Dean Takahashi and Troy Wolverton of San Jose Mercury News did a Q&A with Jack Tretton, the president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America in Foster City. Here is an extended version of what they are running in the newspaper. This is a long interview with many direct, tough questions and exclusive answers. Some of the topics include:
• Tretton's view of how the year have gone for the PS2, PSP and PS3.
• His response to the suggestions that it's been a disastrous year for Sony to go "from no. 1 in the console business to no. 3 in the next generation consoles," and the predictions that the Wii has won this generation.
• His response to the comments that the PS3 is "getting wiped out in Japan, losing share in Europe, and behind in North America [and] worldwide," and being outsold by Wii five-to-one.
• His comments on the on-going format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD, and Sony's history of losing format wars.
• How much he thinks the $400 price and Wii shortage are going to help Sony against Microsoft and Nintendo this season.
• His response to Activision CEO's comments that the Xbox 360 and PS3 ought to go down to $199 by next year to compete with the Wii.
• Sony's sales projection for the PS2, PSP and PS3 for this fiscal year.
• His thoughts on how different events like E3 and GDC have gone for Sony in the past year.
• An update on the Home initiative.
• His thoughts on big PlayStation titles that slipped this year.
• If he thinks Sony has made a better launch decision compared to Microsoft, which did gain from the first-mover advantage.
• His response to the speculations that Sony went to third-party developers and asked them to stick with Sony, and that developers would characterize Sony as being arrogant in the past.
• What Sony is doing to retain developers from moving to the Wii.
• What he thinks will affect market shares from this point on.
• How Sony plans to close the gap between the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.
• If he thinks consoles are taking customers and MMOs away from the PC and taking over the living room.
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
Gary Green said: We have a juxtaposition of 2D and 3D visuals, flashy turn-based combat, quirky anime characters with cheeky dialogue with plenty of partial nudity; Yes, this is a Compile Heart JRPG. Whilst the engine is borrowed from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, Mugen Souls is more of a Disgaea spin-off. It’s not a strategy RPG as such, it merely sits within Disgaea’s ever-expanding universe (Multiverse? Netherverse? Your guess is as good as mine). You won’t find cameos though, since Mugen Souls is a franchise which aims to stand on its own two feet.
PROOF
A: Sure. We expect to sell 33 million pieces of hardware across the three platforms. And that breaks out to 12 million PS 2s, 11 million PS 3s, and 10 million PlayStation Portables, and then we don’t break out software, but our forecast is 250 million units of software across those three platforms.
Q: And are those worldwide numbers, and that’s shipping numbers, is that right?
A: Worldwide numbers, and they’re sales, not shipment numbers.
Q: OK, but sales meaning that’s how many you get into consumers’ hands? Or does that mean you consider it a sale when it goes to a retailer?
A: We consider it a sale when it goes to a consumer.
Q: And that is for March 31?
A: That is correct.
Q: So Jack, that’s not Christmas numbers, that’s year-end numbers.
A: That’s correct. By the end of our fiscal, March 31, ‘08.
that they have a ultra secret game like Final Fantasy 7 or something like that. If this come true than Sony would sell more than 13 mio. units in his fisical Year 2007.
I would say one thing to this Rumor Final Fantasy 7 for Playstation 3: A Hope? No...a CHANCE!!!
So home beta will be Q1 of next year... :(
all those questions sound very gloom and doom just like all other Sony related storys
all the proof you need that the media is always looking for the negative when it comes to the PS3
ok im going to read it
and yea
that guy doing the interview sounds like a 360 polesitter
Jack is a smart man thou and no MS crony can match his kungfu of words