John-ShepardIt has been a big year for Sony and Kaz Hirai. The SCE boss introduced us all to the PSP Go at E3 and last week, he proudly unveiled the PS3 Slim , which also represented the long-awaited and much-appreciated price cut.
Not long after, he had a chat with the TimesOnline , and the interview includes plenty of important topics, as you can see. As for the Slim, Hirai said Sony "felt it was the right time;" the combination of cheaper components and the increasingly impressive exclusive software lineup contributed to this decision. As for the current sales, Hirai said it's not a good idea to try to make an examination on the third anniversary of a system that has a 10-year lifespan. "The fifth anniversary and beyond is when we really start to say, 'how's our trajectory looking?'" Hirai also wanted to clear the air regarding critics who said Sony tried to pack too much into the console; he reminds us all that when he first came back to Japan to promote the PS3, he wanted to reinforce the fact that the PS3 is a games machine first. They go on to talk about bringing new gamers to the PS3; Hirai says the best way to do this is simple: "compelling video game titles." We gotta agree with that..don't you?
As for the motion control that wowed us all at E3, he says we can expect to see this new technology by "spring of next year." While the technology is great, though, Hirai still wants to have "great software that supports" that special controller. Lastly, Hirai answered a common question concerning the fate of physical media; here's his response to the query, "Do you think physical media such as DVDs and even Blu-Ray have a limited time left?"-
"No. Perhaps we can sit down three years from now and have a beer, or two or ten, while we wait to download 40 gigabytes of data for a full ps3 game. That's still going to take a lot of time. We're in over 100 countries and there are areas where consumers still don't have access to the type of broadband that we have. The death of physical media is a very nice conclusion, that seems to be nice to say, but it’s not something we're going to see soon. We are committed to the PSP 3000 and the UMD business. A lot of people like to speculate that we're getting out of that business, but nothing could be further from the truth. We're not going to deprive consumers in all those other countries."
We've always liked this guy. Hirai and Tretton have also appeared to be competent, highly skilled executives who are also straight-shooters. And as far as we can tell, based on the events of the past year or so, Hirai and Co. have done one hell of a job in bringing the PS3 into the limelight and keeping it there.
I just hope we never have to download large games, took me 6 hours to download Burnout cant imagine a ps3 Kojima game for download.
How big is burnout?
I was kind of suprised that they made burnout a downloadable game.
Did the 6 hours include the cagney, bikes, and trophies updates?
sticklife:
About 3.5 gigs (excluding the patches).
I just let the game download overnight.
And Burnout Paradise is even small, about 2+ GB on the 360 Games On Demand. Downloading is just annoying!
Microsoft branding at its best, Games On Demand.
When asked if Sony plans to get into the Games On Demand business, Sony executives say no. So, it looks like M$ft is innovating again.
Right?
No!
Sony has had full games up for download now for a while: Socom Confrontation, Siren, Warhawk, and Burnout Paradise anyone? If these aren't "Games On Demand," then what is?
Sony's mistake is not branding everything like M$ft because Sony hasn't realized yet that the youth of today, and some older folk, really like their branding. If it has a cool name, it must be cool and innovative and the best thing since sliced bread.
Sony has yet to realize how gullible and lemming like most people are today.
Sony's other mistake, like the EyeToy and PS3Eye (although Sony is sort of addressing the PS3Eye situation now), is that it has not put up enough full PS3 games for download. R, R2, the R&Cs, iNfamous, Killzone 2, and select third-party games should be available.
But without the proper branding Sony doesn't have an equivalent to M$ft's Games On Demand service, just like it has an inferior network compared with Xbox Live… and it always will.
Because, let's be honest, Xbox Live is such a cooler name than Playstation Network; therefore, it must be better than PSN and worth paying $50 to use.
@Orvisman
You're right. With Microsoft it's all about presentation and not substance. All talk, no trousers.
This year's E3 was like a retelling of the Emperor's New Clothes with MS talking up Natal as if it were new (obviously it's not) and talking up a game expansion as if it were the greatest exclusive of the year…
I don't honestly think Sony should play the MS game. When Sony responds to MS, Sony looks like a follower. When MS responds to Sony, MS looks like a follower.
MS brings Natal, Sony needs to subtly point to the Eyetoy and PSEye and sixaxis controllers and smile. Microsoft touts 'Games on Demand', Sony needs to subtly talk up PSN games, PSP minis, PSP digital distribution and of course full PS3 games for download. Rather than answering directly Sony needs to simply talk up it's own products in ways that leave people noticing that Microsoft is essentially copying what Sony has already done.
Just like the Emperor's New Clothes, not everyone will recognize a naked, fat man with a crown for what he is. So although many may realize the situation, many will continue to see MS as an innovator no matter what. And when you show them they are incorrect, they will gloss over it by saying something like, "Oh, well, Microsoft's thing is different and better." When you ask how it's better, they'll answer with something like "It just is." because in truth it's no better, but it's glossy, shiny and new…and expensive…and they have to justify their investment of time and effort in supporting it…
Sad isn't it?
