Next Generation Console Interviews

WarrenGekko

WarrenGekko

CAGiversary!
I searched and didn't see this posted.

In the latest EGM, the editors sat down with executives at each company to discuss the next generation of consoles. Pretty interesting interviews. I'll start with Sony's, then I will do Microsofts, then Nintendos
So here goes:
SONY -Kaz Hirai

EGM: Sony announced last July that it would unveil the "next generation Playstation" by the end of March 2005. Is that still the plan
Hirai: As far as I know, yes. I spoke to Ken Kutargi a few weeks ago and that's what he told me

EGM: What will we see at this debut?
H: If I told you, Kutaargi would take me to the parking lot and shoot me. [Laughs]. But, no - joking aside, we've not really taled that much in detail about the debut, both internally and externally. I can promis that it'll be a huge event.

EGM: Sony also said that the new console would be at E3. How will that showing differ from the debut?
H: Once we nail down the details of the premier event, that'll probably determine what we talke about or show at E3.

EGM: When we spoke at the last E3, you mentioned that your next console mut offer a quantum leap in the user's experience. What's your definition of quantum leap?
H: I use that phrase very loosely because to some people, a quantum leap would be graphics, to others it'll be how seamlessly integrated the experience is from the online perspective. So the phrase could mean a lot of different things to different people. At the end of the day, we are going to provide a palette from a technology and platfuorm standpoint so that the content creators can take advatntage of those palettes and create what they believe is a quantum leap.

EGM: Do you think online will play a bigger role with the PS2 successor?
H: Online is going to be an integral part of any console going forward. It's almost going to be like an airbag in a car. It used to be nice to have, now its standard and you almost take it for granted. It's an integral part of driving a car and I think online is going to be that way as well.

EGM: How do you feel about downloadable content?
H: Going forward, because we want to make online even more of a mass-market proposition, we're looking to come out with other devices that uyou can store data from you downloads on that more affordable than the HDD.

EGM: What's the likelihood that your next home system will be backward compatable?
H: As long as adding backward capatability doesn't come at a substantial cost or take away some other functionality. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't ro wou'dn't do that with the next Playstation.

EGM: Most int eh biz feel that Xbox 2 will launch in 2005. Do the moves of the competition affect when you'll release your next console?
H: We've alwasys sstuck by what we beleive is the right game plan for outselves, and more importantly, third party publishers, retailers, and consumers. We don't go changing consoles every three, four, or five years [Actually PS2 launched roughly five years after the original --Ed]. We not concnered with who's coming out first or who's coming out last. And if you look back at history, we were never the first to market. Remember Saturn? Remember Dreamcast? That was supposed to be the next generation online console and we saw what happened there.
------------------------------
 
So I see they still think hardrives are too expensive, obviously they don't know where to shop. Even at the consumer level 80gig 7200rpm drives can be had at $60 , that is only a bit more than a game, and only twice the cost of a mem card. There is nothing more affordable than harddrive technology, flash still costs more per gig and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
 
[quote name='NatakuARN']So I see they still think hardrives are too expensive, obviously they don't know where to shop. Even at the consumer level 80gig 7200rpm drives can be had at $60 , that is only a bit more than a game, and only twice the cost of a mem card. There is nothing more affordable than harddrive technology, flash still costs more per gig and I don't see that changing anytime soon.[/quote]

Yes but with memory cards they can make qutie a little profit. After all for a while you could only buy Sony PS2 memory cards and they were pretty much $20 a pop. Lot more profit there for Sony selling everyone several memory cards rather than one hard drive.
 
Microsoft Shane Kim

EGM: A built in hard drive, a broadband Internet connection, progressive scan – these are all great features that target a relatively small audience. Do you think Xbox was ahead of its time?
SK: I don’t think we’re ahead of our time, but rather we led the transition into this generation and have been a leader in terms of what’s possible from a game standpoint. We have no regrets in terms of investments that we’ve made in any of those areas because thy’re going to be pervasive parts of the gaming and entertainment experience going forward

EGM: Will the next console be as ahead of the curve as Xbox?
SK: Will, I think we always want to see the underlying hardware be are powerful as possible, see that power in the hands of the creators. But no matter what the hardware, it comes down to the creators.

EGM: EA recently release images fo Madden and Need for Speed, saying the visuals of this high quality will be possible on the next gen consoles. How accurate is EA’s assessment?
SK: I haven’t seen the images (I have and they look real – nothing this generations consoles could possibly do). But I heard they were very impressive and are pretty good indicators of what’s possible. But even without seeing them, I would like to believe we’re going to be able to exceed that.

