Sony's Phil Harrison: "I don't think we're arrogant"

Robert Summa(Msg #33):[Quote] "Let's face it. It doesn't matter what Sony says, or for that matter, what the few of us here say. Every single one of us gamers out there will buy a PS3 as soon as each of us can afford one.

That is why Sony is arrogant -- to a point. They know you will buy it, no matter what. And they're right. You will.

It's not about what's said. If it were, millions wouldn't have bought the PS2. Yeah Sony made empty promises, but all of us own one. What matters is games. There will be games, and you will buy the PS3. Whether you want to admit it or not." [Unquote]

I've never bought a Sony system. And I have absolutely no desire to buy the Playstation 3. Even if it WASN'T $600. PSP will NEVER be bought by me.

If you said 'Wii' instead of 'PS3', then you would be correct at least as far it pertains to me.
I'm not in a big rush to buy X-Box 360 either but I'd buy that much quicker than any Sony system.

John Lucas

If i was on their communications team i might quit. Those questions were a softball ready to be hit. Instead of stating again that your number one. Why not use the opportunity to address the issue.

Its not that were arogant, it's that we think we are the best and you will buy our stuff nomatter what we say.

Compare this to the interview you guys did with Bill Gates....It will be shocking if anyone from Sony ever talks to you jerks again!

Clint, we've never interviewed Bill Gates for Joystiq. Ben Zackheim sat in on an Engadget interview with him last year if that's what you're thinking of.

@ The G - Thanks for the good posting.

I like joystiq except when they sony bash, I can't remember honestly the last time they posted something that had a balanced report on Sony... I just can't.

The questions were coming from an arrogant source, maybe you knew by being negative yourself you would affect the tone of the responses allowing you to post even more negative backdrop on Sony, maybe that's your master plan... but maybe you're not the smart?

ah.. another day another sony bashing, shows how pitiful you are... wiistiq... hahha!

I agree with #100. I was slightly disappointed that with the general lack of definitive information regarding the ps3 and games, et al., and that you passed on the opportunity to gather facts for us or straighten out some of their more ambigious statements regarding the ps3 itself.

I assume that most of us read joystiq to find out about games. I could care less about the sony corporate culture. I understand that this type of sensationalist commentary has been bringing you lots of readers over the last few months, but seriously...

Honestly, I understand his tone and sarcasm. It's like you pulled a 'Stuttering John' on him. You blindsidedly approached a corporate exec after his speech at a conference. Asked not one single question pertaining to his speech. Admittedly didn't attend his portion. "Shoved" a self-promotional joystiq t-shirt in his face [whereas the T-shirts were "presented" to execs from the other companies]. Asked questions that /really/ have nothing to do with the playstation brand; "I heard someone else say something bad about you, do you want to respond to competitive negativity?". He answered very professionally the way any 'PR' guy would. You abruptly ended the session after you didn't get the answers you wanted to hear. [I am using the term abrupt, because you chose not to ask any further questions pertaining to anything ps2/ps3/psp related when you had a PRIME opportunity]

If you miss an entire college lecture and you walk in at the end, give your professor your homework and ask him to explain why your other professor said such and such about your university, what type of reaction would you expect from him?

I don't think that he was expecting "nice" questions from you. Hence, he already knew about the Jeff Minter comments and had his 'talking points' at the ready. It sounds like he expected you to ask him to comment on something more substantial than back and forth industry commentary. He did answer your questions which were tougher than "whats your game like", but you didn't ask him anything /other/ than negative questions, and you didn't ask him anything /directly/ related to games.

Keep in mind also that this wasn't an interview; it was the meet and greet/ Q&A following a discussion at a developers conference. Looking back at your true other interviews with Miyamoto, or Bach you didn't simply say, "I heard that the xboxes are exploding", or "The general consensus is that the wii name is horrible". They were much more rounded affairs. Given [in conjunction with engadget] that you have several interviews with every other company and some of their first party devs[Cliff Bleszinski [MS], Peter Moore[MS], Shigeru Miyamoto[N], Steve Ballmer[MS], Perrin Kaplan[N], Shane Kim[MS]] and this to my knowledge the only opportunity you had to speak with Sony, the industry leader [as joystiq itself]. I think you wasted a great opportunity to get some form of new information [about the ps3] out of the corporate mouth. When are you planning to have the equal opportunity interview with someone from Sony?

I like all of the companies, but I think that this 'Sony is evil' mindset is going too far. I've been reading joystiq for a while and this is one point where I have to say that you are showing some slight bias against Sony. You had a rare opportunity to speak to someone that [judging from the number of comments already] apparently alot of people are interested in hearing, and you spent that time ONLY asking questions about a response to corporate arrogance?

Of the interviews I listed above, I don't see any MS or Nintendo interviews that only question their corporate atmosphere. Actually, since this wasn't an interview, I don't see any Sony interviews at all on josytiq [Engadget has one, I believe]. Odd considering that they are the market leader. I would love to see a follow up interview done in the same exact style of the multiple interviews you have with MS and Nintendo execs. Maybe you could actually get us some new info about the ps3. =)

The following are definitions of journalism taken from Dictionary.com (not user editable):
1. The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.
2. Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.
3. The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
4. Newspapers and magazines.
5. An academic course training students in journalism.
6. Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal.
Definition 6 indicates that Joystiq does fall under the field of journalism.

