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Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

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Sony's Andrew House

"3D is an option. It's not a mandate."

EurogamerYou admit the PS3 got off to a slow start. What was the chief factor in it's resurgence?
Andrew House

I don't think there's a single factor. But if I'm pushed to say the most significant, I'd say it's the entry level hardware price point and the launch of the PS3 Slim.

Beyond that though, a consistent theme for us is we are in essence building more value into a PS3 as time goes on, not just for the new consumers that come in, but also to a degree for existing consumers as well. At a time when people are financially challenged, they're sensitive and receptive to a console that in essence gets better over time.

What do I mean by that? Even something like Blu-ray, which if you compare the value of Blu-ray as a functionality in the machine at launch in 2007 in the midst of a format war, to established standard for Blu-ray, massive library of movies now available from all studios, I could make a good argument that Blu-ray is at more value now to a consumer than it was then.

Similarly with PSN. Now with being able to connect and be part of a community that's tens of millions of people strong globally, and that has a range of network services including Catch up TV, or small examples like Mubi, which we're launching – all of these things I would hope are sending a message.

We've just made 3D functionality available to everyone who has a connected console free of charge. We're layering on some good areas of value that hopefully validates for people. That in turn generates word of mouth for the next set of consumers to say, 'This is a good deal to get into and now is the time.'

EurogamerLet's talk about value. How does the PS3 Move starter pack bundle you announced yesterday compare to Microsoft's confirmed pricing for Kinect and the 360 Kinect bundle in terms of value?
Andrew House

We're in a very strong position with Move. Most notably with the bundle we announced yesterday. The competition is looking for consumers to pay 150 Euros in addition to the console investment, which is significant.

In our case, for the 'I've decided Move is the way to go' new consumer, to have an enhanced harddrive over and above the one that's been previously available, which was the larger harddrive size, the full package of Move including the Starter kit and everything you need in there, for 349 Euros, that's a pretty easy comparison for most consumers to make.

And it comes out in our favour.

Oh and by the way did I mention there's a Blu-ray player in there? What do they say in the infomercials? 'But wait! There's more.'

EurogamerMove comes in different parts, though. Won't people add up the cost of the lot when comparing how much Move costs compared with Kinect?
Andrew House

The Starter Pack is the core SKU for most consumers and that's going to be where they assign the price, is my prediction. We'd have to see that validated by consumers and at retail.

Having said that, it's a little bit more complex because we've got a significant installed base of PlayStation Eye cameras out there. For those people, it's an even easier upgrade scenario to move into Move.

EurogamerIs that a new slogan?
Andrew House

Let's call somebody in marketing.

EurogamerKinect's launch line-up of games is getting a bit of stick from core gamers. Does Move's launch line-up appeal to core gamers?
Andrew House

Clearly, the two names that loom large are Killzone 3 and SOCOM.

But you've hit on a good point we are conscious of within the Move strategy, which effects the content support, but also the communication strategy around the launch.

We are actively balancing a whole range of family friendly social casual – call it what you will – games, that are easy to get into, and showcasing that on the Starter Pack even, which has got a fairly robust content offering for something that is essentially packed in there.

But balancing that with strong well known franchises that are validating Move's enhancements for that core gamer audience. And that's critical. Your audience are the people who are going to be incredibly influential in validating Move for the other audience that is not so knowledgeable and is seeking advice and looking for recommendations.

So, the better job we do in two things: rewarding the loyalty of people who've been with us right from the start so they get a meaningful relevant benefit out of Move for their gaming needs, while at the same time, they'll become the people who are helping to help us drive sales to a new audience – that just makes good sense for us and it's a really important part of the strategy.

Again though, whether it be 3D or Move, the most encouraging thing from my point of view is a lot of this interest in either of those technologies and the adoption has come studio side. It's come creatively from the studio saying, 'Wow, once we got our hands on final tools and realised just how easy this is to implement, all sorts of ideas are sparking.'

A lot of this is coming from the creative people in our organisation saying, 'Gosh, look what this does for my existing franchise.' That's true of 3D and Move. That's the best validation you can have, when the folks creating the games are seeing value there. That's going to translate into great consumer experiences.