EGM: How would you like to see Xbox Live grow in the next few years?
SK: We’ve got a great foundation, and I think that there is the abilitiy to make it more accessible to a greater audience and that comes in lots of different forms, like usability and the kind of content that’s available. One thing we like to talk about is blurring the lines between single player and multiple player gaming. I think that’s going to be a trend that your going to see.

EGM: One of the major features of Xbox live is downloadable content. Now, let’s say your next system won’t have a hard drive, as some are reporting. Is there technology available, (i.e. flash card) which would allow you to support this feature.
SK: Absolutely. And I think you have to able to make sure you enable those scenarios, especially if you’re committed to downloadable content as we are. The other thing is that you make sure your definition of downloadable content is broad enough because content doesn’t just have to be large downloads that we’re more familiar with today. Things will get smaller and people will be able to buy items in smaller quantities and sizes in the future as well. So that will put less strain on storage requirements.

EGM: Sony and Nintendo have both stated that will unveil their systems in 2005. When will we hear some concrete news about Xbox 2?
SK: I can’t talke about anything with respect to our next gen console

EGM: Well, we had to ask. A lot of industry folk feel that Microsoft is abandoning the Xbox platform after April. Can you tell us what major first party games you have planned for the second half of 2005?
SK: Gosh, I think Xbox has got a great future. Just because we having announced anything beyond Conker, Jade Empire, and Forza doesn’t mean that we are abandoning Xbox.

EGM: So why haven’t there been any new game announcements?
SK: Well, we’re still pretty far out from those titles. You could argue that the holiday isn’t the right time to announce things for the summer or fall.

EGM: Then your telling us that there are more first party titles planned for the Xbox?
SK: I didn’t say that.

EGM: Moving on the Rare, Microsoft spent a lot of money to acquire this develop, but so far, we’ve only seen one game from the studio. What would you say to the gamer who has lost confidence in Rare?
SK: I was at Rare lat week, so I’m very bullish about the studio especially after visiting them. They didn’t lose any of that creativity overnight just because they have become part of Microsoft. Rare fans should be absolutely excited about what’s coming.

EGM: So you just visited Rare, can you tell us how Perfect Dark Zero is looking these days?
SK: I have no idea what you are talking about [laughs]
 
I just read this too, but have a problem in thinking Sony will announce the PS3 in March. March is after all the PSP's launch, so I doubt they would overshadow that by bringing out the PS3. E3 sounds like a much better time to unveil it.
 
Nintendo – Reggie Fils-Aime

EGM: What’s your strategy heading into the next generation of consoles?
RA: Last E3, we talked about Revolution, the code name for our next home console system. And we talked about that we believe what the consumer wants is something innovative, something new and different. We’ve gone on record saying we’ll be sharing much more detail come E3, and that’s our timing. We think sharing it before then, frankly, shows too much to our competition. Which have a legacy of taking smart ideas we develop and bring them to the marketplace rather quickly.

EGM: What kind of innovation are we talking about?
RA: Well, the concept of a home system today is defined as hardware that you tether to a box, and you are tethered to it via a controller; we thin that’s an old paradigm. We think that the consumer wants something much more innovative than that. Coupled with the concept of strong community and immersion into gameplay, we think that’s what we need to deliver on from a consumer standpoint.

EGM: What can we expect from Revolution’s debut at E3? Playable games? Technology announcements?
RA: That we’re going to go there and kick ass. I’m not gonna tell you any more than look at we did as last E3 with DS. We let people see it, touch it, get a strong reaction ot it. Certainly what we are look to do with Revolution.

EGM: What about the role of online with the next system?
RA: What I would say is we are certainly working to deliver a sense of community. Is it going to be executed online? We’re not sure (You better find out soon? Hello?). I’ll be able to certainly say more over the next couple of months as I spend quite a bit of time with Mr. Iwata and Miyamoto. I know Miyamoto has made comments about online specifically, but there a lot of work to be done. And as we, from Nintendo perspective, look a the way technology is moving, we’re certainly providing a point of view as to other ways of deliver a sense of community that better fit where today’s consumer is going.

EGM: Community is typically used as another term for online, but when you use it, community doesn’t mean the Internet necessarily, right?
RA: That’s correct. We will share more at E3. (I wonder where they are going with this?)

EGM: A recent Nintendo patent involved a machine that would allow you to surf the web, watch tv, and play games all at the same time. Does that have to do with Revolution?
RA: We create new technologies and apply for patents all the time. So, I wouldn’t assume any patents that we create are for Revolution. But we’re going to continue to innovate, and we’re going to continue to push the envelope.