As to whether or not Conrad is being rude or arrogant, remember that this is written text. There are ways to infer emotion from it, but unless the author specifically says “We were rude when asking these questions” (which I am sure they would not do anyway); same with Harrison’s comments. The only comment that has emotion attached to it is the positive questions comment that was “vaguely sarcastic.” I would personally like to hear the tape of the interview. The only real issue I have with the interview is whether or not the end comment should be considered on or off the record. Other than that, I believe he asked the questions that people want to know the answers to.

And that is my two cents (maybe five or six because this ended up being relatively long).

As far as we will "all buy a PS3"... I don't KNOW that I will. I bought my PS2 because it was the only console that had GTA3. I will buy a PS3 when I see a game (or games) that gives me that I JUST HAVE TO PLAY! feeling. Not any sooner. (Given the PS3's price tag, I am likely also to wait til it comes down a little.)

So far, none of the definite EXCLUSIVES have given me that feel yet... Though all this rumble from MS fans that "so and so game is probably coming to the 360" may be just fanboy hopes, I don't know.

We'll all just have to wait and see what happens when it comes out. Guess what will happen now is just that, a guess. I'll fully admit I don't know what will happen in the next gen. If you think you do, you're wrong. You may have a guess, even an educated guess, but you don't KNOW. And these fanboy battles would be a lot more enlightening if more people would just admit that.

“That sounds arrogant, maybe, but it’s the truth.”

Phil Harrison is an arrogant guy. If anyone is curious, I've collected some of his choice quotes here http://videolamer.com/index.php/567

Now Harrison being arrogant doesn't automatically make Sony arrogant, but either way, you probably shouldn't take Phil's opinion seriously. Well, because he's an arrogant PR guy.

Phil didn't get nearly as perturbed with Barbara Walters in his interview on 60 minutes, where the adroit interviewer basically chanted "iPod" to him for fifteen minutes. Joystiq was well within
its right to pursue that line of questioning. The man is, besides the CEO of a major international corporation, a KNIGHT for god's sake. Get some thicker skin.

Sony Stockholders don't want to hear Jeffrey Skilling, they want to hear answers.


Note: In fairness to Sony and abounding rumors, IBM really didn't confirm Cell chip yeilds are to be %10 to %20. The exact wording never seems to get fully quoted:

"Electronic News: What'€™s the defining factor that makes some chips better than others?

Reeves: Defects. It becomes a bigger problem the bigger the chip is. With chips that are one-by-one
and silicon germanium, we can get yields of 95 percent. With a chip like the Cell processor, you’re lucky to get 10 or 20 percent. If you put logic redundancy on it, you can double that. Itâ€'s a
great strategy, and I'€™m not sure anyone other than IBM is doing that with logic. Everybody does it with DRAM. There are always extra bits in there for memory. People have not yet moved to logic block
redundancy, though."

Tom Reeves, VP of semiconductor and technology services at IBM.

http://www.reed-electronics.com/electronicnews/article/CA6350202.html?industryid=21365

1. I love reading Joystiq but I'm a bit dissapointed that you ran the post-interview comment - you should show the guy a bit more respect. Given the chance to meet someone that high up in the industry, you could also have come up with some slightly more meaningful questions.

2. We all know PS3 is on Struggle Street and before the launch you can't expect the execs to come out saying...hey guys, our system is similar power to a 360, the controller is cheap a Wii knock off and we have no killer games on the horizon. You should really consider our competitors because right now we're struggling to even build these expensive bread-bins.

I'm pretty dissapointed with the interview. Thers plenty of other negative questions that could have been asked that are far more important. Such as how does sony feel about the cell/blueray rumors ect. possibly trying to get some kind of info out of them. I'm thuroughly dissapointed with the questions. But more that they dont have any real purpose. Be nagative condenceding all you want but use journalizm and interviews to get an insight on something. Not just start poinless banter. If you want to know about arogance. Ask about how theyre trying to clean it up ect.

a wasted interview :(

I'd like to give a star to Magus for message 112, wich were good I think. :)

to #110;
If the yield should be at those numbers it's not really a crisis; Athlon64 forinstance had below 50% yield I have read somewhere.
I think Cell should be far more advanced compared to it, so I don't think that the yield will be a suprise for IBM/Sony, but it's should be expected to get better rather quick as mass-production start.
Sony will hopefully run tests to make sure that all chips in PS3 have 7 working PPUs, the leftover-chips with less than 7 PPU's might be used in other products, like TV-sets, or DVD-players and similar perhaps.
I doubt it will be trashed. :)

Arrogance is slamming a guy while asking him to plug your blog in a photo and calling it professional journalism.

69. Daniel M:
"If someone's PR statments are the deciding factor on whether or not you buy a console,

you probably shouldn't be gaming."

And I very much agree. If you don't buy a console just because the company who is making it didn't do a good job in advertising it, well, I feel sorry for you. The same goes vice-versa.

