FantasyGhost
03-06-2008, 03:15 PM
Colin Campbell talks to Sony’s Scott Steinberg and hears some tough-talking, no-nonsense bravado about how PS3 is way better than Xbox 360 and Wii and is sure to crush the competition some time in the near future.
The three ages of Sony are as follows; in no particular order.
Firstly, there is Imperious Sony. It’s a majestic, arrogant, successful company with a 50 percent-plus hardware share. It expects absolute fealty from third parties and from the media. Criticism is dealt with harshly and severely. This is not-terribly-nice Sony and we lived with it from about 1997 until 2005. (Hey fellow suffering industry brothers and sisters, we should all get together and write an upsetting biographical account of those terrible years.)
Then there is Pathetic Sony. This is the company we have been working with this past 18 months. It’s doing a crappy job but doesn’t really know how to behave in an appropriately humble manner. It is suffering from a debilitating loss of power and is full of self-doubt, manifest in slightly absurd proclamations of calm.
Finally, there is the Sony that we like and need. It has good products. It generates demand for those products. It has a smart sense of the market in terms of pricing. It makes great games. Its people are accessible and believable. It deals with the rest of us in a way that makes us all feel pally. That was Sony from 1994 to 1997 and, I’m very happy to say, it’s returned to us; as of January 2008 when HD-DVD obligingly fucked itself out of existence.
I am in San Francisco to reaquaint with former Sega man Scott Steinberg; now VP of product marketing at SCEA. He’s been in the biz forever; right there in the filthy trenches of 1990s Sega. Man, he must have some stories to tell.
Alas, we only have 30 minutes so brandy-by-the-fire reminiscing of those old battles must wait another day. We’re here to look forward to PlayStation 3’s shiny future.
Steinberg is a marketing man and therefore he’s all about delivering messages. Looking now at the transcript, I’d say that about 18.5 minutes of our conversation comes down to him telling me that Sony has got some bloody great games lined up for later this year and that Sony has the best hardware platform. I don’t want to suggest that he’s a monomaniac or a dullard. It’s all pretty interesting, but, rather than serving up a Q&A, I’ll hit you with the main quotes before we go onto the other 11.5 minutes-worth.
“2008 is critical for us. We were distracted or bothered as an industry talking about Blu-ray versus HD-DVD. Those conversations are over; now we can talk about our line-up. We have the best line-up we’ve ever had and that’s the fundamental momentum. We’ve got a deep lineup in 2008, as opposed to maybe having one or two games like our competition. We’ve got a slew of games that represent a host of genres that are both new IP, comfort food IP, [new iterations of] games that people were raised on as PS2 gamers or even earlier. We’re feeling really good about our competitive position right now.”
I am interested in the atmosphere at SCEA these days. Is there a sense that the bad days of doubt are over? Do the guys come in and high-five one another and head out for lunchtime vodka martinis?
“Without question there’s very much a sense of confidence and renewed enthusiasm. It happened so fast we can’t help but do a little high-fiving in the office.”
Steinberg says SCEA felt the change coming in November, when PS3 hardware sales started to rise; when retail began reporting healthier sales of Blu-ray movies; when movies were being sold with PS3s and PS3s were being sold with HD TV sets. The Consumer Electronics Show in January was simply a dramatic confirmation of something that already felt like impending change.
“There was a little bit of a Berlin Wall factor going on. We were preparing ourselves for a long, drawn-out battle but from CES, things moved extremely rapidly. It probably moved rapidly for our competition too, in the opposite direction. Without question things have developed to the point where it’s great not to have to really dwell on HD-DVD discussions and be able to insert some conversation about our software line-up and talk about SOCOM or talk about LittleBigPlanet.
“We had this Berlin Wall [HD-DVD] and all of a sudden the people decided to tear it down and the next thing you know we’ve got a de facto standard on our hands and it’s our standard.”
It all begins to look like the Sony plan is coming to fruition but, as Steinberg concedes, there are plenty more battles to be fought with Microsoft and Nintendo. The good news is that Steinberg is not afraid to confront Sony’s competitors, which makes quote-catchers like me very happy indeed. I mean, the people tearing down the Berlin Wall? Marvellous!