EGM: What will it take in the next cycle to catch Sony and become number one?
RA: We need to deliver an innovative experience that the consumer wants. We need to deliver it a the same time as our competition when the transition occurs, meaning that we can’t be late to the market. And, we need to fully enroll the best third party developers to make great games for our system. But we have to do all three well.
 
I'm scared of Nintendo's comments because either they are not dealing with online or they are looking to combine online with other "things".

If they are leaning not to go online. I think that they are making a HUGE mistake. ( Again)
 
Forgive my ignorance, but what are the positions of the various people? (VP of something or other?)

Yeah the MS guy didn't say much of anything. Only interesting bit is the thing about downloadable content of the future may be people "buying items in smaller quantities and sizes" Semi-nonsensicle, but seems to be saying DC will be smaller files. Doesn't really seem to be a great thing to possibly limit the size of DC... I like being able to get entire new levels or in the case of Ninja Gaiden practically an entirely new game.

In the Jan OXM they actually mention MS hasn't even officially confirmed there will be a next Xbox (though it is obvious there is one coming) So I take it they have now officially confirmed?

Sony guy seems to stronly indicate the PS3 will be backwards compatible. That would be sweet. I'll probably pick one up (or maybe get a PS2 for dirt cheap when everyone who buys a PS3 at launch will have no use for the old PS2) to play all the PS2 games I've missed out on in this gen.

Nintendo's comments are very intrigueing IMO. I'm very curious to see how they are doing community without online? Maybe they are planning some sort of memory card hookup system or something using the GBA to share data/etc between systems? Might work for school kids, but would be junk for any grown gamers. Just have to wait and see what he's talking about.

This year's E3 should be very interesting.
 
[quote name='wubb']Forgive my ignorance, but what are the positions of the various people? (VP of something or other?)

This year's E3 should be very interesting.[/quote]


Sony
Kaz Hirai - Sony Computer Entertainment America President
Microsoft
Shane Kim - Microsoft Game Studios General Manager
Nintendo -
Reggie Fils-Aime - Nintendo Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
 
[quote name='wubb']

Yeah the MS guy didn't say much of anything. Only interesting bit is the thing about downloadable content of the future may be people "buying items in smaller quantities and sizes" Semi-nonsensicle, but seems to be saying DC will be smaller files. Doesn't really seem to be a great thing to possibly limit the size of DC... I like being able to get entire new levels or in the case of Ninja Gaiden practically an entirely new game.

[/quote]

I think what he was hinting at was that things like downloadable content don't require massive amounts of space and are still viable without a hard drive as flash card capacities grow. The stuff offered on Xbox Live so far is actually pretty small. Adding a new map to Halo 2 only requires a few hundred kilobytes if it doesn't involve any new art assets like textures or models. One thing you'll notice if you look at the appropriate threads is that few people have managed to fill up their Xbox hard drive with anything other than music and even that takes a good deal of time.

Another factor he could have been referring to was the online sale of downloadable games. This changes a lot of the economics of the business. One of the major expenses is still media production even at the massively lower cost of optical discs compared to mask ROMs. On top of that the coordinated distribution expense of getting all of those units to tens of thousands of retailers. Now that the telcos and cable MSOs are getting serious about pushing broadband in the US up to speeds of tens of megabits per second the viability of online distribution of state of the the art titles becomes more viable. If a publisher doesn't have to play guessing games with their media production but rather just allows customers to buy the bytes and supply their own media this makes for a situation where there is no over or under production. This allows for reduced expense in selling games but also means no game is ever unavailable unless you submit to rape on eBay.

It also opens up things like subscribtion services beyond the MMORPG model. Imagine buying a game like Monkey Ball for an initial $20 and receiving new level every month for an additional dollar per month.
 
[quote name='Eric467']I just read this too, but have a problem in thinking Sony will announce the PS3 in March. March is after all the PSP's launch, so I doubt they would overshadow that by bringing out the PS3. E3 sounds like a much better time to unveil it.[/quote]

They planned on the March unveiling long before the delay of the PSP in the US, so they might do that, but they haven't announced any changes to that plan. If they were to announce link capabilities witht the PSP and PS3, then that could be a piece of info that could sell people on PSP's.
 
