Interesting new Phil Harrison Interview

[Lefein]

In the second part of our 'Edge interviews hardware big cheeses' series, we hear what Phil Harrison had to say about Sony's recent performance at E3, and the company's controller issues.

Edge: How do you feel the press conference went?

Phil: The presentation itself went very smoothly. I think we crammed a huge amount of games, live, into a slightly longer presentation than had been anticipated - and apologies for keeping everybody waiting - but we managed to get a lot of live gameplay on stage. And that was really a key objective - to say it's no longer video, it's games in your hands, you can actually play them.

Edge: There was a general feeling that attendees came out of this year's presentation less enthused than they were coming out of last year's.

Phil: Yeah, I agree with that, and I don't quite know why that is. I guess, um, when something is new and exciting and heard for the first time, that elicits a certain reaction emotionally, compared to when you're just confirming something that people already know.

Edge: What sort of feedback have you had since?

Phil: Well, I think that the way I'd describe it is that the pieces of the puzzle are all there - PlayStation 3 is kind of laid out for everybody to see. The hardware was well understood and well defined last year; now it's a network platform and it's HDD in every box, and it's the new controller, and it's the games, and it's the Blu-ray disc player - we're showing the OS and the cross-media bar here at the booth, and you can see the functionality for music and movies and photos and network and all that stuff together. It's beautiful. It's really lovely.

Edge:Talking of looks, what happened to last year's controller design?

Phil: Do you want it back?

Edge: Not especially. Well, we didn't actually get the opportunity to hold it...

Philly McPhilster: I don't think anybody did, and we were very careful, actually, to say that it was a design prototype at that point. I think - hindsight is always with 20:20 vision - but I think in hindsight it might have been better to have shown no controller rather than confuse people. The fact is, we have the industry-standard de facto controller in this shape, and if you combine the ones that have been packed in the box and those sold separately and the same shape sold by third parties, about 400m of these units have been sold, and that's billions of hours of play time. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. By adding the motion sensors to it, as well, we've innovated.

Edge: And have you refined it, by putting more sensitivity in the analogue sticks?

Phil: The dynamic range of movement is higher, and also this movement here [pointing to the centre of a controller's analogue stick] is actually detectable inside the controller, and that refinement actually makes a huge difference. It's quite a subtle message to get across, but when you feel it, you actually realise what it means. Right now, on this PlayStation 2 controller, that movement [makes tiny movements with the analogue stick] is actually the dead centre in the middle, and it doesn't do anything, but on the PlayStation 3 controller you can actually pick that up as motion.

Edge: Here's a question from one of our readers: 'When you speak to Phil Harrison, can you please ask him about his derogatory comments regarding two-tier consoles and motion tracking in controllers, bearing in mind that these features have now been adopted wholesale by his company?'

Big Phil G-Mack: OK, what I said, unambiguously, was that we would never give the consumer cause for confusion, and that we would be very clear about our product offering.
The PlayStation 3 format is exactly the same between the two SKUs. Our competitor has a different format between the two SKUs - one with a hard drive, one without - but all PlayStation 3s have a hard drive. So I was very clear, and I stick by that comment, that we will be unambiguous in the way we present our product to the world, but we are going to allow the consumer to pick the machine that best fits their digital lifestyle. So if you're a gamer who doesn't need HDMI, then buy that machine; if you are a digital media consumer who wants to put their entire music, video and game collection on their hard drive, then buy the 60GB version, and in either case if you want to upgrade it and put a 600GB hard drive in, you can, because it's a standard hard drive.

Edge: What about the motion-sensing issue?

Phil: I've never, in my life, ever been disparaging about that, because I've always thought that's a great innovation. I mean, not that I'm responsible... well, I am responsible for EyeToy, which was all about sensing motion, so I, er, can't recall ever having said that...

Edge: So, what was the thinking, specifically, behind the motion-sensing capacity of the new controller?

Phil: Well, we've had a user-interface R&D group within our headquarters in Japan since 1994, and they've filed a number of patents and made a number of inventions in controllers which are experimented with and played with, but some never come to market because of cost, or some never come to market because we couldn't make them in sufficiently big enough volumes, um, and what we have with the PlayStation 3 controller is the kind of convergence of cost and technology allowing these things to happen for the first time. No surprise that that's not exclusive to us, and we never made any claims about that, but what I think we've done quite cleverly is combine this industry-standard controller with the motion-sensing technology, and what that means for game design and gameplay is really quite interesting because it allows us to get two-channel input. What I mean by that is you've got a primary input, which may be a traditional interface of sticks and buttons, but at the same time we can detect secondary motion from the physical movement of a controller. We've all done this - you sit on the couch playing a game, you want to turn more, you do this [leans]. Well, for the first time we can now detect both motions - the primary input of the stick and the secondary motion of the controller. And that will inform game design in a very interesting way.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can read the full interview, as well as a comprehensive and excellent E3 round-up, in the new issue of Edge, on sale now. Go ahead and subscribe here.

