DaveFeelsRight
06/03/06, 10:32 AM
Phil Harrison is Sonys chief Gamedesigner. In talking with Spiegel Online, he comments on the console strategy plagiarism from Nintendo fans, explains why Blu-ray doesn't need copy-protection and what the Playstation 3 has to do with Myspace.
SO: What do you say to the people who say that you have ripped off Nintendo's idea for a motion-sensitive controller?
PH: In truth, I understand why people say that, but it's a bit dumb when they make that comment to me. When we brought the Playstation to the market in 1994, we brought for the first time, real-time 3-D graphics. When Nintendo started their N64 in 1996 and it could also do real-time 3-D, did we say "Nintendo, you ripped of our idea!"? Of course not. These innovations are possible because of a combination of technology, cost and production capacity.
SO: But it is still the case that now two consoles with motion-sensitive controlers are coming to the market.
PH: We've been working long, and Nintendo certainly has been working long, on similar if not identical innovations, that's obvious. Thus it is with technology. The difference between our strategy and all others is that our controller, the Playstation Dual Analog Controller, is the de-facto industry standard for video games. I love it that third-parties create a conroller in the same shape, and almost 400 millionen are sold worldwide. That means we define the standard for the human-computer interface for gaming. Now we have given this controller a necessary dynamic, freedom of movement.
SO: How many games in the first year that the Playstation is on the market will use this option?
PH: I hope that every game will use this funktion somehow. We all move the controller around when we play, whether it's a racing game or a soccer game. Now we can for the first time capture the primary input, the analog sticks, and at the same time capture what the player makes as secondary movement with the controller and then integrate the two. That is a meaningful benefit that only the Playstation 3 controller has.
SO: The PS3 will be able to play Blu-ray DVDs. The film industry, including Sony Pictures, would like to restrict with certain interfaces and hardware copy-protection mechanisms the ability of pirates to copy valuable contents. Well the less expensive version of the PS3 doesn't have this HDMI interface, in the same way Microsofts add-on for HD-DVDs doesn't. Aren't you shooting your own people with copy-protection? Is there trouble with Sony behind the curtains?
PH: Not really. The Blu-Ray-Disc-Asssociation made the specifications, not just Sony or Sony pictures. We are a member of the consortium, not the chair or the chief. The compromise is that HDMI must be in all Blu-Ray players by 2011. We took this deadline for our device that comes out in 2006. That is five years earlier than required.
SO: But only in one of two versions of PS3. Don't you believe that your colleagues at Sony Pictures will fear that in these five years many people will steal HD-content and sell them as pirate copies?
PH: No, I believe the contents require too much hard drive space that it excludes everything but one BR-disc to be used. That's not breaking us.
SO: The medium itself is also copy-protected?
PH: Yes. In ten years it will be conceivable that putting 50 Gigabytes online will be normal, but today, no way. That's not easy.
SO: Since we're speaking of online - Microsoft has just announced "Live Anywhere", a service that should network windows computers, XBox-360 consoles and mobile telephones. That must be a headache because you do not have the same entrance to the PC market that Microsoft has.
PH: No, that doesn't concern me and I don't believe that it concerns the consumers. When one gets a game machine as a primary diversion, one wants only that. We believe that the PS3 will be the place where our users play, watch movies, browse the web and have other computer entertainment. The Playstation 3 is a computer. We don't need the PC.
SO: Microsoft has announced that they would like to develop games specifically for the Japanese market and at the same time they are still having larg difficulties there. What are they doing wrong there?
PH: Microsoft has learned that one can't sell "Halo" or "Project Gotham Racing" in Japan. They need titles that are cut out specifically for that market. That is something that we also have problems with - the Japanese consumer has a special taste and we must respect that taste.
SO: Does the European market also have a specific taste that you must respect?
PH: The European and US-American markets are somewhat similar, but there are always differences. If one looks at successes, the "Buzz" and "EyeToy" and "SingStar" here for example. Those are social game concepts that are especially successfull here in Germany. They have brought the Playstation brand in completely new areas and our hardware in new homes that we otherwise would not have gotten into. On the other side, there are of course certain challenges in Germany in respect to certain games, but we respect that.
SO: What kind of chanllenges: You mean age restrictions on violent games.
PH: We respect the rules of this market fully and completely, but because of the organisation that sets the age restrictions, many games cannot be so clearly displayed. You can buy the games, but they aren't as prominently presented.
SO: What kind of game would you personally like to see on the new console?
PH: I like racing games. I probably play them the most. For the future, the PS3 interests me with the concepts that bring people together, more than multiplayer-online games, things that create communication and community while playing.
SO: You alluded to MySpace at the Electronic Entertianment Expo, very strange for console developer…
PH: We are only trying to acquaint ourselves, the power of a network lies not in the operating system, but in the people who are connected by it, and with them, what they bring to it. Things like MySpace show the combined effect of hundreds of thousands or millions of people who let this network grow.
SO: MySpace functions because in many countries just about everyone today has a PC, and everyone can get to the internet. But to get into your network, will one need to purchase a PS3 - do you believe that people will want to link contacts here and there?
PH: The PS3 has a browser, so they can also go to MySpace there.