Stop reading these biased news and interviews, and start reading about what games are going to come out for those consoles, and based on those games, pick your favorite one.

Sony execs say stupid things and are always arrogant.....with such negative speculation on PS3, the $500-$600 price tag, not much REAL gameplay footage and the recent news on a very low CELL chip yield.....it seems Sony's PS3 is going to fail, which is the only thing keeping Sony in business. I really hope Sony goes out because they are a very arrogant bunch of lying @holes.

How pathetic is a site where readers point out your flaws and they get negative stars while those that agree with you get plenty of stars.

How about I interview you Conrad:

Me: What would you say to the suggestion that Joystiq is incredibly bias against Sony?

You: Negative star for you mister

Me: Doesn't it bother you that half your readers think your post are crap due to your bias insults and unprofessional commentary.

You: I have my opinion and this is a blog site. People will come here and read just because we're joystiq, no matter how unprofessional we are.

Me: JoyStiq are arrogant.

Unbelievable!

A Sony-bashing thread that doesn't have the words "Massive Damage" anywhere? Whatever.

Seriously, though, Harrison is an asshat, and this interview just proves it.

While I thought the questions were slanted (As they should be), they were the perfect opportunity for Harrison to attempt to try and change some minds. Instead, he parroted the same marketing garbage we've already heard (and don't buy). And then flatly dismisses claims with his own opinions. GIMME A BREAK!

Phil Harrison, you absolutely and utterly PHAIL at your job. You could have changed some minds, but all you did was confirm everyone's suspicions that your companies attitude isn't inline with what people want.

There was nothing wrong with Conrad's questions, nor were they lacking. I think we have all the information we need.

Bye-bye, Sony.

I'm honestly pretty tired of Jeff Minter's nastiness. Whatever the state of Sony's behavior, Minter is essentially a clone factory; he doesn't have a single genuinely novel game to his name, despite going back as far as the Sinclair, and yet all he does is to rant about his novelty. Now he's bragging that his built-in XBox screensaver-to-music (shades of WinAmp) is somehow him inventing a new genre, and oh, by the way, the company that's cornered the market for more than a decade is arrogant in saying that its new price model is justified, even though its seven year old console is outselling Microsoft's new box in every territory.

News flash: Jeff Minter is Nobody. Film at Never. I blogged about how tired of him I am the other day, and seeing this come across the wire just makes me resolute: Jeff Minter's ugly tone is contagious, and all the wrong people are wasting what could be productive interviews on hollow questions which are essentially just accusations. The reporter could have asked what about the PS3 justifies its price; instead he asked what it felt like to be called arrogant.

If anyone's earned it in this market, it's Sony.

http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/146

ummmm

along with the "microsoft copies sony" quote, there could have been other quotes such as
"sony copies microsoft too"
"good companies learn from each other"
and other such possibilities.
so it could still be misleadingly out of context.
there are millions of possibilities and you can only think of 1 or 2 of them

ummmm

along with the "microsoft copies sony" quote, there could have been other quotes such as
"sony copies microsoft too"
"good companies learn from each other"
and other such possibilities.
so it could still be misleadingly out of context.
there are millions of possibilities and you can only think of 1 or 2 of them

Who wouldn't take those kind of questions, from an unexpected interview, as an attack? An interviewer with actual people skills would listen to the spiel, schmooz a little, and then ask that kind of question. You're lucky he didn't call security.

What is all this nonsense about “Bias” towards a corporation? What are you the company’s mother. Corporations are your servant’s there to be beaten and whipped when they don’t serve you. You don’t see Microsoft whining about Japanese Bias towards the Xbox 360. All you hear is I am sorry, it’s all our fault, we will try to do better in the future. And that is the way corporations should respond to customers, anything else is a recipe for failure.

@ striderhayasa

"We look behind and they're right there - we just can't shake these guys. I wish that they would come up with some strategies of their own, but they seem to be going down the path of everything we do. If you look at their strategy in other business areas as well, they tend to do that," he said.

It is because Sony is trying other business ventures and tactics such as the DNLA (Digital Living Network Alliance) and microsoft joined on there as well. NOt to mention the 360's launch seemed alot like the PS2 launch for some reason. PSM was pointing out a fact the they have seem both Ms and Sony's name pop up in the same places and asked why. In the "context" of business strategies he could be right in both seeing small similarities to what Sony did in the past and to seeing them as partners in alot of the business projects that are starting up all over the place.


"From Software producer Masanori Takeuchi, who's been working on Enchant Arm, a role-playing game slated to be an Xbox 360 launch title, said developers will also be running into issues of storage space in the next generation. While the Xbox 360 is a next-generation console, Microsoft decided to equip it with a normal DVD reader rather than give it HD-DVD or Blu-ray reading capabilities.

"The volume of data in Enchant Arms won't fit into a single DVD. It's an RPG, so we're thinking it would be inevitable that we release it on two discs," says Takeuchi. "But to be honest, that's even looking grim."