Edge is published by the British arm of the company that produces Next-Gen.Biz.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?op...=3249&Itemid=2

Not exactly the best answers to those questions. It's easy to see that the PS3 SKUs do not affect development whatsoever whereas the 360 does. Instead of saying that they are both the same, he could have simply pointed to this fact which is an improtant one.

I think this also drives a stake through the heart of the rumors regarding the basic PS3 using HDMI. The $600 version is clearly designed to be a mroe all-encompassing media machine and the $500 version is more targeted towards the general gaming market.

[Evil_the_Cat]

I suggest that everyone should search the interview for the word xbox, you won't find it there, and this is my point.

There was a general feeling that attendees came out of this year's presentation less enthused than they were coming out of last year's.

Yeah, I agree with that, and I don't quite know why that is.

That was perhaps the safe answer there, but he has to know that it was the price, the downgrades and the way they were announced that turned some people away. Although I think Sony were right to announce them at such an early stage, perhaps that was even their plan, to let people get over the negatives first and then....TGS.

I do like Sony's ambitions about the controller, this secondary control sounds very ineresting.

[Lord_Alda]

Can you bold the questions please, Nice Finds as always...

[Crazy Phat]

I have already read this interview.

[Lefein]

I edited the interview to be more readable. Hope that helps.

[G_H_G]

I have already read this interview.

Not been posted on here before though.

The dynamic range of movement is higher, and also this movement here [pointing to the centre of a controller's analogue stick] is actually detectable inside the controller, and that refinement actually makes a huge difference. It's quite a subtle message to get across, but when you feel it, you actually realise what it means. Right now, on this PlayStation 2 controller, that movement [makes tiny movements with the analogue stick] is actually the dead centre in the middle, and it doesn't do anything, but on the PlayStation 3 controller you can actually pick that up as motion.

Wow. Thats interesting. Didn't know that before.

[Dasimpse]

Very clever way of making the hard drive look like the centre of attention, when theres no HDMI or wifi. very clever.

I love marketing lol

[Lefein]

There's no wifi or HDMI whatsoever in the competitions system, so why bring it up?

[G_H_G]

Very clever way of making the hard drive look like the centre of attention, when theres no HDMI or wifi. very clever.

I love marketing lol

The point that he's making is that the $500 SKU doesn't affect the games or game devs thoughts while making the game as HDMI or Wi-Fi won't make any difference to the game. The HDD was put in every package so that the devs can basically make games as if they are coding for just a single SKU. They cannot do this with the 360 because there are 2 SKU's, one with the HDD and one without. If they make games with the HDD in mind then people who bought the core package are left without games.

[hisame]

You don't see much sony execs talking and bashing XBox360,
this is why in their talk there is no 360 in there.
It makes me feel they are confident on what they are doing,
so there is no need on bashing andtalk down on their compititor.
On the other hand MS just none stop making comments on PS3 and BD,
which most arn't even truth at all. That makes me think they are scare and worry.

[Organic_Shadow]

So he said we can put a 600gb hard drive in?? I would assume he is speaking of a 600gb internal SATA hard drive, seeing as only SATA comes in capacity that high, but he obviously is speaking of a mystical fantasy hard drive because no internal 2.5" hard drive has a 600gb capacity-- only standard 3.5" hard drives.

So, Phil, give us the link to the 2.5" internal 600gb SATA hard drive to put in our PS3. I would really like to know where I can purchase one. I know, I know, he was probably referring to upgrading via an external hard drive connected with a USB cable, but you shouldn't say IN when it's not going to be INSIDE.

[Trinity]

Very clever way of making the hard drive look like the centre of attention, when theres no HDMI or wifi. very clever.

I love marketing lol

Do you see any HDMI or WiFi?

Very clever huh?

[Lefein]

Remember back in 05 when Microsoft was calling the Premium package the Xbox360 and calling the Core 360 just "Core"?

Remember they were saying that the Hard Drive was standard on the "XBox 360" just because they wanted to argue on the semantics?

Oh, I do, yes I do.

[BlazeDragon132]

In the second part of our 'Edge interviews hardware big cheeses' series, we hear what Phil Harrison had to say about Sony's recent performance at E3, and the company's controller issues.

Edge: How do you feel the press conference went?

