PS3 Fanboy

Games development is expensive. No wonder third party publishers are avoiding exclusives, working on as many multiplatform titles as possible. However, SCEE's Ray Maguire argues that the most innovative creative risks cannot come from third-party ventures. Speaking to GI.biz, he explains that it's the responsibility of first-party studios like Sony Computer Entertainment to make the most innovative (and perhaps, risky) gaming ventures.

"It's really important, because if anybody has a responsibility to take a risk, to take a chance on development - and this is a huge expense - then it has to be us as a first party. There are many people who have said that everything from the original EyeToy all the way through to LittleBigPlanet wouldn't have happened from a third party publisher, because the risk is too difficult, or too much to take when you've got a potential multi-platform strategy in front of you."

Certainly, adapting LBP to multiple platforms would've created a far different experience for Media Molecule. In a gaming era where it's even more important to differentiate your platform from competitors, first-party successes like LBP can really cement a platform's position. "So we take those risks - some of them come off, and some of them don't. We've been reasonably lucky in that most of them have been okay. With SingStar, Buzz!, EyeToy and now with LittleBigPlanet we think that's typical of overall investing in something, taking a risk, but when it comes right? My God, it comes right."

Since we're all good at guessing what will happen in 10 years, we thought it might be interesting to see how Sony feels about the future of the videogame industry, especially with the advent of digital downloads in the next couple of years. SCEE's Ray Maguire predicts that by 2018, over 90% of game sales will take place online.

But it's not really an issue limited to the videogame software industry: "... that's not true with ISPs in the future. This isn't merely a games industry issue. It's an issue for every industry with companies that have a website – and when we look at user generated content, it's a people issue." So what do you guys think? Will we have almost complete destruction of the retail industry in ten years, or will we still have access to both?

Ray Maguire, chief of the UK division of Sony Computer Entertainment, let slip a few details about an upcoming firmware when speaking with MCV. "Achieving one million PS3 sales faster than both PSOne and PlayStation 2 is even more gratifying considering PS3 is a premium product introduced at a premium price," he told MCV. "Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer, firmware update 2.4 and the strongest line-up of games through our third party partners and our own studios. I'd personally like to thank our trade and business partners for helping us on the start of the PS3 journey." [emphasis ours]

Remember when Sony's official site leaked in-game messaging, only to have it mysteriously disappear? There's only two conclusions we can get from this: first, in-game messaging is definitely coming this summer. The other? Maguire is going to disappear as well. We'll miss you.

[Via NeoGAF]

SCEE's managing director Ray Maguire has stayed out of the spotlight compared to his cohorts Kaz Hirai, Peter Dille, Phil Harrison, and probably some other names we don't remember. He sat down for an in-depth interview with Edge, but we're here to shorten it up for you, though we strongly encourage you to read the whole thing. A bulleted list of the main points follows!

• Some babble on backwards compatibility being removed, which we've all heard and the matter's been beaten to death with a blunt cudgel. A new item appears in the rationale for the move -- the Cell chip. Ray says: "... how do we allocate things within the Cell chip? And there is a big cost involved with doing the software emulation. So it's a cost issue, and – as we always do – we want to bring the price of the hardware down."
• The decision to drop the 20GB PS3 from the European launch was a smart move, Maguire said, since they still had the biggest launch ever with just the 60GB. The reasoning? Europe is one of the "most successful territories in the world in terms of people's propensity to [play videogames]" and so early adopters got what is still believed to be the best package -- the 60GB PS3.
• The console library has come under scrutiny ever since launch and Maguire concedes this fact. However, he says, "it's an area that's starting to change." He goes on to say how games are starting to run different on the PS3 in a good way, thanks to the standard hard drive (we'll go into this idea more when we review Bladestorm early next week).

There's plenty more discussion about Remote Play and third-party support in the coming months, but we don't want to spoil everything for you! It's a great read and showcases how the PS3 might try to change things around in 2008 with an ambitious library of titles lined up (some will probably get pushed back to 2009, in which case we'll feign surprise and counter with "well, it's still fiscal 2008" and snub our noses like proud fanboys). Still, if we don't buy the stuff, it won't matter what Sony does.

Ray Maguire sat down with Edge magazine and talked about the upcoming surge of PS3 console sales this holiday season. Maguire treats this surge like fact -- we all expect it to happen. He's so confident the PS3 will sell this holiday that he believes in the UK, sales of the PS3 will double. That means 1 million PS3's will have been moved off the shelf since launch.

In addition to the sales of the console itself, Maguire believes that games will no longer be an issue this holiday season: "we're in the period of crossover now, where people will start to develop on PS3 as the lead [platform] if they're multiformat ... because of the Cell chip and because it's got a hard disc in every device, the way of generating games - if you start with PS3 - is you can create the optimal, ultimate game. And then you can knock out functionality to put it onto other platforms." Ouch! Well, since we have yet to see those claims bleed over into actual games yet, maybe something like Devil May Cry 4 will cause that statement to become fact. Who knows.

With the European 40GB PlayStation 3 finally out in the open, Sony execs just can't stop talking about it. According to Ray Maguire, SCE UK managing director, Sony's newest console is part of "a very carefully thought-out plan."

While acknowledging that other factors like decreasing production costs, industry pressure and a need to increase its install base contributed, Maguire said Sony has been considering this model since the PlayStation 3 launched.

Of course, the main complaint against the PlayStation 3 has always been its price, but Maguire thinks the lower-priced 40GB model will appease the haters. "If the product was too expensive, of course they're going to feel 'anti,' but now I imagine there will be some changing of attitudes," he told MCV. It's true, the 40GB model's price is much closer to the Xbox 360's, only with a lot more features. However, only time will tell if the move will help Sony recapture the lead in the console wars.

If you feel cheated for buying the PS3 upon its release, Sony UK's managing director, Ray Maguire, understands how you feel. He told GI.biz that it's natural to feel slighted, and "the difference between our industry and many other industries is that if you're selling cars or houses the price goes up steadily. Consumer electronics only goes one way and that's downwards."

Maguire denies that Sony is making buying the PS3 confusing with different options, pricing, and bundles. "As products evolve the offerings change because they have to adapt to the needs of the consumers but I don't think it's been particularly confusing in six months to go from stand alone, to a bundled proposition into a low price entry level model ... We also have to remember that consumers don't search around the world for different configurations. We are a global company but we have to act locally as well."