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/30/news_6132218.html

These system will last for five years Sony wants thier ps3 to have an active life of 9 years or more. To think that games are always going to fit on a single dvd just because they can do it now, is quite short sighted.As far as that comment goes I can also see what point they were trying to get at. Instead of adding on a hd dvd player for just movies, Sony has built in thier blu ray drive just in case devs need to use the bigger space. I hope in all this anti-sony/PS3 wave of news people haven't forgotten that the PS3 can pla regular dvds as well.

@ Brad Lee

The only fault I found in Joystiq's interview is that they only asked the "hard" , and obviously unasked, questions about Sony's arrogance and position on things. What about the other points Sony has been dodging? Like more inside information about the PS3..... no? I understand your Job was done after you confirmed how arrogant sony is being when one of thier top men is trying to defend the company. I understand as well..... I fully expected him to say that Sony was an arrogant pile of shit..... I mean nintendo reps would do it to right? That is why Sony will always suck.


Joysitq has journalist on thier site period. I wish people would shut up about that. Whether or not they did a good job on a particular article is what is really in question. In my eyes Joystiq dropped the ball becaused they failed to ask additional questions.


Alot of people are going to buy the PS3 just because they had the PS2. I am sorry to hurt your fragile sense of selfe importance but outside.... in the real world..... almost everyone I have known and even quite a few strangers I have met are planning on getting a PS3 even though it is so expensive. I hear kids eager and giddy about it in the game stores. I can tell who lives thier life on a forum or board when one hunched over guy in the corner of the store groans every time the PS3 is mentioned. The point of the mater is that "alot" of people purchased a PS2 for thier own reasons and whatever faults you have with the system is obviously not universally shared. Cry about your multii-player that the PS2 didn't have.. no one died from its lack of and Sony seems to make amends for that with the PS3. I understand how important multiplayer is to you but chances are "most" people spend the majority of thier time playing games by themselves and multiplayer takes second place to that. I ame really enjoying my PS2 right now, My random purchase of the week was radiata stories and it is fantastic. If the PS3 follows the PS2's trend.... count me in.

Sony is getting a lot of bad press..... on the internet. A story will be posted on one site and it will be picked up by many other blogging sites and spun untill it hits the front of the digg page in the form of 4 different articles. Yeah, there aren't alot of extremely positive stuff going on at sony but it is seemingly amplified by the people who love to hear about sony's trouble and hearlding the death of the PS3 all over.But outside of the internet you do not hear how Sony is in such dire situations... maybe.... just maybe.... all the negative attention that Sony is getting on the internet actually wont hurt thier chance of success in the market.

I think Sony have made some terrible comments in recent times. For a company which is has often been considered very strong on the marketing side of things.
They have shown embarrassing amounts of naivety in interviews time and time again.

I am starting to tire of all the cross company banter. I think Nintendo have come over as the most focussed upon the issues that actually represent their product and not the pure hot air the other companies have thrown at us.

That said, the machines and their software exist idependently of these comments and I am willing to hold out at least to the Tokyo Game Show to see what they actually have to offer (especially as Sony and Nintendo have always displayed stronger software from the East). I noticed a lot of first party software on PS3 rushed for presentation at E3. It seems like many developers have had not had time to prepare uniquely tailored software for the machine.. I think the true strengths of each machine will become clearer next year when the companies are battling eachother with genuine software and proven specifications upon an even playing field. I am not going to judge any machine on it's launch either. The PS2 really suffered with it's early line up.

I am trying not to be too sidetracked by interviews like this. I think Joystiq asked fair if mildly unbalanced questions ( Although I am sure it is difficult to conduct and even interview in such an environment) but proving marketing executives or corporations are arrogant is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel.

@ Staticneuron

Are you seriously using PSM as a source? Really? PSM? Okay man, but thats like me saying 360 is awesome because an issue of Official XBox Mag told me so.

And of course Microsoft copies Sony, just like they copy every other company, just like every other company copies every other company on top of that. If a company sees a good idea, they take it whenever they can and try to use it in their own way to profit it from it. The best example of that is Apple. Do you really think the 'Ipod' was originally their idea? Because it wasn't. Creative Labs was the first to make a portable MP3 player. But, the player wasn't recieved very well by consumers. Apple saw their product and made their own. They enhanced Creative Lab's original idea and made a riduculous amount of money doing so. Saying that MS copies Sony is just plain retarded. Because any company will steal any other company's idea if they can get away with it.

"The only fault I found in Joystiq's interview is that they only asked the "hard" , and obviously unasked, questions about Sony's arrogance and position on things."

So wait, Joystiq should only ask questions that have been asked by other interviewers already? I don't really see your point on that one. Or are you saying Joystiq should fill their interviews with fluff before they ask the 'hard' questions? Because that is just retarded. It is the job of websites like Joystiq to ask the hard questions. It is the job of magazines like PSM to ask the easy questions. So if you prefer the easy questions, stick with your PSM.

"I understand your Job was done after you confirmed how arrogant sony is being when one of thier top men is trying to defend the company. I understand as well..... I fully expected him to say that Sony was an arrogant pile of shit..... I mean nintendo reps would do it to right? That is why Sony will always suck."

What in the hell are you talking about? This entire paragraph makes absolutely no sense to me. And what does 'your job' reference to? Me? I'm not the one that did the interview, Conrad was.