SO: That sounds like you have more than just links planned?
PH: Yes we do. But I can't go into that right now.
Questions by Christian Stöcker
Translated by James E. Bailey
SO: What do you say to the people who say that you have ripped off Nintendo's idea for a motion-sensitive controller?
PH: In truth, I understand why people say that, but it's a bit dumb when they make that comment to me. When we brought the Playstation to the market in 1994, we brought for the first time, real-time 3-D graphics. When Nintendo started their N64 in 1996 and it could also do real-time 3-D, did we say "Nintendo, you ripped of our idea!"? Of course not. These innovations are possible because of a combination of technology, cost and production capacity.
SO: But it is still the case that now two consoles with motion-sensitive controlers are coming to the market.
PH: We've been working long, and Nintendo certainly has been working long, on similar if not identical innovations, that's obvious. Thus it is with technology. The difference between our strategy and all others is that our controller, the Playstation Dual Analog Controller, is the de-facto industry standard for video games. I love it that third-parties create a conroller in the same shape, and almost 400 millionen are sold worldwide. That means we define the standard for the human-computer interface for gaming. Now we have given this controller a necessary dynamic, freedom of movement.
SO: How many games in the first year that the Playstation is on the market will use this option?
PH: I hope that every game will use this funktion somehow. We all move the controller around when we play, whether it's a racing game or a soccer game. Now we can for the first time capture the primary input, the analog sticks, and at the same time capture what the player makes as secondary movement with the controller and then integrate the two. That is a meaningful benefit that only the Playstation 3 controller has.
SO: The PS3 will be able to play Blu-ray DVDs. The film industry, including Sony Pictures, would like to restrict with certain interfaces and hardware copy-protection mechanisms the ability of pirates to copy valuable contents. Well the less expensive version of the PS3 doesn't have this HDMI interface, in the same way Microsofts add-on for HD-DVDs doesn't. Aren't you shooting your own people with copy-protection? Is there trouble with Sony behind the curtains?
PH: Not really. The Blu-Ray-Disc-Asssociation made the specifications, not just Sony or Sony pictures. We are a member of the consortium, not the chair or the chief. The compromise is that HDMI must be in all Blu-Ray players by 2011. We took this deadline for our device that comes out in 2006. That is five years earlier than required.
SO: But only in one of two versions of PS3. Don't you believe that your colleagues at Sony Pictures will fear that in these five years many people will steal HD-content and sell them as pirate copies?
PH: No, I believe the contents require too much hard drive space that it excludes everything but one BR-disc to be used. That's not breaking us.
SO: The medium itself is also copy-protected?
PH: Yes. In ten years it will be conceivable that putting 50 Gigabytes online will be normal, but today, no way. That's not easy.
SO: Since we're speaking of online - Microsoft has just announced "Live Anywhere", a service that should network windows computers, XBox-360 consoles and mobile telephones. That must be a headache because you do not have the same entrance to the PC market that Microsoft has.
PH: No, that doesn't concern me and I don't believe that it concerns the consumers. When one gets a game machine as a primary diversion, one wants only that. We believe that the PS3 will be the place where our users play, watch movies, browse the web and have other computer entertainment. The Playstation 3 is a computer. We don't need the PC.
SO: Microsoft has announced that they would like to develop games specifically for the Japanese market and at the same time they are still having larg difficulties there. What are they doing wrong there?
PH: Microsoft has learned that one can't sell "Halo" or "Project Gotham Racing" in Japan. They need titles that are cut out specifically for that market. That is something that we also have problems with - the Japanese consumer has a special taste and we must respect that taste.
SO: Does the European market also have a specific taste that you must respect?
PH: The European and US-American markets are somewhat similar, but there are always differences. If one looks at successes, the "Buzz" and "EyeToy" and "SingStar" here for example. Those are social game concepts that are especially successfull here in Germany. They have brought the Playstation brand in completely new areas and our hardware in new homes that we otherwise would not have gotten into. On the other side, there are of course certain challenges in Germany in respect to certain games, but we respect that.
SO: What kind of chanllenges: You mean age restrictions on violent games.
PH: We respect the rules of this market fully and completely, but because of the organisation that sets the age restrictions, many games cannot be so clearly displayed. You can buy the games, but they aren't as prominently presented.
SO: What kind of game would you personally like to see on the new console?
PH: I like racing games. I probably play them the most. For the future, the PS3 interests me with the concepts that bring people together, more than multiplayer-online games, things that create communication and community while playing.
SO: You alluded to MySpace at the Electronic Entertianment Expo, very strange for console developer…
PH: We are only trying to acquaint ourselves, the power of a network lies not in the operating system, but in the people who are connected by it, and with them, what they bring to it. Things like MySpace show the combined effect of hundreds of thousands or millions of people who let this network grow.
SO: MySpace functions because in many countries just about everyone today has a PC, and everyone can get to the internet. But to get into your network, will one need to purchase a PS3 - do you believe that people will want to link contacts here and there?
PH: The PS3 has a browser, so they can also go to MySpace there.
SO: That sounds like you have more than just links planned?
PH: Yes we do. But I can't go into that right now.
Questions by Christian Stöcker
Translated by James E. Bailey