Here he is on PS3’s alleged technical superiority to Xbox 360. “Third parties have started to move from the de facto 360 SDK. Of course people designed their next-gen games on it because that was the only one there. The PS3 shipped and so they said, ‘let’s port our 360 games to the PS3.' But now companies are recognizing that ‘hey, if I start on the PS3 and then port down to the 360, my 360 game is going to look better than if I had just designed it for the 360.' So the pendulum is swinging. The heads of development thinking ‘what’s going to show off my next-gen game that much better?’ It is to lead with the PS3 and then to port to the 360.”
At this point I literally have to stop the interview because I’m laughing, holding my sides, and I’ve forgotten the next question. It’s not that I’m laughing at his assertion, nor that I disbelieve him so much as I’m just enjoying the deadpan chutzpah. This is how competitors ought to behave; by saying mean things about one another to guffawing journos.
Here he is on another competitor console. “In three years certain systems will look pretty long in the tooth graphically if not look like they’re extremely dated.” Later he says, “Wii is on a different trajectory completely and I’m not exactly sure what that will look like in two or three years time. The technology that’s under that hood is so different from ours and I think the jury is still out.”
What I really want are the specific projections of when PS3 will cross the Xbox 360 line.
“In the years ahead our games will begin to distance themselves from other next-gen games, our games being first-party exclusives. As our teams work on third generation software, you’ll see games begin to tip the scale at thirty gigs, forty gigs, fifty gigs. You can’t possibly fit that on HD-DVD unless you want to do the old floppy disk swaps of years past.
“So that immersion quality will also begin to distance itself from our competition. We’ve got 2,300 people in our development core, building great content. That focus and dedication is unparalleled with any other first party company. Our first-party games will lead the way.
“So in soft qualitative terms there will be a big distance created by PS3 from the other two platforms in two or three years. I think most analysts, the Michael Pachters of this world, have curved the PS3 business to create distance in ’08 and ’09 so two, three years out, I think most pundits have pointed to the PS3 as starting to create, separate itself from the other two.”
Is there a chart on the wall in his office where the PlayStation 3 crosses the Xbox 360 install base line?
“Well no, but we do look at how closely 360 is indexed off of Xbox and for the good chunk of 2007 it was fairly close to where Xbox was year to year.
“The time that they had to create huge distance and build a massive install base before the PS3 could really take root; that opportunity is over and there’s no real capitalization of it. They had a great crescendo moment with Halo and it helped catapult them into a pretty strong position towards the back end of last year, but they were still within a stone’s throw of where they were with the original Xbox.
“To me that speaks of a failure to broaden their reach beyond the core first person shooter player who was in their back pocket for Xbox. The question for us is ‘are they really going after the PS2 demographic? Are they stealing share from us?’ And the answer is no.”
It is clearly an article of faith at Sony that the PS2 hordes are just waiting for the right moment to assert their dedication to The Brand, and join the party. “The PlayStation fan continues to be loyal to the PlayStation brand. We see huge overlap on PS3 ownership and PSP ownership and PS2 ownership. So we continue to put in the bank millions of PS2 owners who are ripe for upgrading to PS3 at the right point in time.
“That’s the secret weapon, that’s what goes unreported. It’s this 41 million universe of PS2 owners that will be targeted very, very soon to upgrade to a PS3 Blu-ray machine."
So he’s saying that the PlayStation 2 owner is either still playing the PlayStation 2 or really isn’t that bothered about games at the moment and is just simply waiting; he’s in stasis until he can afford the PlayStation 3? He hasn’t gone to the Xbox 360?
“Some probably have gone to the 360 because it was first out and they are going to buy every system, but the loyalists, the PlayStation loyalists are going to be waiting for those exclusive games, some of which we started to ship in the fall, Uncharted and Ratchet. But they’re looking for Metal Gear, they’re looking for Gran Turismo.
“Once Grand Theft Auto ships on the platform I think you’ll see those folks on the side line saying ‘I don’t want to get stuck with the wrong one. I’m a PlayStation fan. I waited out the HD-DVD thing and I listened to a lot of misinformation. Now I don’t need to wait.’ There are lots of reasons to jump in, and PS3’s by far the strongest choice.”
