of the consumer experiences we're
doing on PlayStation 3." Although not giving a precise example of
something that's planned, he also pointed out that: "maybe there's a
button on your TiVo which will spit content onto your PSP", and hinted
that this might be the type of interoperability that next-generation
Sony consoles might help with.
However, this attitude came in for a little more buffeting in the
public Q&A session at the end of the keynote, in which Harrison
further reinforced that, technically, "More people have played online
on PS2 than a Microsoft format", but admitted "But we did not provide
the same experience as they did." He did state again, strongly, that
the PlayStation 3 will feature commerce, communications, community
features, and media exchange functionality. Some will be free, some
will be premium-driven by game services and publishers themselves, but
Harrison commented: "We want to provide an open platform as much as
possible", and in a notable reference to Microsoft: "Distinct from our
competitors, we are happy for publishers to make their own financial
agreements directly with consumers."
Cell Block Sony
When asked exactly what kind of new playability and innovation Sony's
semi-fabled Cell chip might help instigate, Harrison had a simple
answer: "I hope people in this room will answer that for us over the
next few years." But in responding in more detail, he commented that
the Cell has been made, at least on Sony's end, by an architect who
understands demands of games and multimedia processing, and most of
all, the chip is 'blindingly quick', and "does a lot of the heavy
lifting and floating point math that's required for a lot of the
innovation we're going to see in next-generation games" As well as the
chip's swiftness, according to Harrison, another important part of the
equation is the Cell's bus - effectively the way it interfaces to the
rest of the world.
Harrison went on to compare Cell's approach to that of the previous
PlayStation hardware generation, indicating that the PS2's architecture
was really finetuned for 3D computer graphics. According to Harrison,
its programmable microprocessors were great for vector maths, good for
certain simulation, but didn't hold a great deal of general purpose
programmability.
However, Cell is apparently made up of much more general purpose cores,
and as a result, Harrison claims, middleware companies and developers
can make things much easier, including more complex physics, a lot more
complex behaviors, and other unpredictable gaming elements that come
from the dynamic simulation. Of course, this statement is yet to be
borne out, but accounts from developers as launch titles approach
should help either bolster or dismiss this statement.
Diversity 101
Next came the question of whether hardware, and specifically the
PlayStation 3, is trying to reach too much of a diverse market, and
Phil acknowledged the danger, commenting: "We, as an industry, are in a
competitive situation fighting for disposable time. We're fighting for
eyeballs and the attention of our consumers all the time." But overall,
Harrison commented that Sony would prefer that fight to happen on one
box rather than multiple devices.
In fact, he went on to suggest, Sony had found a healthy portion of
users who bought a PlayStation 2, at least in Japan back in 2003, since
it was the cheapest and best DVD player at the time, and then
discovered it as a games machine. In the same way, the PlayStation 3's
multimedia functionality (and presumably the Blu-Ray next-gen movie
format in particular, though this was not stated) may attract
non-gaming users to the PS3. Harrison considers this method "a healthy
way to grow. "
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The PlayStation 3 | |||
Too Much Development?
Moledina then steered the questioning around to the apparent cost of
next-gen game development. Harrison indicated that, in his opinion,
many games industry commentators have a Doomsday scenario when it comes
to generational change, but explicitly stated: "Compared to the
PlayStation 2, writing for the PlayStation 3 at this point in time
should be cheaper." Although this may raise eyebrows with some,
middleware tools are now cheaper and more comprehensive, according to
Harrison.
He then went on to reference the changes through Sony's lifetime. The
PlayStation 1 had a wide variety of high level libraries, according to
Harrison, but developers said they wanted open access to everything.
Bearing that in mind for PlayStation 2, commented Harrison: "we thought
we'd give developers access to everything" at the lower levels,
believing that middleware companies would give PS2 developers
higher-end tools.