"Alot of people are going to buy the PS3 just because they had the PS2."

That's a flawed argument. If that were true then GameCube would have an ENORMOUS following right now, because if everyone who bought an SNES bought a N64, and then everyone who bought a N64 bought a GC, Nintendo wouldn't have to be reinventing itself with the Wii. My point is, the PS3 is launching for literally twice as much money as the PS2. In all liklihood, those people that bought PS2s would be willing to buy the PS3 for the same price they bought their PS2 and probably not much more than that. I doubt if someone bought a PS2 at $150, they will run right out to the store on launch day to pick up the PS3 at $600. Most PS2 owners actually bought the system when the price went down. The PS3 price will have to go through many, many price drops before it reaches the mainstream appeal that PS2 had. And it doesn't matter if kids want it, it only matters if their parents are willing to cough up the dough to buy them one.

"Cry about your multii-player that the PS2 didn't have.. no one died from its lack of and Sony seems to make amends for that with the PS3."

I never said that other PS2 owners were pissed at the lack of good multiplayer, I just said that I was. I never bought a PS2 for that reason, and just because the PS3 will support 4 controllers out of the box does not convince me it will be a good multiplayer machine. Besides, my entire point was that some Sony fanboys are so blind that they think the PS2 is perfect, which obviously it is not, as I proved that in my other post about the lack of good multiplayer.

Next time try rereading your comments before posting, because I had a hard time understanding anything you were trying to say.

@ Brad Lee

"We look behind and they're right there - we just can't shake these guys. I wish that they would come up with some strategies of their own, but they seem to be going down the path of everything we do. If you look at their strategy in other business areas as well, they tend to do that," he said."

Thiscomment which you see repeated on the internet is from the PSM magazine. I was just refering to the original context of which people derived this particular negative comment from. And No I do not read PSM.

As far as this.."The only fault I found in Joystiq's interview is that they only asked the "hard" , and obviously unasked, questions about Sony's arrogance and position on things.""I understand your Job was done after you confirmed how arrogant sony is being when one of thier top men is trying to defend the company. I understand as well..... I fully expected him to say that Sony was an arrogant pile of shit..... I mean nintendo reps would do it to right? That is why Sony will always suck."

Geeze, I always thought my smirk was digitally transferred over the internet. I am sorry you couldn't see the sarcasm of the remark. My mistake.
The point I was getting at is that you cannot expect much of an answer from a guy who is paid to be the mouthpiece for his company. The question put forth to him was about sony's arrogance. Logically speaking, what can you imagine his answer might be?
Instead of taking a shot in the dark on the offchance that, a.) he would have said something that changed everyones mind in an instant or b.) admit that Sony "is" arrogant, It would have made better sense to use your chance to dig up information on the PS3 and or titles expected to come out for it. Instead we got food for the trolls. Anyone who seriously thought that question needed to be asked is dumb... and I apologize if I offend anyone but thats like going up to Bill Gates and asking him about microsoft trying to be a monopoly or about his insideous plans to take over the world. It would be fun to ask him those questions but I can hazzard a guess at the tonality of his responses.

Do you really think that Joystiq asked hard questions?

"That's a flawed argument. If that were true then GameCube would have an ENORMOUS following right now, because if everyone who bought an SNES bought a N64, and then everyone who bought a N64 bought a GC,"

Yeah, people probably would have if that pesky little device called the playstation didn't beat them to the market. 100 million psx's were shipped nearly 2 years before the N64 japanese release.

Comprehension is a bitch isn't it

"And of course Microsoft copies Sony, just like they copy every other company, just like every other company copies every other company on top of that. If a company sees a good idea, they take it whenever they can and try to use it in their own way to profit it from it. The best example of that is Apple. Do you really think the 'Ipod' was originally their idea? Because it wasn't. Creative Labs was the first to make a portable MP3 player. But, the player wasn't recieved very well by consumers. Apple saw their product and made their own. They enhanced Creative Lab's original idea and made a riduculous amount of money doing so. Saying that MS copies Sony is just plain retarded. Because any company will steal any other company's idea if they can get away with it."

Oh wow, I don't belive I missed that... Go back and actually read what I typed up there. I wasn't talking about products and niether was Sony, he was talking about business stratagies and ventures. Joint efforts in which you can see both microsoft's and Sony's name on them. What Sony is saying is that when they try a strategy, whether it is a coalition or joint venture, or a business tactics they see that Microsoft is right ther with them. I really see this as the Strength of microsoft because they really kknow how to make some smart choices regaurding business. That makes me ok with what Sony is doing or planning because microsoft normally doesn't like jumping aboard sinking ships. So when I see both MS and Sony's name on the DLNA, I know that something needs to be checked out there.

If Phil Harrison, Kaz Hirai and Ken Kataragi all stated the PS3 was powered entirely by jam in their next interview, it would not change my position when it comes to whether I will or will not buy the machine.

It is frustrating not to see them revealing genuine information. I think anyone who is dubious about the wisdom of the pricing scheme or the lack of rumble support has every right to be.
Maybe they are not excited by the potential of the machines software or convinced by the leap of power Sony promised. Possibly the most important decisions with regards to purchasing any new hardware.