Phil: The presentation itself went very smoothly . I think we crammed a huge amount of games, live, into a slightly longer presentation than had been anticipated - and apologies for keeping everybody waiting - but we managed to get a lot of live gameplay on stage. And that was really a key objective - to say it's no longer video, it's games in your hands, you can actually play them.

Edge: There was a general feeling that attendees came out of this year's presentation less enthused than they were coming out of last year's.

Phil: Yeah, I agree with that, and I don't quite know why that is. I guess, um, when something is new and exciting and heard for the first time, that elicits a certain reaction emotionally, compared to when you're just confirming something that people already know.

Edge: What sort of feedback have you had since?

Phil: Well, I think that the way I'd describe it is that the pieces of the puzzle are all there - PlayStation 3 is kind of laid out for everybody to see. The hardware was well understood and well defined last year; now it's a network platform and it's HDD in every box, and it's the new controller, and it's the games, and it's the Blu-ray disc player - we're showing the OS and the cross-media bar here at the booth, and you can see the functionality for music and movies and photos and network and all that stuff together. It's beautiful . It's really lovely.

Edge:Talking of looks, what happened to last year's controller design?

Phil: Do you want it back? (Actually, Yeah)

Edge: Not especially. Well, we didn't actually get the opportunity to hold it...

Philly McPhilster: I don't think anybody did, and we were very careful, actually, to say that it was a design prototype at that point. I think - hindsight is always with 20:20 vision - but I think in hindsight it might have been better to have shown no controller rather than confuse people. The fact is, we have the industry-standard de facto (de facto? ) controller in this shape, and if you combine the ones that have been packed in the box and those sold separately and the same shape sold by third parties, about 400m of these units have been sold, and that's billions of hours of play time. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. By adding the motion sensors to it, as well, we've innovated ( innovated?).

Edge: And have you refined it, by putting more sensitivity in the analogue sticks?

Phil: The dynamic range of movement is higher, and also this movement here [pointing to the centre of a controller's analogue stick] is actually detectable inside the controller, and that refinement actually makes a huge difference. It's quite a subtle message to get across, but when you feel it, you actually realise what it means. Right now, on this PlayStation 2 controller, that movement [makes tiny movements with the analogue stick] is actually the dead centre in the middle, and it doesn't do anything, but on the PlayStation 3 controller you can actually pick that up as motion.

Edge: Here's a question from one of our readers: 'When you speak to Phil Harrison, can you please ask him about his derogatory comments regarding two-tier consoles and motion tracking in controllers, bearing in mind that these features have now been adopted wholesale by his company?'

Big Phil G-Mack: OK, what I said, unambiguously, was that we would never give the consumer cause for confusion, and that we would be very clear about our product offering.
The PlayStation 3 format is exactly the same between the two SKUs. Our competitor has a different format between the two SKUs - one with a hard drive, one without - but all PlayStation 3s have a hard drive. So I was very clear, and I stick by that comment, that we will be unambiguous in the way we present our product to the world, but we are going to allow the consumer to pick the machine that best fits their digital lifestyle. So if you're a gamer who doesn't need HDMI, then buy that machine (that was smart actually ); if you are a digital media consumer who wants to put their entire music, video and game collection on their hard drive, then buy the 60GB version, and in either case if you want to upgrade it and put a 600GB hard drive in, you can, because it's a standard hard drive.

Edge: What about the motion-sensing issue?

Phil: I've never, in my life, ever been disparaging about that, because I've always thought that's a great innovation. I mean, not that I'm responsible... well, I am responsible for EyeToy (,you saw how popular that was) , which was all about sensing motion, so I, er, can't recall ever having said that (you said that Nintendo copied 3D graphics)...

Edge: So, what was the thinking, specifically, behind the motion-sensing capacity of the new controller?

Phil: Well, we've had a user-interface R&D group within our headquarters in Japan since 1994, and they've filed a number of patents and made a number of inventions in controllers which are experimented with and played with, but some never come to market because of cost, or some never come to market because we couldn't make them in sufficiently big enough volumes, um, and what we have with the PlayStation 3 controller is the kind of convergence of cost and technology allowing these things to happen for the first time. No surprise that that's not exclusive to us, and we never made any claims about that, but what I think we've done quite cleverly is combine this industry-standard controller with the motion-sensing technology, and what that means for game design and gameplay is really quite interesting because it allows us to get two-channel input. What I mean by that is you've got a primary input, which may be a traditional interface of sticks and buttons, but at the same time we can detect secondary motion from the physical movement of a controller. We've all done this - you sit on the couch playing a game, you want to turn more, you do this [leans]. Well, for the first time we can now detect both motions - the primary input of the stick and the secondary motion of the controller. And that will inform game design in a very interesting way.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can read the full interview, as well as a comprehensive and excellent E3 round-up, in the new issue of Edge, on sale now. Go ahead and subscribe here.