Yes I don't understand why people keep saying digital distribution is the future. It's the distant future. Sony is a console that is popular all around the world, and not just in the US.
It just doesn't make me feel like i own anything unless I have something in my hand. Even when I purchase Marvel vs Capcom, I would buy the retail version and then download it, so I have a case and manual.
Just look at who the most vocal supporters of digital distribution are, and who are the most vocal critics of BluRay. They're the same folks, and a lot of them work in or around Redmond….
No book came with MVSC2, that's why I got it.
I agree, i prefer to have a physical media with me vs digital media. Kaz knows what he's talking about and i also believe the US is not ready for a completely digital gaming. I feel uneasy of having all digital games because when by ps3 died i had to redownload all the games i bought online. Its not much but it was still a pain. I couldnt imagine what it would be like do download metal gear solid 4. Plus what where the hell are we going to be keeping these space hogging games.
Most internet providers are putting a limit on monthly downloads in order to fight piracy, yet some in the gaming industry want to create more bandwidth traffic by going with exclusively digital downloads. Something's gonna have to give. I just don't want to be stuck downloading a game for hours when I could pick it up in 20 minutes at my Best Buy.
Kaz just nails it here with this quote,
"Perhaps we can sit down three years from now and have a beer, or two or ten, while we wait to download 40 gigabytes of data for a full ps3 game. "
As he implies, even in three years it will take time to D/L 40GB of anything. Good grief, right now on my Internetet connection it'd take Something like 38 hours to download 40GB.
40GB is 42,949,672,960 bytes or 343,597,383,680 bits. A 3Mbit/second connection loses about 20% of it's speed due to network overheads and transient errors meaning in practice I get about 2.5Mbits/second of effective bandwidth. At that rate the 40GB download will take 136533 seconds which after a quick bit of math translates to a whopping 37.9 hours. That assumes that nothing else uses my bandwidth and that my ISP doesn't cap me. If my wife and son are using the web, doing some gaming and making a phone call or two, that download time will stretch past 40 hours. A full BluRay at 50GB would take literally two days to download.
Even if I had 10 times the bandwidth (30Mbits/second) I have now it'd still take 4 hours to download a full 40GB game. A full BluRay would be around 5 hours at that rate. I'd need a fiber optic Net hookup to achieve that level of performance consistently.
Imagine if I had 20 times the network bandwidth I have now. We're still looking at 2 hours for the game and 2 and a half hours for the movie. Well, at least the movie will download about as fast as it needs to to play as we download. Even then, I'd still be completely saturating my network connection for one download. Imaging if there were 100 people in my neighborhood doing the same thing. start multiplying the bandwidth up to the level of an ISP with a million or more customers, and say 10% of them are simultaneously hammering the network to download a game or movie. Even if we only have 30Mbit connections that's still 3,000,000 Mbits/ second. Or 3 Tera-bits/second. That's for only 100,000 customers simultaneously downloading something. Imagine that scaled up to the full size of the Internet population in the US alone. The numbers are mind boggling.
Oh, PS, where the heck am I keeping all this stuff? a 1TB hard disk can hold 20 50GB BluRay images, or 25 games at the 40GB size Kaz suggested. How many have 1TB drives? How do you back them up? With a smaller disc, you'd have no choice but to remove older content when something new comes along. Imagine though how long you'd wait to re-download a game that you removed due to space constraints…OOps, hard disc failure. Now you lost everything. Prepare to take a week off while you download all your stuff again.
It's just laughable that people push download as a viable option. Most of the world's Internet users don't even have a reliable 3Mbit link, and many have bandwidth caps that limit their monthly use far below 40GB. It's completely insane to suggest that physical media will give way to downloads any time soon.
@ hezzron73 – Brick and Mortar FTW !
Last edited by Alienange on 8/25/2009 9:47:58 PM
When the man is right the man is right, can't argue with a damn thing he said.
lol…Hows your fingers, WorldEndsWithOblivion?
haha, numb my man!
How many hrs you got logged? You finish the Knights of the Nine Quest? The Main Quest?
only 45 so far, and I've barely put a dent in it. I havent done the extra quests yet, I've just been putting around making money and upping my skills. There's never enough damn money lol
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 8/25/2009 12:13:11 AM
Ah yes, the hustle. Know your merchants. Sell weapons to the weapons lady. Sell Armor to the armor guy. And ALWAYS come back to the same ones. U can't do this effectively if u don't have a house so buy that shack in the main town and use it. U'll be rich in no time.
@World
Make sure you max the merchant's disposition and haggle for the best rate. Once you get your mercantile skill to journeyman, sell to whomever has the LEAST mercantile skill.
I've got piles of daedric weapons lying around all my houses, waiting to be sold. You'll get there eventually.
