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Sony 'overreached' on PS3 Blu-ray production - Harrison News
PlayStation 3 News by Tom Bramwell
Sony's Phil Harrison has admitted that the company "overreached" with its decision to include a Blu-ray drive in PlayStation 3.
Referring to the shortages of blue diodes that forced Sony to postpone the console's European launch until March, Harrison told Eurogamer's Rob Fahey, "we have overreached in production of the Blu-Ray component - I can't deny that".
"But that's the price you pay for adopting brand new, leading-edge technologies that will be future proof. We will resolve those issues - we are already catching up."
"We will continue to catch up on the production, and as you know, we haven't changed our full-year forecast of six million units [by March 2007], so we're only talking about a ramp-up issue. We're not talking about the fundamental design of the product itself," he added.
"There's no denying that we've had some very public challenges," he had said. "Today, it looks like a very difficult situation - but in the weeks, months and years to come, this will pale into zero."
Speaking as part of an interview being serialised on Sony's semi-official Three Speech blog, Harrison also addressed the issue of HDMI's late inclusion in the lower-end PlayStation 3, the 20GB model.
"The reason for the change was in reaction to a market trend, which is that much more displays are being sold with HDMI, earlier, than had been previously forecast. Not just Sony, but all the other TV manufacturers," he said.
"Although we didn't say it at E3, I think that the unspoken assumption was that we would always merge everything into HDMI eventually. We just made that decision earlier."
Keep checking Three Speech for more of Rob's interview with Harrison.
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does that mean that those who bought the 20gig version upon release would have been faced with an upgrade at some point>
I don't think that's the implication. You buy a console without HDMI, it doesn't grow HDMI overnight, but 20GB models a year later might come with HDMI. It doesn't sound that different to how the slimline PS2 built in the network adapter, or whatever. That said, it would still have been lame to have a version of a console whose big selling point is 1080p, that couldn't do 1080p. Putting HDMI on all of them isn't so much a good move, as an "I should bloody well hope so too" move. |
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rhinoxious
06/11/06 @ 14:58
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The price you pay is waiting 15 months or more to play 'next-gen' games, when compared to someone with a 360.
Plus the PS3 with Blu-ray and a built-in hard disk will find itself in the same tough position as the old xbox when the inevitable price war begins next christmas. Which means I'll have to wait even longer before it comes down to a sensible £200 price, which is as much as I'll spend on a third choice console. Curses. |
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Considering that both Sony and Microsoft are predicting the death of disc based media for their next consoles, how can Phil Harrison say that Blu-ray is "future-proof"?
The decision to include HDMI with all PS3s is a good move though as it gives the machine an image-quality advantage over the analogue-only Xbox 360; somehow I can't see Microsoft releasing a dashboard update to include that like they did with 1080p! LOL I've just heard that the PS3 consumes 380W of electricity compared with the 160 of the Xbox 360. Goodness knows what it needs all that power for. Sony weren't kidding when they said that the PS3 uses twice as much power as the 360... oh sorry... they said that the PS3 is twice as powerful as the 360, didn't they? ;) |
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BLACKSHEEP
06/11/06 @ 15:10
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I feel proud to be English ;)
Shame he doesn't have KK's influence. I've heard Blu-Ray is a power hog!
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most recently on 06/11/06 @ 15:12
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The_Programmer
06/11/06 @ 15:14
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How is Blu-ray "future proof"? What happens if say a 3D multi-terrabyte disc comes along. Bang goes your Blu-ray drive. At least with the Xbox360 add on approach you can just add it, if you want, and nothing lost.
I think the same applies to TV's. I would rather get a good quality HDTV with no digital/analogue tuners in it and buy a set top box to do that job. Then when HDTV or any other broadcast standard comes along all you have to do is change the set top box and not the TV. |
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The_Programmer
06/11/06 @ 15:18
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"I've just heard that the PS3 consumes 380W of electricity compared with the 160 of the Xbox 360"
Holy global warming. Does the PS3 come with a free fire extinguisher? |
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Rob: You really need to ask him whether they (SCEI changing the model) have changed his mind (Phil famously said that releasing two models would confuse buyers when asked about the Xbox 360), of course Phil is in charge of Worldwide Studios and not SCEE but you need to ask 'someone'.
