PS3 has struggled quite a bit during its first year of release. Why do you think the games media has bashed the PS3 so much?
Looking back on year one, we're proud at how far the PS3 has come and are sure that the future will only be brighter. There were some bumps in the road but that's to be expected during the first year of a platform's lifecycle. Regardless, we are very confident in the future of PS3 given our new hardware and pricing, along with the strong line up of upcoming software titles that will place PS3 in a very strong position this holiday and for years to come.
What has Sony done to turn things around?
We recently launched new PS3 hardware and pricing and are already seeing strong sales momentum at retail--PS3 sales have increased by 192% over the past 2 weeks at major retailers in North America . We have more than 160 games coming to the platform including 19 exclusives. We also recently launched a new ad campaign, our biggest marketing effort to date, that conveys the overall benefits of PS3 including Blu-ray and PLAYSTATION Network. Again we feel PS3 is in a very strong position this holiday and for years to come.
How would you compare the first year performance of PS3 to that of PS2?
Within the first year of launch from a retail revenue perspective both platforms are tracking very closely. In fact, PS3 has achieved 86% of the revenue as PS2 in its first year. Of course the landscape has changed considerably since 2000, but we're very confident with PS3's first year and very excited about what's around the corner in 2008! We have great games, an exciting new ad campaign, lower hardware pricing, and, most importantly, we have a very strong 2008 planned.
Sony says developers are going to work on PS3 games first, and then port over to Xbox, but only cites one example: Haze. Are other development studios also actively following this procedure?
The best examples of third party product that show-off the real capabilities of the PS3 are Burnout from EA, Call of Duty 4 from Activision, and finally Unreal Tournament 3, which will be exclusive this holiday season, from Midway, developed by Epic. The power of the Unreal Tournament 3 product, is that Epic licenses it engine, so there will be an additional 20 titles coming in '08 that will benefit from the PS3-led Unreal Tournament code base.
PS3 fans have a lot to look forward to in year two.
Will third party support continue to expand next year? Will other third party exclusives be unveiled in 2008?
Currently we have more than 23 third party publishers creating PS3 titles so we expect more third-party exclusives next year and beyond. We also have a strong line-up of first party exclusives from our own WW studios coming in 2008, titles like Killzone 2, Grand Turismo 5 Prologue and Little Big Planet, so we feel very confident about our software line-up moving forward. And of course, another title that people are really clamoring for and we expect big things from is Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
Is overtaking the competition's hardware sales a big focus right now?
If you look at our history, we've never looked over our shoulder and we've proven our success with previous console generations. An advantage that we have that our competitors don't is that we have hundreds of millions of loyal PlayStation fans, that combined with our strong hardware and software line-up, as well as our new online service, positions us well for long-term success.
Home will make its debut in the PS3's second year.
What's the focus for year two of PS3? How will it differ from the first year?
We of course are focused on expanding our software line-up even further and bringing gameplay that can only be experienced on PS3. Additionally, with the recent advertising campaign, we really want to communicate to consumers that PS3 is an all encompassing high-def computer entertainment system with the built-in Blu-ray Disc functionality and robust online capabilities via PLAYSTATION Network. Services like video-on-demand and the widely anticipated PLAYSTATION Home are just two of the big pushes next year that will help differentiate PS3's online experience.
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Thanks to Kim for taking time out to answer our questions! Stay tuned, as our one year retrospective on PS3 continues all day.