I have tended to look to comments stated outside from the company line by external developers and publishers to try and obtain information regarding the machines.

I think Sony need to learn to keep quiet when nothing is happening. They have stated some details about their machine and E3 about their product. They clearly do not intend to reveal any further solid details until a later date.

I am sure any external arrogance, does not affect their ability to work with developers or generate future strategies.

Like Jeff Minter seeing a new Wipeout or other high impact title will have a lot more influence on how I plan my gaming schedule for the next half decade.

and no... I am not excited yet.

If you have been keeping up with all the information the pricing scheme should make sense and also ring true that Sony Made the choice the thought was correct and now have to live with it. The rumble not being there also shouldn't be a surprise.

The Strength of the PS3, at least number wise, seems like a considerable jump in power from the PS2. And the statements of "being hard to program for" are echo's of ghosts because these same type of statements were around when the PS2 dropped.

Anyone who judges the PS3 before it is released is jumping the gun. It doesn't matter whether you like or hate sony, or whether the devs say they can create cold fusion before the can complete a game, the fact is that this is a repeat of events that have happened before and only the outcome can be determined after the system is out on the market.

Harrison is a fucktard, pure and simple. Cocky, arrogant, and completely conceited - met him once when Sony were just making tentative steps into the industry, and took an immediate dislike to his slimy bullshit better-than-you attitude. Any piece that puts the boot into him is OK in my book.

@ Staticneuron

"Geeze, I always thought my smirk was digitally transferred over the internet. I am sorry you couldn't see the sarcasm of the remark."

I had a difficult enough time trying to figure out what you were talking about let alone decipher attempts at sarcasm.

"Comprehension is a bitch isn't it"

Only when I attempt to read your posts ;)

"Anyone who seriously thought that question needed to be asked is dumb... and I apologize if I offend anyone but thats like going up to Bill Gates and asking him about microsoft trying to be a monopoly or about his insideous plans to take over the world."

I never said the question needed to be asked, I just said it was a hard question that could potentially yield interesting results (which I think it did). The reason being is that the question puts the interviewee in a tough spot, and he has to ask himself "how to I respond without sounding like an ass." He obviously failed too, since he pretty much responded with "We are the best and always will be." What is your definition of a hard, or even a good question to ask to a guy like Phil? And as for Bill Gates, last time I checked he was planning on retiring so he could spend all his time working on his charity program. Thats a bit of a far cry from world domination. Just saying.

"It would have made better sense to use your chance to dig up information on the PS3 and or titles expected to come out for it."

Do you really think this would have gotten any better or more interesting information? New information on games and systems is rarely revealed in interviews like these (just look at interviews with Nintendo "We can't talk about that now, but we will soon!"). If asked a similar question, Phil no doubt would have replied by reiterating some crap about how awesome the new dual shake controller is while playing Warhawk, or how PS3 is gonna launch with Ridge Racer! How would that be anymore interesting?

"Oh wow, I don't belive I missed that... Go back and actually read what I typed up there. I wasn't talking about products and niether was Sony, he was talking about business stratagies and ventures."

I know what you were talking about, I was just using the Ipod thing as an example of how companies steal from other companies whenever they can to make money, be it product ideas, marketing, whatever. The example with the Ipod is just what happened to pop in my mind first. Companies always look at the competition and copy whatever is working for them, that was my point.

And the thing about using PSM as a source was meant as a joke. I guess my jokes are just as difficult to 'comprehend' as your sarcasm :p

I think Mr Harrison was probably a bit annoyed that he had an interview that was very biased. It is fine to ask tough questions, but your interview was not balanced, and failed to offset the tough questions with some easy ones. All in all I would say your interview style is extremely unprofessional, and he has every right to feel disappointed. Maybe you should develop your interview technique so you do not burn your bridges. It would probably be a good idea.

Prett much to be expected from Joystiq, no?

As people are so keen to point out, this is a blog, not a news portal, news site or anything approaching actual journalism.

I've never taken Joystiq or any of its clones seriously enough to really care about their oh so obvious bias. It's pretty much the nature of the beast, to treat gaming like Politics when at the end of the day it shouldn't be like politics, it should be about the games. Something so many people are losing sight of in this internet age. It's very rarely about game x or y, just about what company a writer/poster prefers for no real reason. Oh I'm sure they'll be able to list a whole lot of reasons, but none of them will stick because brand loyalty means limiting yourself. But that's another discussion entirely.

Joystiq squandered a great opportunity but also revealed itself for what it is. Hardline questions should never be shyed away from, in fact they should be commended. But there is a difference between hardline questions and giving a guy a hard time because you can.

If it was really supposed to be an interview, then, you know, interview the man. No need to be a jerk because you don't like a product or company.

If I remember correctly, there was a court case stating that bloggers are basically journalists and are protected by the same ammendments, so how can you say that it's not news ?