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9429&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0
The three ages of Sony are as follows; in no particular order.
Firstly, there is Imperious Sony. It’s a majestic, arrogant, successful company with a 50 percent-plus hardware share. It expects absolute fealty from third parties and from the media. Criticism is dealt with harshly and severely. This is not-terribly-nice Sony and we lived with it from about 1997 until 2005. (Hey fellow suffering industry brothers and sisters, we should all get together and write an upsetting biographical account of those terrible years.)
Then there is Pathetic Sony. This is the company we have been working with this past 18 months. It’s doing a crappy job but doesn’t really know how to behave in an appropriately humble manner. It is suffering from a debilitating loss of power and is full of self-doubt, manifest in slightly absurd proclamations of calm.
Finally, there is the Sony that we like and need. It has good products. It generates demand for those products. It has a smart sense of the market in terms of pricing. It makes great games. Its people are accessible and believable. It deals with the rest of us in a way that makes us all feel pally. That was Sony from 1994 to 1997 and, I’m very happy to say, it’s returned to us; as of January 2008 when HD-DVD obligingly fucked itself out of existence.
I am in San Francisco to reaquaint with former Sega man Scott Steinberg; now VP of product marketing at SCEA. He’s been in the biz forever; right there in the filthy trenches of 1990s Sega. Man, he must have some stories to tell.
Alas, we only have 30 minutes so brandy-by-the-fire reminiscing of those old battles must wait another day. We’re here to look forward to PlayStation 3’s shiny future.
Steinberg is a marketing man and therefore he’s all about delivering messages. Looking now at the transcript, I’d say that about 18.5 minutes of our conversation comes down to him telling me that Sony has got some bloody great games lined up for later this year and that Sony has the best hardware platform. I don’t want to suggest that he’s a monomaniac or a dullard. It’s all pretty interesting, but, rather than serving up a Q&A, I’ll hit you with the main quotes before we go onto the other 11.5 minutes-worth.
“2008 is critical for us. We were distracted or bothered as an industry talking about Blu-ray versus HD-DVD. Those conversations are over; now we can talk about our line-up. We have the best line-up we’ve ever had and that’s the fundamental momentum. We’ve got a deep lineup in 2008, as opposed to maybe having one or two games like our competition. We’ve got a slew of games that represent a host of genres that are both new IP, comfort food IP, [new iterations of] games that people were raised on as PS2 gamers or even earlier. We’re feeling really good about our competitive position right now.”
I am interested in the atmosphere at SCEA these days. Is there a sense that the bad days of doubt are over? Do the guys come in and high-five one another and head out for lunchtime vodka martinis?
“Without question there’s very much a sense of confidence and renewed enthusiasm. It happened so fast we can’t help but do a little high-fiving in the office.”
Steinberg says SCEA felt the change coming in November, when PS3 hardware sales started to rise; when retail began reporting healthier sales of Blu-ray movies; when movies were being sold with PS3s and PS3s were being sold with HD TV sets. The Consumer Electronics Show in January was simply a dramatic confirmation of something that already felt like impending change.
“There was a little bit of a Berlin Wall factor going on. We were preparing ourselves for a long, drawn-out battle but from CES, things moved extremely rapidly. It probably moved rapidly for our competition too, in the opposite direction. Without question things have developed to the point where it’s great not to have to really dwell on HD-DVD discussions and be able to insert some conversation about our software line-up and talk about SOCOM or talk about LittleBigPlanet.
“We had this Berlin Wall [HD-DVD] and all of a sudden the people decided to tear it down and the next thing you know we’ve got a de facto standard on our hands and it’s our standard.”
It all begins to look like the Sony plan is coming to fruition but, as Steinberg concedes, there are plenty more battles to be fought with Microsoft and Nintendo. The good news is that Steinberg is not afraid to confront Sony’s competitors, which makes quote-catchers like me very happy indeed. I mean, the people tearing down the Berlin Wall? Marvellous!
