Phil Harrison on frustrations with SCEJ
- Posted February 22nd, 2008 at 04:35 EDT by Mike Harradence
- 21 Comments
Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WW) has gone on record to admit his frustrations with the Japanese branch of the consumer electronics giant, specifically in regards to how slow it conceded the idea of social gaming.
According to Harrison, Japanese executives did not share the belief that families could enjoy gaming together, an idea that had already been embraced by the European arm of the company with releases such as EyeToy and SingStar.
Speaking during a private lunch at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week, Harrison commented: It's a very interesting and frustrating thing for me to experience because I have been banging the drum about social gaming for a long time, with SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz.”
"And our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan – people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other's homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii."
Harrison also expressed his thoughts on Nintendo’s Wii Sports title, stating that it embodies the very idea of a true ‘next-generation’ game, before sharing his admiration for Nintendo’s success in marketing and sales.
"What's interesting with Nintendo adverts – and they are the same the world over – they always show the view from the television back to the sofa, which is very clever. And what do you see? A family or friends all on a sofa," added Harrison.
Comments
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rahstar2003 |
explosive78- 8:11am GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 6
Its good to see him make comments like this, shows that sony is not "arrogant" as there critics claim.
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Xdeth |
Xdeth- 8:57am GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 9
Phil hit the target dead on. I do think Sony should reach out to the family social gaming. I just want to make sure they dont pull a nintendo and totally turn me off with mario the 15th and barney's sing along for games (joking, dont kill me Wii fans).
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 10:50am GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 11
Funny,i thought the japanese branch would be...i don't know....abit more smarter than this.
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selfish
- 12:47pm GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 13
Phil hit the nail on the head. Sure the Wii isn't a direct competitor to the PS3 per se, however creating family fun time on the Big Black Beast is important if you want to expand market share. They pulled it off last gen with the PS2 and this era should be no different. Sony owns tv game shows for heaven's sake, where's the Wheel of Forutne's, the Jeopardy's, etc.? With the PSn you can make those downloadable with puzzle packs and make a killing!
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Dave-The-Rave |
Dave-The-Rave- 12:56pm GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 14
singstar and eyetoy games suck though !! and FYI I am from the UK (Europe) !! Leave Japan alone !! They have the BEST developers !!
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InfernoReaper |
GrimDarkling- 3:16pm GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 15
I'm not into social gaming per se, but I do like playing on LANs. On the rare occasion I get my parents to play one of my consoles, they usually enjoy it.
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Link64 |
Link64- 6:12pm GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 18
change side a quote from HAZE i can fell the pressure he had to endure because of slow development. japanese never change old tradition they still in the PS2 era. that y developer like Valve refuse to make games for sony console. im soon to change side if no good AAA games & HOME this years beside MGS4.
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incredibilistic
- 7:28pm GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 19
While his statements ring true it's a bit strange that he was just bashing Nintendo for not being able to capture a wide enough market, I assume, in comparison to the PS3. My only other problem with his statement is that with comments like this he could very well choose to leave Sony because of their proposed lack of understanding the impact of social gaming, and possibility the impact Home could have, which could be a direct result of how slow the progress on this service is going. I'd hate to loose Phil to Nintendo or MS. He's too valuable. He knows his s*** and he's a very forward and upfront kind of person, and that's exactly what Sony needs to keep. He seems, at times, to be more straight-forward rather than spitting out a bunch of marketing jargon like some of his other comrades at Sony. And lastly, us gamers don't really care about why mommy and daddy are fighting, we just want to play games all day and know that everything on the home front is okay. I don't like that Phil doesn't approve of the Japanese office. Hopefully everyone will get their act together because this the year that Sony could take over. But if they can't get their butts in gear they could also lose this (possibly) once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch up and maybe pass the competition (well the 360 anyway; the Wii is way too far ahead at this point and it'll probably stay that way).
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zbamf
- 7:29pm GMT - February 22nd, 2008
- 20
Social gaming is there as Phil explains with success with EyeToy and Singstar but these are games aimed at the casual audience which PS2 had many casual gamers. SCEJ say families in
I believe Sony
We all must agree that the PS3 is the wrong piece of hardware to buy just for a bunch of friends to play a simple eyetoy game, is that why there is all that power and sophistication in the PS3 to play simple family games?
I admit social gaming can be fun among your friends every so often but that’s for some other hardware to do.
I don't think Sony needs to worry about those games anyway when the PS3 is going to get HOME, has many millions playing together online and LittleBigPlanet. I'd rather have these for social gaming than what the Wii has to offer.
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