Also, Conrad, I think that you did the interview in bad faith. Basically everything you did was wrong and didn't follow the standards and unwritten rules of good journalism.
But then off the record, you are a fucking slezebag who doesn't know the meaning of 'off the record'. You're a pathatic piece of filth that lives in the scum that oozes from the mires of hell. You're dummer than dumb. I hate to call you retarded because that will give all the poor retarded people a bad name and they don't deserve what happened to them. I feel the opposite in fact for you. If it was a contest to decide who is worse, Bill Gates or you, I would select Bill, at least he gives some of his money to charity , you on the other hand gives crap and disrespect to others. That is what you are. You're biased like no other (exception given to Kotaku), and not even your mother would like you for what you did. I suggest that you make a public apology to both Phil and the readers of this blog and give back the respect that Joystiq and its readers should have, and start practising good journalism.
Did I say that this is off the record ?????!!?!

"OMFG you insulted sony, show sum reSpect or DIE!!!1111"

Yawn.

Most journalism fails to be objective. You only have to aknowledge the fact that most newspapers have their own political alleigances which massively affect the way stories are presented.

I am still at a loss to understand what constructive benefit this interview had. If it is a personal character attack on Phil Harrison then you have more than succeeded in your goal. But as far as BBC style objectiveness is concerned I think you wore your bias too openly upon your sleeve.

Could your interviewer not think of any questions that might have related to the hardware or the companies future plans.

I am no fan of Harrison or his marketing style. I really have felt this for a very long time. But he is armed with a lot of information about the console. As a fan of gaming I really am disapointed to read yet another pointless interview.

Games consoles are not football teams or political parties we don't have to support them as if they were.

Even if phil harrison pokes kittens in the eyes then that is his own business. In fact I am almost certain he does do this.

It's like dealling with a politician.

Speaking of which, I think this may top the "President gets much needed Brain Training for his 60th birthday" in the ammount of posts.

@ Brad Lee

:) Didn't see that you responded.

"I just said it was a hard question that could potentially yield interesting results (which I think it did)"

I was trying to bring up in my earlier two posts that what he said was predictable. The questions weren't hard. He was going to defend his company, whether he did so badly or made a valid point is not the issue.
Knowing this why bother ask. There was a greater chance of him having the ability that day to throw a bone out about the PS3 or any game development. If you haven't noticed people have to peck at sony to get scraps of information.

How do you know that bill gates didn't mean charity..... for himself? I was just using a well known figure head to show how a owner/mouthpiece for a company would react when asked something negative about his company. If it was about thier product it would be different, some companies will admit when thier products go bad. But chances are people will defend thier company even if its in the wrong. Most people leave or retire from companies before they start spouting personal opinions or dishing thier trash out.

"I was just using the Ipod thing as an example of how companies steal from other companies whenever they can to make money, be it product ideas, marketing, whatever"

And somehwat of point, people are knocking Sony for appearing to emulates XBLA service and yet if you take a look at what Sony is doing you find that MS is behind them on most of thier ventures. Its not about What each company is doing, it is about the spin in how its portrayed. If sony adds the motion to thier controller or adds a live like service people cry "bad sony" you steal. Point out something like the home button being on the PSP before the 360 controller or the fact that Nintendo is finally following in the footsteps of MS and Sony by using DVD's and they are defended. Companies take stuff from each other... its good for games and competition. This new era of fanboyism paints a dirty picture on that. If you accuse sony of stealing then turn around and praise the other companies for improving on a pre-existing idea, you are a hypocrite. Plain and simple.

And I apologize about my horrible fragmented sentances, it is because they come out of a horribly fragmented mind.

What a tactless way to interview someone. Maybe he would have gotten better answers if he wasn't so rude to the person he was interviewing. This lack of professionalism is what really makes the video game jouranlists come off as second class.

We often celebrate the number one position as something to strive for. We emphasize winning in an inordinate number of cases. Yet, when people display, or have confidence in, their dominating abilities to be number one, we don't like it and usually end up calling it arrogance. I can understand it's annoying to be constantly reminded of who is on top and controlling the field, but these are facts, they don’t have bias, we do.

To me it seems that, in general, when others recognize their ability and have no fear in showcasing or discussing openly, with unbridled confidence, what they feel they’re capable of, people call it arrogant. What does that really matter in the long run? How many of Sony's purportedly "arrogant" actions or statements have even harmed their consumer? Time and time again Sony has, in fact, created highly successful and unique products, even if the complete vision of the product was never fully conveyed in the end. So who’s to say they have no right in thinking they can do it again?

It’s rare that any company ever "fully" delivers on what they say, it’s a simply case where ambition exceeds reality or ability. We saw it with the PS2, we saw it with Fable, and the first Xbox (Peter Moore, after all, could have a whole book of these dedicated to him along with Kaz), we’re even seeing it slightly with the 360. The people on top always get more slack and scrutiny than everyone else. It happens to America on a global stage and it’s certainly happened to Microsoft more often than not.

I’m not saying Sony hasn’t acted stupidly now and again, but saying stupid things while being the market leader isn’t being arrogant, it’s being *stupid*. In any case, I’d much rather their words be arrogant than their actions, which would really come into play as far as the consumer is concerned. ~s

Yeah, you expect him to be all nice and pleasant when you ask no positive questions?

I dont think the web has one neutral website with regards to the "console wars".

Bookmark deleted.

It is about time we got some journalists with the integrity to ask tough questions. Please, do not forget that Sony is a very large conglomerate company.

