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Phil Harrison Leaving Sorny
- Thread starter sikkinixx
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Every member of the Blu-ray Disc Association gets a share of the royalties, so unless people are only buying Sony branded players Sony are no better off per sale than any of the other manufacturers.
While this is correct, Sony is one of the leading members of the BDA (I'm guessing larger a larger share), and Sony's the one designing the actual technology and I imagine thus working with the manufacturers.
On top of that, Sony's films will sell better, and the fact that they get royalties regardless who you buy it from means that with the sheer amount of movies being sold they're in to make a LOT.
All 176 members will get a share of the royalties. In winning the 'format war' all Sony has secured are bragging rights, not the right to print money.
I actually really like the XMB. It is simple enough. Left right for categories, up down to browse through the category. I also like being able to sort things (demos, games from PSN...) into folders. The thing I hate in the PSN store which will apparently be getting a more "SingStore" like GUI update in April.
I'm not sure what that would be. Sony said they were very pleased with PS3 sales, and that they have exceeded expectations.
That's true, but they needed blu ray to win as much as they needed the PS3 to win (otherwise, they could have launched early and completely owned Microsoft again). However, I'm pretty sure that Sony realized that they weren't going to leap out of the gate with the PS3. It was extremely expensive to begin with and had a cheaper competitor with more games. Sure, they would have liked to have sold in Wii-like numbers, but that was never going to happen.
What do you mean, "meh?". That is a view created by the media. Consumers obviously didn't care that much because the PS3 has sold at a faster rate than the 360 since launch. Sales have been solid. The PS3 was probably the most lambasted console in history, with thousands of journalists lining up to have a go at it, but customers have spoken. The 360 is a North American phenom. Outside NA, it's Sony and Nintendo all the way.
Not that many. Most new games at my store are on both platforms. The PS3 is a wholly new platform with a radically new kind of processor. Of course there is going to be a learning curve for developers. However, the opportunity is too good to pass up. The first developer to make a hot game that truly takes advantage of the Cell is going to make a ton of money.
How many gamers don't watch movies? My PS3 gets as much use as a DVD player and media centre as it does a game console.
Wait another year and you will have it. The PS3 will probably be sold at $299 by early 2009. But it is a good deal right now, especially since blu ray won.
I doubt this is true. Sony could have easily had instant success by designing the PS3 as a lower tech console like the 360. They could have used a DVD drive rather than Blu Ray, and released around the same time as the 360 to crush it, just as they crushed the original Xbox.
Sony's strategy was to create the uber gaming multimedia machine with no compromises. Of course they would have liked blu ray to have been cheaper to start with, since sales would have been better. But, given that the 360 had a year's head start, their strategy always had to be catch up. Sony would have hoped for two things: (1) to keep pace with the adoption rate of 360s until the price could be lowered; and (2) that blu ray won the format war as quickly as possible.
(2) came true just over a year into release, so that is a result for Sony. They actually beat (1), since the PS3 has been selling at a faster rate than the 360 since launch, despite having a higher price tag in the shops, and despite having less software available for it. The PS3 already has the larger installed base in many countries and will shortly have the larger installed base outside North America.
The story goes like this: everyone ragged on Sony before the PS3 release and during the first year of its existence. They said it was expensive and overbuilt and would never sell, that it sucked and had been released too late, that blu ray was a gimick, etc. The last couple of months have been the tipping point. People are now saying "Hey it's starting to look like a good bet, and what-do-you-know there's some good games coming out for it".
If the recent words and actions were of a 'nobody' at Sony I wouldn't read anything into it beyond maybe sour grapes, but when it's someone as public and important as Phil Harrison (the President of Worldwide Development and arguably the 'face of Playstation') then I think it's something far more serious.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this plays itself out over the coming year or so.
In related news, Harrison has been praising the Wii remote and the iPhone at the GDC for leading the "democratisation" of videogame controllers and technology interfaces, respectively. - Harrison: Non-gamers see controllers as live guns
I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this plays itself out over the coming year or so.
In related news, Harrison has been praising the Wii remote and the iPhone at the GDC for leading the "democratisation" of videogame controllers and technology interfaces, respectively. - Harrison: Non-gamers see controllers as live guns