Edge is published by the British arm of the company that produces Next-Gen.Biz.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?op...=3249&Itemid=2

Not exactly the best answers to those questions. It's easy to see that the PS3 SKUs do not affect development whatsoever whereas the 360 does. Instead of saying that they are both the same, he could have simply pointed to this fact which is an improtant one.

I think this also drives a stake through the heart of the rumors regarding the basic PS3 using HDMI. The $600 version is clearly designed to be a mroe all-encompassing media machine and the $500 version is more targeted towards the general gaming market.

Besides some funny sayings, he actually makes sense.
I agree the core is a gaming machine, and it can also play BD movies. It acts more like a PS2 and the premium is more like a PC.

[G_H_G]

So he said we can put a 600gb hard drive in?? I would assume he is speaking of a 600gb internal SATA hard drive, seeing as only SATA comes in capacity that high, but he obviously is speaking of a mystical fantasy hard drive because no internal 2.5" hard drive has a 600gb capacity-- only standard 3.5" hard drives.

So, Phil, give us the link to the 2.5" internal 600gb SATA hard drive to put in our PS3. I would really like to know where I can purchase one. I know, I know, he was probably referring to upgrading via an external hard drive connected with a USB cable, but you shouldn't say IN when it's not going to be INSIDE.

I think he means in the future when they are available.

[DarkChild]

So he said we can put a 600gb hard drive in?? I would assume he is speaking of a 600gb internal SATA hard drive, seeing as only SATA comes in capacity that high, but he obviously is speaking of a mystical fantasy hard drive because no internal 2.5" hard drive has a 600gb capacity-- only standard 3.5" hard drives.

So, Phil, give us the link to the 2.5" internal 600gb SATA hard drive to put in our PS3. I would really like to know where I can purchase one. I know, I know, he was probably referring to upgrading via an external hard drive connected with a USB cable, but you shouldn't say IN when it's not going to be INSIDE.

i'm pretty sure he was exagerating on that one, really nothing to get worked up about. if it's made in the future it can be used i'm sure.

[Organic_Shadow]

Remember back in 05 when Microsoft was calling the Premium package the Xbox360 and calling the Core 360 just "Core"?

Remember they were saying that the Hard Drive was standard on the "XBox 360" just because they wanted to argue on the semantics?

Oh, I do, yes I do.

Yep. The 360 unveiling on MTV with ole' Bilbo Baggins' they said "Wifi out of the box" and "hard drive out of the box" while the sluttybaggins lady pulled the 360 out of that bag and set it on that stand.

They failed to mention the WHITE box is the box they were referring to. Am I a little frustrated by how Sony has handled their two SKU's? Sure, but I would rather them have a standard common ground that the two systems share that affect games rather than making people feel bad for buying the lesser of the two choices. There are SO many people I know buying the $499 PS3. Do they think that the $599 version is unnecessary? No, they just see it as something that has features they don't need, and aren't required to play games.

Also, as a serious question, can you connect your wireless 360 controller to the console and play while it charges, WITHOUT buying a charge and play kit? All PS3 controllers are wireless bluetooth and come with USB cords to charge them-- even while playing. It would be worth mentioning to people who want a 360, but find things like that a hassle.

[BlazeDragon132]

Most fanboys think that PS3 is only 600 bucks, too bad they don't realize you can get a 360 with BD for 500 bucks aka PS3 core. The premium PS3 is for media junkies, not gamers as Harrison put it.

[G_H_G]

Remember back in 05 when Microsoft was calling the Premium package the Xbox360 and calling the Core 360 just "Core"?

Remember they were saying that the Hard Drive was standard on the "XBox 360" just because they wanted to argue on the semantics?

Oh, I do, yes I do.

Yep. The 360 unveiling on MTV with ole' Bilbo Baggins' they said "Wifi out of the box" and "hard drive out of the box" while the sluttybaggins lady pulled the 360 out of that bag and set it on that stand.

They failed to mention the WHITE box is the box they were referring to. Am I a little frustrated by how Sony has handled their two SKU's? Sure, but I would rather them have a standard common ground that the two systems share that affect games rather than making people feel bad for buying the lesser of the two choices. There are SO many people I know buying the $499 PS3. Do they think that the $599 version is unnecessary? No, they just see it as something that has features they don't need, and aren't required to play games.

