Kaz Hirai keynoting Tokyo Game Show 2009

by Ben Gilbert on Jul 24th 2009 5:44PM

Riiiiiiiidge Racer! ...

... Phew. Now that we got that out of our system, we can calmly inform you that Sony CEO Kaz Hirai will be delivering a keynote speech at this year's Tokyo Game Show. The title of his address: "New Tactics for 2009." Considering the reveal of the PSP Go and its download-only business model, we're looking at "digital distribution" as a big part of those new tactics. But what about old tactics? You know, slimming and trimming in an effort to reverse the recent sales slide.

Additionally, a panel discussion will help fill out the Sony exec's two-hour time slot, featuring bigwigs from Capcom, Sony, Bandai Namco, and Square Enix. Other TGS speakers have yet to be confirmed.

Source

Tags: business, capcom, digital-distribution, kaz-hirai, keynote, namco-bandai, sony, square-enix, tgs-2009, tokyo-game-show

Reader Comments (36)

YES! If Aug 18 doesn't bring the goods, then Sept will. "The new PS3 slim will retail for $499 USD. Juuuuuust Kiiiiiiiiiding! $299 USD." /hell breaks loose

Those three hours will be godly

Haha pure win! For those who didn't get it, here is the original from the conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ir2Pyez9Ok

whats the price of admission you ask?

why, 599 US Dollars of course

digital distribution? discs are digital...

Disc are physical, genius.

Sure, they store digital content, but they are a physical distribution method.

Digital distribution the future eh?

No more renting games

No more borrowing games from friends

Bandwidth caps by ISPs keep me from downloading game until next month

No more selling games

Only Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo sell games so monopoly, no sales by competing retailers

No more lost/stolen games.
No more scratched disks.
No more greenhouse gasses being produced from the production of all the plastic that gets used up in making a video game (plastic shrinky wrap, plastic case, plastic disk)
No more paper manuels, so trees get saved.
Drastic reduction in manufacturing costs.

Please proceed Sony.

"No more renting games"

Easy, you rent the game and it sets a time limit on your system. After that time limit the game presents the option to buy more time (aka rent it for another week) or uninstall the game.

With Sony's method, you cannot lend but you can give your friends (4 friends) a copy of your game.

The only thing (so far) that it's impossible with digital distribution is selling your games. But I bet that someday we'll be able to buy a game for price X and if we get tired of it, we can sell it for Y - we get some money in our accounts and the game deletes itself.

So you see, Nerdy Desi, you're complaining about something that is already in motion and that has some pretty good advantages. So far, all the replies you've got prove it too.

"No more greenhouse gasses being produced from the production of all the plastic that gets used up in making a video game (plastic shrinky wrap, plastic case, plastic disk)"

What about all the new servers that have to be installed to download the games from, all the massive amounts of energy they will consume?

"No more lost/stolen games."

Oh yeah? And if your system breaks? Depends on the DRM involved. For example, look at the video store... no re-downloads. No stolen games? Oh yeah? Please see the recent incident with Amazon deleting Animal Farm and 1984 off of Kindles without user permission.

"No more scratched disks."

But now you have busted hard drive or otherwise broken consoles.

"No more greenhouse gasses being produced from the production of all the plastic that gets used up in making a video game (plastic shrinky wrap, plastic case, plastic disk)
No more paper manuels, so trees get saved."

Largely true here.

"Drastic reduction in manufacturing costs."

Too bad that likely won't result in cheaper costs to consumers.

"What about all the new servers that have to be installed to download the games from, all the massive amounts of energy they will consume?"

Solar power, wind power, and hydro power. Why even google had an idea to put a ton of servers on a ship and put out floating tube-like things that would generate the energy needed to power the servers!

Stop looking for a reason to hate it and just embrace the future. Embrace our soon-to-come digital raptor overlords!

sounds intriguing

I hope someone asks him about their pricing decision behind the PSP GO. I really want Sony to succeed but so far they have been making one wrong decision after the other. Although I enjoy my Xbox360, I don't like a world where Microsoft is the big player. The more competition the better.

don't you remember??? he said it was becuz it was premium. that was stupid!!

"Riiiiiiiidge Racer! ..."

OH MY GOD! THAT IS SO CLEVER AND ORIGINAL!

Nobody in the history of video games journalism has EVER used that line like you just did!

That is AMAZING! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!

I can't stop laughing!

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACCCCERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

And you, sir, are so clever and original for your sarcastic post. I can't stop laughing at you.

New ways to fail from the master.

Wow, I can't believe Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiige Raaaaaaaaaacccccccccer was 3 years ago. Seems like only yesterday... *sniff*

Needs more Giant Enemy Crabs.

RIIIDGE RACAAAAAAAAAH!!!!11one!!

Sorry, i just had to, even if it isn't really original anymore

will he target the weak spot of our wallets for massive damage??

giant enemy crab

New Tactics for 2009 sounds odd for a conference in late September

That's a very good point, Mr. Khan.

The title doesnt really matter - its Sony management, expect a lot of foot in mouth, embarrasing gaffes, stupid statements, the usual. Thankfully their game developers and 1st / 2nd party studios are as talented as their executives are awful

Whats more interesting for TGS is whether they announce a release date for GT5, they need to hurry up on that title. I suspect it will coincide with a price cut of some kind. Some more info on Heavy Rain would be welcome too, and some news of GoW3 being fully playabale soon

And yes, old memories - crabs, ridge racers, massive damage, cell cant do AI, the SPUs are useless for game programming, half the RAM, graphics card sucks, etc etc. Strange how nobody has come forward to explain Uncharted2's graphics or the gap between Killzone 2 and Halo:ODST

Thanks, Joystiq, I finally learned were those stupid memes were born

What I never liked about the memes is how... normal they were. It always felt like they were looking for something, anything, to hang Sony by at the time.

The original $599 price point was meme-worthy, but a guy getting excited over a game? Or even worse, people pissing their pants over the "giant enemy crab" line. Those are two I never understood.

"The Heikegani (or heike crab) does inhabit the seas of Japan and has a face-like pattern on its back. However, the maximum size of a heike crab is only about 1.2 inches. Not so scary, huh? But Japan is also home to the biggest crab on Earth, the Giant Japanese Spider Crab, whose leg span can reach up to 12 feet and total weight can tip the scales at 40 lbs"
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2006/09/07/massive-damage-to-giant-enemy-crab-guy-interviewed-about-genji-2-for-ps3.htm

I am surprised they havent taken advantage of the free publicity and come out with Ridge Racer 8

Nobody's ever going to let him live down the that moment in history.

I wonder if this ever keeps him up at night.

PS3 price increase is the only thing I can predict Sony announcing.

That prediction is even worse than Pachter's.

I like Kaz, so I look forward to seeing/hearing/reading highlights from his keynote. Plus since attention will be on him, I'd love to see him use the opportunity to announce some surprise or another from the Playstation camp (something that will come to the US as well as Japan, preferably).

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Kaz Hirai keynoting Tokyo Game Show 2009

Reader Comments (36)

Posted: Jul 24th 2009 5:47PM Goaliegeek said

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