You need to ask yourself Why, did Sony go with UMD? Why are they going with Blu-Ray when HD-DVD will probably win? Why have they not learned from their past mistakes? Why did Kaz tell gamers they were "holding" their PSP's wrong when they broke or the buttons got stuck?

To the Sony fanboys I feel for you. A company I was in love with (Nintendo) started sinking some time ago when they chose an inapropriate medium for their games (N64 cartridges). Their lackluster support for the 64 transferred directly to effect the Cube, but they have learned from their mistakes. Re-invented themselves with the DS. And they are now re-inventing themselves (and maybe the industry) with Wii. Will it work? Only time will tell.

But don't get your panties in a bunch. You need to learn to ride this out. For someone, even a Sony Fanyboy, to say that Sony is NOT arrogant is just silly. They have held an almost complete dominance on the videogame market for almost TEN years now. Thats about how long Nintendo held their dominance as well. Nintendo was arrogant at the time and it led to their decline. Sony is arrogant now, and it will hurt them. There is no need to force consumers to purchase a BRay player; which is essentially what they are doing. They are hoping that their "media center" will dominate and give them a leg up in the new HDDVD vs BRay war. Do you think this is about videogames? What is the number ONE selling business today? D V D ' s!!! You think after Beta-max, Mini-Disc, Altrac, and now UMD's that Sony would learn their lesson.

STOP HAWKING YOUR CRAPPY DATA MEDIUMS ON THE PUBLIC SONY!

To my knowledge Sony has not had one succesful data medium that has been mass excepted. You know why?, because they would then have complete control of a medium that would last for probably ten years. They are a large conglomerate business first. They are a videogame company like 3rd, 4th or even worse.

"You need to ask yourself Why, did Sony go with UMD? Why are they going with Blu-Ray when HD-DVD will probably win? Why have they not learned from their past mistakes? Why did Kaz tell gamers they were "holding" their PSP's wrong when they broke or the buttons got stuck?"

Sony went with UMD for thier game system. Why not. It would have worked for the movies if they weren't so succesfull. The UMD wasn't trying to create a new industry standard so why are you trying to bash it?

Sony helped to make Blu-Ray with 15 other huge companies. If you think that HD-DVD has a higher chances of winning take another close look at which companies support which format. Then look at who controls the respective market. It should be obvious what is going to happen.

Sony has tried to create a new medium. The have constantly put forth new ideas out there and put a high emphasis on quality. Is that bad? No. But they should ease up on the prices and the availabilty of thier new tech take out DRM and they would be a stellar company in the medium front.

I know 10 peoples that still have a PSP. I used to own one. The buttons are pretty durable. No one I know of have had trouble with them. Maybe the players were holding them incorrectly because I have not seen or heard much about that.

"There is no need to force consumers to purchase a BRay player; which is essentially what they are doing."

You can look at it that way, or look at it from the point of view of consumer integration. For movies the blu ray add-on would be a slap in the face. For games it is something more pleasant.

I have posted this on Digg:

"From Software producer Masanori Takeuchi, who's been working on Enchant Arm, a role-playing game slated to be an Xbox 360 launch title, said developers will also be running into issues of storage space in the next generation. While the Xbox 360 is a next-generation console, Microsoft decided to equip it with a normal DVD reader rather than give it HD-DVD or Blu-ray reading capabilities.

"The volume of data in Enchant Arms won't fit into a single DVD. It's an RPG, so we're thinking it would be inevitable that we release it on two discs," says Takeuchi. "But to be honest, that's even looking grim."

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/30/news_6132218.html

Already one vocal game dev talking about running out of space on a 9 gig disk. Having Blu Ray built in means that a game dev has the "choice" to make content to fill that disk, because they know that the market penetration of thier intended audience is %100. Making an add on, again from the article, that might attain only around 55% of market penetration means that a game dev is not going to make a game on HD-DVD because he just cut his market in half.

Last but least, the only thing that sony has to do is convince us and "show" us that blu ray is good for games. The rest of the companies on the Blu Ray Disc association has alot of money and clout and the job of proving Blu Ray is good for movies should lie, on the Movie productions.

Seriously speaking at first when the PS2 first came out no company within the first year really utilized all the space on a dvd.3 to for years later almost every single one did. No Game Dev actually clamored for all that space nor saw the potential. But software, art, and the cost of production undergoed some dramatic changes and now you can see and "enjoy" the result. If you think that blu ray isn't good because dev's havent "asked" for it you haven't been paying attention to the game industry.

no one is forcing you to buy anything. Don't like the system with blu ray, buy something else.

This guy sucks at damage control...

"RIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEE RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR" Seriously though PR isnt hurting Sony or the PS3. Its Kaz Harai(SP). honestly anyone that watched X-Play will agree. Sony should hire snipers to take out any exec that talks about the PS3 cause all they say is stupid. From Kaz saying they'll sell 100 million units to calling it a computer, to basically every sentence they utter, they seeth arrogance and stupidity. Honestly when the X-Box was released there were jokes that Bill Gates would buy its way into our living rooms but now it seems sony is the one trying to do that.