In the end, however, Harrison admits the company "miscalculated
somewhat" in presuming this support, and so for the PS3, has changed to
a hybrid model, with licensed middleware (from Havok, Ageia, SN
Systems, and Epic) available, but good low-level access too. Harrison
commented: "What we wanted to do is create an end-to-end solution", and
access to a mature toolchain is the vital part of what he hopes will
make the PS3 successful.
Don't Quit, PS2!
Next, Harrison discussed the possible shelf-life of the PlayStation 2,
pointed out that high-profile CFOs have made multiple comments to him
about jumping out of the PlayStation 1 market too early. Harrison
pointed out that companies are still releasing titles for PS1 this
Christmas, and there is still a vast amount of re-orders of value
software. If we do a comparison with the PlayStation 2, it might be
argued that 60% of the software volume is still to be sold on the
system - "billions of dollars", according to the Sony EVP, though not
all in brand new games.
PSP, Meet Europe
Near the end of the session, Harrison was quizzed about the delayed
launch of the PSP in Europe (finally occurring tonight), and admitted
it was "obviously not optimal", commenting: "Factors outside of our
control contributed to us having to delay the launch." He did, however,
suggest that the benefit to European consumers is a v2.0 operating
system at launch, including Web compatibility, and the PSP production
output from factories in Japan is now such that Sony can sustain
demand. As for the import situation, with Sony suing retailers who
imported PSPs from Japan or the U.S. before the European release,
Harrison simply said this was "something for the lawyers - I'm not
going to comment on that."
When asked about downloadable content for the PSP, as seen most
prominently in Wipeout Pure, Harrison commented that it was an
experiment, but that it turned out to be a good experiment, and one of
the reasons was to keep the shelf-life of games going for retailer. He
also revealed: "We will be moving to premium content next year",
announcing that Sony would be charging for content on the PSP in a pay
per download model, where users will own the right to download the item
(presumably a level or other add-on for a UMD game) again in the
future.
Questions, Answers
Proceedings then moved on to a Q&A session including audience
questions, in which Harrison was asked about the future of European
development, which he was relatively buoyant about, despite the
admittal that there was "obviously consolidation going on, and less
developers around." However, the Sony exec argued that the developers
who are left are, by and large, the best ones, with the best management
process and best staff retention, and Europe "has as much creativity as
there is anywhere else in world."
As for what games Harrison is currently playing, he noted that he has nearly finished Ridge Racers for PSP on his commute to work, which he described as something of a "nostalgia trip back to 1994", and had also been playing Everybody's Golf and SCEE's upcoming Pursuit Force. He also had kind words, when prompted, about Nintendo's Nintendogs, commenting: "I think it's absolutely fantastic."
When discussing whether he would ever consider multiple launch bundles
of the PlayStation 3, as the Xbox 360 has now confirmed, Harrison was
relatively caustic, commenting: "Are there two versions of the Xbox
that people want to buy? Consumers don't know which one to buy,
developers don't know which one to make games for, and retailers don't
know which one to stock. We wouldn't take that strategy." This is a
clear indication that Sony apparently intends to launch with a single
feature-set for PS3.
Content First
Finally, Harrison ended with words of inspiration, commenting: "We have
to continue to put creativity first, otherwise we will turn into a
formulaic industry. It's up to us all to... try to put innovation
foremost, otherwise the consumers will go elsewhere. If we're not
exciting these eyeballs better than anyone else, people will go watch
[TV show] Lost."
These were stirring words to end a somewhat inspirational keynote,
which proved not only that Phil Harrison is one of the canniest public
speakers and evangelists of any major hardware platform, but also
seemed to imply that Sony hopes to have learned from its mistakes in
making the PlayStation 2 a relative black box for developers. Of
course, the Cell chip and its schedule and ease of use continue to be a
massive impenetrable for the company, but Harrison's words today,
convinced many that Sony is trying to make a difference, and its moves
in the upcoming console war will be carefully thought out, if not yet a
guaranteed slam-dunk.
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