Also, as a serious question, can you connect your wireless 360 controller to the console and play while it charges, WITHOUT buying a charge and play kit? All PS3 controllers are wireless bluetooth and come with USB cords to charge them-- even while playing. It would be worth mentioning to people who want a 360, but find things like that a hassle.

No you cannot. Yet another one of those niggling extra expdenditures that has put me off buying the 360 this summer and then waiting for aa PS3 pricedrop. I'm intstead going to do it the otherway round. PS3 at launch and then 360 after pricedrop (or once I graduate and can get it for free because I'm in the industry :snigger ... hopefully).

For the added cost of Wi-Fi, the play and charge kit and Xbox live gold ontop of the 360 premium (without a game), I can afford the 60GB PS3. Microsoft and their hidden costs .

[Carousel]

can you connect your wireless 360 controller to the console and play while it charges, WITHOUT buying a charge and play kit?

Just had to jump on before I go to bed to say:

#1 My buddy bought a 360 of his mate in our work last week

#1.1 This mate didnt play it because his PC kept him entertained ( )

#2 First thing my buddy had to do was shell out an extra £15 on a charge and play kit.

Ofcourse, he could have just kept buying batteries, what a great choice....

So there you go, theres another £15 to slap on the price of a 360, either that or:

Batteries X 5 years?

=

Night guys. God bless.

[Bitbydeath]

2 points stood out for me.

1 -

Edge:Talking of looks, what happened to last year's controller design?

Phil: Do you want it back?

I think he was actually serious about this. This is another example of how Sony look to the consumer/devs for how they design their console, not "this is how it is like it or lump it, but but we got Halo!"

and 2 -

if you want to upgrade it and put a 600GB hard drive in, you can, because it's a standard hard drive.

I think Sony may be cooking up a few accessory extras to be available at or shortley after launch, 600GB HDD being one

I suggest that everyone should search the interview for the word xbox, you won't find it there, and this is my point.

I'd also like to second that, usually Sony only ever talk of MS by mentioning the word "competition" and not bragging about how Sony is so much better than Xbox and Xbox is crap cause it's missing all these added accessories.

Sony are definetly much more professional because they know they will win, they don't need to act like a child to the world unlike.... "the competition"

[BlazeDragon132]

G_H_G, Get rechargable batteries, it is half the cost of a plug and play kit. 360's official Wi-Fi is a rip-off, Amazon has a Linksys gaming wireless for 20 bucks, and it works great for me, plus it works for PS3 core also.
So 400+10+20= 430 bucks and 500+20-20(already have it)=500 bucks. Wii is 200 extra, so I can get all 3 and needed accessories for 1,130.

Anyway, go for what you want. You will be saving the same amount of money either way if you want HDMI.

[Sino]

God, some people just don't pay attention well. Why is the majority of people acting like the 600 dollars model of ps3 is the only choice. People are acting like the cheaper model is crap. what is really carp: no HDD, no Wi-Fi, no HDMI, no wireless controllers and no blu-ray, that is the core Xbox360, and that is crap.

Just get your brains together, it's not that hard. I'm talking to the majority of people outside of this board. It's very clear which model has the best value and which model is crippled.

[BlazeDragon132]

God, some people just don't pay attention well. Why is the majority of people acting like the 600 dollars model of ps3 is the only choice. People are acting like the cheaper model is crap. what is really carp: no HDD, no Wi-Fi, no HDMI, no wireless controllers and no blu-ray, that is the core Xbox360, and that is crap.

Just get your brains together, it's not that hard. I'm talking to the majority of people outside of this board. It's very clear which model has the best value and which model is crippled.

QFT, I agree that the PS3 core is not as crappy as 360 core (no hard drive, HDD, or wireless controller? **** you MS)
PS3 core is sexy, and you are blind not to notice it. It plays games on HD, it plays movies on HD, it has a desktop, you can use the wireless you bought for 360 or the 20 dollar Linksys one, and you can play online free (hopefully).

[Trinity]

God, some people just don't pay attention well. Why is the majority of people acting like the 600 dollars model of ps3 is the only choice. People are acting like the cheaper model is crap. what is really carp: no HDD, no Wi-Fi, no HDMI, no wireless controllers and no blu-ray, that is the core Xbox360, and that is crap.

Just get your brains together, it's not that hard. I'm talking to the majority of people outside of this board. It's very clear which model has the best value and which model is crippled.

Q4MFT!!!

Why do people compare the 360 premium with the PS3 premium? the PS3 premium is 2 levels about the 360 premium leaving it (360) in disgrace. I compare the PS3 core to the 360 premium, leaving the 360 ore where it should be....in the trash can