Sony Computer Entertainment America’s (SCEA) Vice President of Product Marketing, Scott Steinberg, has stated his belief that the PlayStation 3 offers the ideal choice for small development studios looking to release their games to an online audience.
Steinberg’s comments come following Microsoft’s keynote at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week – specifically Chris Satchell’s topic on the XNA platform – to which he responded:
"It was interesting in the sense that what they were talking about we’ve sort of been doing for the last couple of years with PSN and giving smaller, start-up, entrepreneurial developers the chance to get in and make their games available on the PSN,” he said, speaking to Gamesindustry.biz
He then pointed to the fact that Sony offers its users a free online service, as opposed to Microsoft, where users must pay for a Gold subscription to take advantage of the full capabilities of Xbox Live.
“We don’t charge for our online service,” said Steinberg. "We make it available for everybody. So, the accessibility of somebody’s content who decides to make a game that is maybe smaller, more affordable for consumers to buy – I think we’re a better choice because the PS3 owner has the ability to go online day one without having to cut a check.”
"I think on a global basis, the PS3 brand is going to be the winner. I think the story is already written in Europe and in Japan. In the US it is sort of a ‘jump ball’ that is remaining, but quite candidly I think if a small, start-up company wanted to have global access to their content, and have global commercial potential for their content, Sony is by far the best platform."
Lastly, Steinberg reiterated the importance of the year ahead, commenting, "The importance of 2008…We’re exactly where we want to be chessboard-wise heading into 2008.”