Ask whether SCEE will release the 20GB version of the PS3 in Europe now that it is a perfectly viable option.
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most recently on 06/11/06 @ 21:56
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Cut the 380W bullcrap - this is peak level, for EC and Power Adapter rating purposes. The PS3 actually uses less power than the 360, from the looks of it. At any rate, if you rate the 360 in the same way (peak calculations) you end up with over 600W.
We'll know how much it really uses while playing your game and in idle mode soon, when people start testing the retail units. Wanna make a bet that it'll be lower than the 360? |
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SuperGamerMatt
06/11/06 @ 15:42
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But what if Blu-ray fails? I would of spent alot of money on Blu-Ray films but will then have to buy them all on HD-DVD again.
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"We will continue to catch up on the production, and as you know, we haven't changed our full-year forecast of six million units [by March 2007], so we're only talking about a ramp-up issue. We're not talking about the fundamental design of the product itself,"
Considering the fact that they will only have about 500 K units out the door at launch, this doesn't sound very realistic. |
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"The reason for the change was in reaction to a market trend, which is that much more displays are being sold with HDMI"
But component can carry 1080p! The reason was for DRM which is carried over HDMI ergo the whole architecture is geared around movies, not games ergo it's not needed for games. Phil "One step forward two steps back" Harrison. He should have been a fookin politician!
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most recently on 06/11/06 @ 15:45
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It's future proofed if Blu-Ray "wins" out in the battle of next-gen DVD wars. As a Sony representative, Phil will follow the party line as expected of course.
However, should HD DVD win, or there be no clear winner, the advantage of Blu Ray is of course questionable..... and this has of course been endlessly debated to death, here and on other sites already.... |
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nickthegun
06/11/06 @ 15:48
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"Today, it looks like a very difficult situation - but in the weeks, months and years to come, this will pale into zero."
Looks like someone doesnt know how to spell insignificun...insignificen...in...insignific... Zero... |
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NthSimulachum
06/11/06 @ 15:53
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OMFG the playsationzorz uses teh m0re powerz ROLFMAO!111!!11!!one!
Still...380W for an electrical appliance... Will the next-next-gen systems be able to boil water? |
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I think this phil guy is starting his damage limitation, BR is the cause of most things people dont like about the PS3 like it being the cause of the high price, dev's making multiplatform games for the lowest format so not using the BR benefits and also the reputation sony has for "pioneering" new media formats (minidisk, betamax, UMD etc..).
Personally I honestly think BR aint a selling point for 95% of potential buyers as most of us have been stung by sonys formats over the last decade or 2 and holding out for either the price to drop enough so the BR drive apperas to be included for free or a few million units to sell first to warrant developers to make exclusive games that use the benefits BR gives. Also i was chatting to a few mates who are not really gamers and i asked them why they bought a ps2/xbox, most said it was for the dvd playback and back when the ps2 was released they didnt have a dvd player, now that looks promising for the ps3 but back then remember dvd writers were starting to get common in pc's and all they really wanted from it was to watch porn or buy pirated films (boo :P) and after that all i can say is.. The new format winner (BR/HD-DVD) will be the first to get well priced writers out for the pc which IMO aint gonna be BR but HD-DVD. All this is just my honest opinion and by reading a good few gaming forums lately i aint in the majority :) |
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Why is every "admission" of a f-up really a vehicle for more PRO-PR?
What he should have said is, "We let the gamers down by including blu-ray, causing delays for a technology nobody wants yet, but we felt it vital to trojan horse our brand new format in a popular consumer product like a playstation. This means delays and high prices and possibly piss-poor games due to a bottle necked system but at least you will be able to watch the BEST QUALITY films instead of simply buying a player for whichever format wins in a couple of years" and his follow up quip would be "Don't mention the loading times, just think of the amount of quality FMV we can cram into our future 'games'". |
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chupachups
06/11/06 @ 16:26
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The thing is, there's a difference between introducing a new technology at the appropriate time and introducing it first.