Also, finish the main quest a.s.a.p. It's a pain trying to keep allied NPCs alive if you wait too long (like I did), even with the difficulty cranked down to 1.
Last edited by Fane1024 on 8/25/2009 3:53:49 AM
thanks for the tips guys, yeah i did buy that shack, anyway I think we might be grinding Ben's gears getting off topic. 😀
Kaz knows a thing or two.
It is *very* nice to hear a technically competent senior executive of a company like Sony talking about broadband access in a way that is real. Kaz is utterly on the ball on this one.
I'm so tired of hearing the siren song of broadband from people who think that upscaled DVD is the same as HD and therefore believe that an HD video stream stuffed into a 3MBit link is acceptable. It's just great to know that at least one of the major CE companies understands that the majority of consumers don't have access to true high speed broadband yet, and may not for many years to come.
I remember when I first got my ps3 the upscale software wasn't as good as it is now, and dvd's looked blurry. They have improved it alot since, but there is still a big difference in bluray and upscaled dvd's that is noticeable on my 32'' hdtv. I can imagine how awful it looks on larger tvs. Their argument holds water on handheld tvs though.
The PS3 upscaling has much better sound quality than most regular dvd 1080p upscalers. The video quality are smoother too. Even the youtube quality videos look better.
Always admired the Sony execs. They have a certain personality, charisma, and class about them that reflects Sony's company culture. And a great business culture leads to a great company that can't be stopped. Ask Google.
Nintendo execs are getting lazy and are lil' too gay (gay as in happy/friendly), and seem to be on cruise control. And most of Microsoft's execs are just douches. Hence, Peter Moore left and now runs EA Sports, which has improved tremendously since he arrived.
Sony knows how to pick em, and it shows in their products and their developers. Thats why, to me, Phil Harrison will bring Atari back to greatness. Still wish he was with Sony, but he wanted to do his own thing which I can always respect.
Well said Hirai!
Agree with him fully
Physical media is very important
without physical media its just game masturbation.
lol yeah
We need to feel those discs spinning
I love how these guys are totally unfazed by sales competitions with MS, they act like they don't even know it's going on. 🙂
Its called experience. It makes your think more long-term.
They know that they have got one badass product that will outlast the others. I bet Kaz feels like he's on top of the world after gamescom.
Well maybe I won't trade all my UMDs in then. Although I should somehow …get a PSP3000. Can you trade in the old models of PSP? Hmmm …wonder if I'd get anything for it 😛 Probably just best to hang onto it but it's so damn heavy compared to the 3000. Can't imagine how light the PSPGo is
Yes you can, gamestop takes em lol
Gamestop offered me 40 bones for a PSP2000 two months after it came out which I'm sure they just would've resold it for like $100 at least…I just hung on to it…
Last edited by ThePearlJamer on 8/24/2009 11:50:22 PM
Ha! They offered me $6 for my GBA-SP (back when the SP was still being sold); needless to say I kept it.
I don't know about Kaz and his 12 beer sit down, but I max out at like 5 or 6
Last edited by ThePearlJamer on 8/24/2009 10:50:13 PM
He said ten, but I stop counting after five or six too.
six is pertty high for me too.
You guys are weak. Gaming and beer drinking is my game. 10 beers minimum every time i sit down to drink!
Can someone say liver failure…
Last edited by ThePearlJamer on 8/25/2009 9:06:52 AM
I'd sit down and pound a few and talk games with the Kaz. I'm with PearlJammer though. Six is my limit. I could drink more, but probably shouldn't cause i'd end up on the floor or end up stealing all his stuff and hawkin it.
I bet the Kaz likes Ichiban or Saporo.
Last edited by Jawknee on 8/25/2009 9:20:32 AM
Someone should sit down and get him liquored up…..could you imagine the inside info we'd get from those loose lips?
I can say the words liver damage but don't see the merit in that comment. Drinking ten beers won't do anything. It all depends on your weight, food intake, time of consumption, and many other factors. I drink plenty but I also exercise and hydrate myself properly. I know, going off topic but we gotta dispell the spreading of bad information.
I'd get a slim but already have two perfectly running PS3's. Looking forward to the motion controls and the endless possibilities. Wow. What a year for SCE and it's not going to stop for many, many months. Guess I won't be adding a supercharger to my car so soon.
kinda off topic??
accoring to amazon.com right now in the video game section the PS3 Slim is number 1 in Video Games Top Sellers list.
I'm going to have a shot of Bacardi in celebration. Who will join me!? lol
amazon also has the Slim listed to be available August 25.
I guess I need to have another shot. lol *hic*
no Bacardi, but I can hear that bottle of Jack calling…
I hear a Hennessey bottle coming from over here in Washington State!
I don't care what you bring as long as we get partying baby!
To make it more awesome Batman AA for the PS3 is in fourth. Assorted drinks for everyone. lol
Jim for me, but I'm with you all the way! Ironically as the PS3 and PSP get slimmer we'll all be getting fatter in celebration.