[quote name='NatakuARN']So I see they still think hardrives are too expensive, obviously they don't know where to shop. Even at the consumer level 80gig 7200rpm drives can be had at $60 , that is only a bit more than a game, and only twice the cost of a mem card. There is nothing more affordable than harddrive technology, flash still costs more per gig and I don't see that changing anytime soon.[/quote]

As a piece of a game console whose market potential is constantly driven by a need to get the cost of entry down, yes, hard drives are a very expensive item. The price Microsoft is paying for their drives is around $20 and involves some sweetheart deals that cannot be dependably reproduced for future products. $20 may not seem like much but when you goal is to eventually sell the console for $99 that drive is an entire fifth of the retail price leaving aside what the company actually sells it to the retailer for. The cost to produce the console is detailed out to pennies since when your goal is to sell millions fo units the pennies start to add up. Hard capacity has improved over the years but the entry level cost has been constant. That doesn't help console designers much. The added capacity is useless for their purpose when they need to cut cost on the existing capacity.

If there had been a supply of lower capacity drives for a lower price when Microsoft was freezing the Xbox specs they would have used that. An Xbox with a 4 GB drive would have functioned identically for all users except those with a music loading fetish. The only reason they used a larger drive was that that combination of size and capacity represented the cheapest option in the drive industry. Going forward, the price of flash memory at capacities under 10 gigabytes is on the verge of becoming very competitive with hard drive options. Designers have more options with flash in terms of size, power usage, and how much capacity is needed.
 
[quote name='CrashSpyro123'][quote name='Eric467']I just read this too, but have a problem in thinking Sony will announce the PS3 in March. March is after all the PSP's launch, so I doubt they would overshadow that by bringing out the PS3. E3 sounds like a much better time to unveil it.[/quote]

They planned on the March unveiling long before the delay of the PSP in the US, so they might do that, but they haven't announced any changes to that plan. If they were to announce link capabilities witht the PSP and PS3, then that could be a piece of info that could sell people on PSP's.[/quote]

So long as the PS3 has a USB port (or the less likely built-in WIFi) the linking is just a software issue.

Doing both together isn't necessarily a bad thing. One is the actual product release while the other is the future release of a non-competing product. It isn't as though they're announcing PSP2 the same day they're launch PSP. There isn't really anything probable they can say about PS3 that is likely to have a negative impact for the PSP. OTOH, doing the release of one and the announcement of the other in the same period would let Sony project an image of invincibility.
 
[quote name='WarrenGekko'][quote name='wubb']Forgive my ignorance, but what are the positions of the various people? (VP of something or other?)

This year's E3 should be very interesting.[/quote]


Sony
Kaz Hirai - Sony Computer Entertainment America President
Microsoft
Shane Kim - Microsoft Game Studios General Manager
Nintendo -
Reggie Fils-Aime - Nintendo Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing[/quote]

Thanks! So they did get fairly high up people for the interviews.

Good stuff epobirs, your comments on these types of threads are always interesting.

However what he said on DC - "content doesn’t just have to be large downloads that we’re more familiar with today. Things will get smaller and people will be able to buy items in smaller quantities and sizes in the future as well."

Certainly seems to be indicating he perhaps sees downloads on the next gen being smaller compared to downloads of this gen. It is a fairly vague answer. What things will get smaller?
 
[quote name='wubb'][quote name='WarrenGekko'][quote name='wubb']Forgive my ignorance, but what are the positions of the various people? (VP of something or other?)

This year's E3 should be very interesting.[/quote]


Sony
Kaz Hirai - Sony Computer Entertainment America President
Microsoft
Shane Kim - Microsoft Game Studios General Manager
Nintendo -
Reggie Fils-Aime - Nintendo Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing[/quote]

Thanks! So they did get fairly high up people for the interviews.

Good stuff epobirs, your comments on these types of threads are always interesting.

However what he said on DC - "content doesn’t just have to be large downloads that we’re more familiar with today. Things will get smaller and people will be able to buy items in smaller quantities and sizes in the future as well."

Certainly seems to be indicating he perhaps sees downloads on the next gen being smaller compared to downloads of this gen. It is a fairly vague answer. What things will get smaller?[/quote]

It strikes me as odd since downloadable content is still pretty lightweight. It could mean a lot of things. Perhaps post-hoc unlockable items such as costumes. If one is connected online and the state of your save game file can be examined by the server there is potential to do a lot of unlockable after the game is released. So long as the object doesn't alter gameplay they could go on forever with that sort of material.

Beyond that it's an odd statement. If anything I'd expect downloads to get much bigger as faster broadband speed become common and the opportunity for online sales of add-ons keep adding value to a game and keep sales levels up. So long as the ROI is positive there is no limit. Another thing they've to really do well that is common on the PC side is user created content for existing games. Mods have actually become a big business. Offering those to Xbox users for reasonable fees could do a lot toward making XBL a profit center.
 
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