The first CD-based games generation wasn't the PlayStation/Saturn one, it was the Mega CD/Neo Geo/TurboGrafx one, but all of those machines died on their arse. The first PC CD games were similarly underwhelming. Nintendo and Microsoft haven't said they'd NEVER use blu-ray or hd-dvd, they said it wasn't appropriate for this generation, and if you look at the massive costs and delays Sony is suffering from then there's a good chance they're right. Look at it this way: if Sony hadn't used Blu-ray, the PlayStation 3 would have been virtually certain to sleepwalk into the top spot. It would have probably cost the same as the 360, almost the same as the Wii, and it would have been available in massive quantities this Xmas instead of tiny amounts in US and Japan with nothing at all in Europe. But they did use blu-ray, and now everything is thrown into doubt. They might still triumph, but that is far less certain now due to their going with BR.
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most recently on 06/11/06 @ 16:30
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:)
So you buy your new HDTV. You sign up for SkyHD and start watching some 720p broadcasts and enjoy it so much that you cannot go back to standard def stuff. You play some Xbox 360 games in HDTV and enjoy it so much that you cannot go back to your PS2 and enjoy the last great games of the console. You are a sceptic as to whether you want to buy the Wii as it probably wont look any good on your new TV. You're thinking if you should buy the HD-DVD addon for the Xbox 360 as you prefer the quality of the 720p broadcasts over your DVDs. You take the plunge, after all you've already taken the plunge with a HDTV and a HD console, why not buy a HD media player you think. You're also starting to think about whether you need to upgrade your Surround Receiver as it does not support the latest standards and you'll need a couple of extra speakers. Oh and since your living room isn't quite up to the task of handling the 8 speakers that you need for the Dolby TrueHD experience you're thinking about maybe moving to a new place. With the PS3 and Bluray you get both the HD quality movies as well as the HD quality games to go with your Sony Bravia TV. But really, so what if the PS3 is more capable. It's so damn expensive. Never mind that we bought a HDTV just to play the HD games on and that we probably have to buy a HD-DVD player just to watch the HD movies with. Or in my words: Just let it go fanboy, just let it go. |
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Well, only time will tell if BR will become Sony's and the PS3's Achilles' heel.
It certainly has the potential. Thing is, for every one of us who can see through the hype there seems to be at least 100 more who buy into it. Just look at the recent media reporting on the PS3. "it's like having a super computer under your telly" - The Gadget Show "beats the 360" Stuff Magazine As much as we can ridicule these sources they *do* represent that damn mainstream consumer who - at the end of the day - put the Playstations a-top of the pile. |
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"The first CD-based games generation wasn't the PlayStation/Saturn one, it was the Mega CD/Neo Geo/TurboGrafx one, but all of those machines died on their arse. The first PC CD games were similarly underwhelming."
But on the other hand the PS2 was (AFAIK) the first console platform to use DVD media for games, and that worked well. Since the jump from DVD to Blu-ray is more similar to the jump from CD to DVD than the jump from cartridge/floppy to CD then I think it is unfair to judge it on the above basis. |
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chupachups
06/11/06 @ 16:55
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"But on the other hand the PS2 was (AFAIK) the first console platform to use DVD media for games, and that worked well."
If the very first blu-ray players had launched a couple of years ago, then I'd agree that the situation with the PS3 is similar to the PS2, but that isn't the case. Blu-ray is actually launching simultaneously with the PS3, that's why it costs so much, that's why they're having production problems, and that's why it's putting the whole future of the PS3 in jeopardy. The PS2 launched a couple of years after the very first DVD players had appeared. The price of DVD players dropped considerably during those first years, so when the PS2 launched it didn't actually cost that much to include a DVD drive. |
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MasterGrief
06/11/06 @ 16:57
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Well no bad news here, but as usual the Microsoft brigade is trying to spin it to look like there is.
Seriously Xbox 360 is the only console in history that hasn't had a format upgrade and yet somehow through expert FUD and media manipulation Microsoft has somehow managed to convince a large amount of people that this is somehow a benefit to consumers. The only people this benefits are Microsoft themselves. Since when is a company applauded for lack of ambition whereas the company that is prepared to take large risks to advance itself criticized for it ? Then again I'm sure if it was the other way round and the 360 was the one with Blu-Ray and the PS3 with DVD then all these people would be touting it as the best thing ever. |
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