IGN: The Playstation Q&A

Posted on 26. Nov, 2008 by Reckless in News

Recently, IGN got a hold of John Koller (Sony Computer Entertainment America Director of Hardware Marketing) and put him under the PlayStation spotlight.

IGN: John, obviously we just came across the second birthday of the PlayStation 3. How do you feel, how was year two? Obviously it was a step forward from year one.

John Koller: Yeah, we feel great. There’s a lot of momentum behind the brand. Just in terms of percentages, we’re up 98 percent year over year in sales — that’s hardware sales. And I think that really where the PS3 has made its mark is on the gaming side. We got a lot of questions, I think, early on of like, “Where are the games? Where are the games? Give us games! Give us the best games!” I think that the launches from this holiday season are really starting to answer that question with the LittleBigPlanets and Resistance 2s and even earlier in the year with Metal Gear. Some really strong titles showing that game development overall is really ramping up strongly for the PlayStation 3 in its favor.

IGN: Definitely. Now that you guys have that, as well as you’ve tackled the games side in year two, you also went after the things that I think a lot of people were looking for like Trophies, in-game XMB… What’s next? Where do you guys see the blueprint for taking the system forward?

John Koller: Well, I’ll tell you; the blueprint for PlayStation products in general is kind of a consumer-demanded one. I want to make this point because it’s something that we… we don’t have an engineer just sitting in a room saying, “I think that’d be a pretty good idea.” We actually have consumer feedback; when they knock loudly enough, we try to answer, and Trophies was a good example of that. Skype on the PSP is a good example of that. Those kinds of things were usually demanded from the consumer base, so decided to add it from a product planning perspective.

One of the things we’re seeing that a lot of people are starting to become more interested in — as are we because it’s very important, corporately — is a stronger connection, stronger tie, between the PS3 and PSP and really strengthening that Remote Play area. We want to make it easier for consumers to be able take that content with them on the go, so that’s going to be an area of focus as we go into next year.

IGN: I’m telling you right now, for me as a consumer, I’m demanding new avatars.

John Koller: Okay! [laughs]

IGN: Do you guys have other things that you can talk about that you’re looking at?

John Koller: Obviously the launch of Home here is going to really answer a lot of questions for consumers, too, in terms of how they become part of the boarder PlayStation community.

IGN: Now you mentioned Home there, the launch of Home. When will we see that?

John Koller: We haven’t announced a public date but it’s… I think “imminent” is an accurate word.

IGN: Are you guys feeling confident that you’re going to be able to deliver on getting it out by the end of 2008 which is what you’ve said earlier?

John Koller: Yeah, we feel strong about that. It’s going to a landmark launch for us. It has been promised for a while, and I know a lot of consumers are waiting on edge and many of ‘em are in the closed beta now, but it’s going to be very well worth it. We can state that. It’s really a fantastic piece of architecture for the PlayStation 3 brand.

IGN: I know it’s definitely this big sweeping change you guys want to make. What has been the hold-up?

John Koller: There’s a few things. I think in general we want to make sure we launch the best product possible, not unlike what you see in game development. Really sometimes, with peripheral development that we have here, we’ll hold something to make sure we’re not just throwing it out to the consumer and hoping that they’re okay with a 50 percent product. We want to make sure that it’s the best, so a lot of what we’re doing in the closed beta is fixing some of those loose ends and making sure that the final launch product is fantastic. Everything that we’re seeing right now is that it’s going to be everything and more that consumers have been asking for.

IGN: What have you been hearing from beta testers?

John Koller: In general, there’re comments about this area or that area, ease of use, ways to connect with others for online gaming. All those things, we want to make sure they’re cleaned up as soon as possible because when a consumer first gets into Home, they want to have everything work. They want to make sure that they can connect with others, see their friends, pop out of Home into a game immediately, pop back right into Home when that game ends. All those things are very important… all those things are being worked on and it’ll be a great product when it launches very shortly.

IGN: I know you can only speak in broad terms right now as we gear up, but from what I’ve been hearing from beta people — and even now you’re talking about popping in and popping out — is that a feasible goal for Home? I know from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen personally that there are loads jumping in or loads [coming into] a new area. Is that something you can knock down? I know it’s a giant product.

John Koller: Those are things that we’re working on. That’s why it’s a closed beta. [laughs] That’s the term, but it’s very important for us and will be addressed.

IGN: How have you guys been working so far to try to get people on as far as third parties? To get your outside developers to do stuff for this.

John Koller: Good question. We’ve been on a nine or ten month road show right now detailing a few areas of the PlayStation business, one of the key areas being Home and how publishers can jump on board and become part of the process. There’s been a lot of interest and there’s going to be, at launch, a number of publishers that are immediately involved.

IGN: Oh really, there’s going to be a lot at launch?

John Koller: There will be a few and then going forward into next year, there’s going to be more. It’s dependant on each publisher’s business model and how they want to integrate their brands, but I can tell you that across the board there’s extreme interest. It’s really a fantastic way of kind of becoming more integrated with your consumer as a publisher with your games and just another touch point. If you’re looking at it from a third-party perspective, you’re looking at your budget and you’re saying, “I can spread my message across advertising here or direct mail here or maybe PR here.” Maybe another pillar to look at now is Home and that’s the way a lot of them are starting to look at it.

IGN: Now obviously we’re in the thick of the holiday season right now where it’s just wall-to-wall games and you can’t get away from ‘em, but even today we were talking on our podcast about how February of ’09 looks awesome for you guys as well. You’re looking at Killzone; outside of just Sony, F.E.A.R. 2; stuff like that. But looking beyond that, do you guys have stuff in the works that you’re going to be looking at to say, “This is what’s going to be huge in ’09 and Fall that you don’t know about yet?”

John Koller: Yeah. PS3… [laughs] PS3 is going to have a very strong gaming year and kind of as part and parcel of the ramp-up that development has in a first- and third-party perspectives to really learn about how to develop for the PS3. That ramp-up was a lot shorter, I think, than people forecast in 2006 when we launched the PS3; we started seeing these larger, grand-scale kinds of games like Resistance and Resistance 2. Now you take the development knowledge as well as the ability to paint on a much larger canvas with the Blu-ray gaming ideas of 50 gigs they’re able to paint, and really create these larger, grand-scale games that are so rich in content. It provides that much more opportunity to flesh out a big idea.

So there’s a lot of big ideas planned both from first- and third-parties that are going to be launching on the PS3. PS3 has got a wealth of content coming. It has it now, to be frank, but as we go into next year, there’s going to be a whole lot of good stuff coming. ’09 for me is an exciting yearfor the PlayStation brand. There’s a lot of really strong stuff happening. Read more