Here he is on PS3’s alleged technical superiority to Xbox 360. “Third parties have started to move from the de facto 360 SDK. Of course people designed their next-gen games on it because that was the only one there. The PS3 shipped and so they said, ‘let’s port our 360 games to the PS3.' But now companies are recognizing that ‘hey, if I start on the PS3 and then port down to the 360, my 360 game is going to look better than if I had just designed it for the 360.' So the pendulum is swinging. The heads of development thinking ‘what’s going to show off my next-gen game that much better?’ It is to lead with the PS3 and then to port to the 360.”
At this point I literally have to stop the interview because I’m laughing, holding my sides, and I’ve forgotten the next question. It’s not that I’m laughing at his assertion, nor that I disbelieve him so much as I’m just enjoying the deadpan chutzpah. This is how competitors ought to behave; by saying mean things about one another to guffawing journos.
Here he is on another competitor console. “In three years certain systems will look pretty long in the tooth graphically if not look like they’re extremely dated.” Later he says, “Wii is on a different trajectory completely and I’m not exactly sure what that will look like in two or three years time. The technology that’s under that hood is so different from ours and I think the jury is still out.”
What I really want are the specific projections of when PS3 will cross the Xbox 360 line.
“In the years ahead our games will begin to distance themselves from other next-gen games, our games being first-party exclusives. As our teams work on third generation software, you’ll see games begin to tip the scale at thirty gigs, forty gigs, fifty gigs. You can’t possibly fit that on HD-DVD unless you want to do the old floppy disk swaps of years past.
“So that immersion quality will also begin to distance itself from our competition. We’ve got 2,300 people in our development core, building great content. That focus and dedication is unparalleled with any other first party company. Our first-party games will lead the way.
“So in soft qualitative terms there will be a big distance created by PS3 from the other two platforms in two or three years. I think most analysts, the Michael Pachters of this world, have curved the PS3 business to create distance in ’08 and ’09 so two, three years out, I think most pundits have pointed to the PS3 as starting to create, separate itself from the other two.”
Is there a chart on the wall in his office where the PlayStation 3 crosses the Xbox 360 install base line?
“Well no, but we do look at how closely 360 is indexed off of Xbox and for the good chunk of 2007 it was fairly close to where Xbox was year to year.
“The time that they had to create huge distance and build a massive install base before the PS3 could really take root; that opportunity is over and there’s no real capitalization of it. They had a great crescendo moment with Halo and it helped catapult them into a pretty strong position towards the back end of last year, but they were still within a stone’s throw of where they were with the original Xbox.
“To me that speaks of a failure to broaden their reach beyond the core first person shooter player who was in their back pocket for Xbox. The question for us is ‘are they really going after the PS2 demographic? Are they stealing share from us?’ And the answer is no.”
It is clearly an article of faith at Sony that the PS2 hordes are just waiting for the right moment to assert their dedication to The Brand, and join the party. “The PlayStation fan continues to be loyal to the PlayStation brand. We see huge overlap on PS3 ownership and PSP ownership and PS2 ownership. So we continue to put in the bank millions of PS2 owners who are ripe for upgrading to PS3 at the right point in time.
“That’s the secret weapon, that’s what goes unreported. It’s this 41 million universe of PS2 owners that will be targeted very, very soon to upgrade to a PS3 Blu-ray machine."
So he’s saying that the PlayStation 2 owner is either still playing the PlayStation 2 or really isn’t that bothered about games at the moment and is just simply waiting; he’s in stasis until he can afford the PlayStation 3? He hasn’t gone to the Xbox 360?
“Some probably have gone to the 360 because it was first out and they are going to buy every system, but the loyalists, the PlayStation loyalists are going to be waiting for those exclusive games, some of which we started to ship in the fall, Uncharted and Ratchet. But they’re looking for Metal Gear, they’re looking for Gran Turismo.
“Once Grand Theft Auto ships on the platform I think you’ll see those folks on the side line saying ‘I don’t want to get stuck with the wrong one. I’m a PlayStation fan. I waited out the HD-DVD thing and I listened to a lot of misinformation. Now I don’t need to wait.’ There are lots of reasons to jump in, and PS3’s by far the strongest choice.”
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9429&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0