The UK's "semi-official" PlayStation blog, ThreeSpeech, has posted up an interview with SCEI head honcho Kaz Hirai, covering a range of topics including those little things that make a console stand out to consumers: exclusive games.

Hirai says it's no longer a question of paying publishers for exclusives, but rather whether third-parties can afford to release a game on only one platform, period. Sony's role, according to Hirai, is to work with publishers to make the PS3 releases of their games "more compelling for the consumers than any other version." Hirai says that Blu-ray Disc is the key to this, since its capacity for huge amounts of data makes it perfectly suited for movie-style bonus features and "maybe additional levels."

With third-parties "going wide" with their biggest releases, Hirari believes that internal dev teams will play a pivotal role in defining the overall PlayStation experience with "envelope-pushing, genre-defining content." Bring it on, Kaz.

[Via The Escapist]

Sony's promise of a true open-world experience with Home has been a continual dot on the horizon for PlayStation 3 owners since it was first announced during former Sony-exec Phil Harrison's GDC keynote last year. This continues to be the case this evening, as Sony just sent word that it plans to extend the service's closed beta phase through the summer season, pushing the eventual open beta launch until sometime in the fall.

According to Sony, the move will allow the company to invite more PS3 users into the closed beta, perhaps to iron out some of the social MMO's failings we heard so much about late last year. Says SCEI president and group CEO Kaz Hirai, the delay will let Sony "refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today," which is business speak for telling us that we'll have to wait a few more months before we can know the joy of throwing virtual televisions down equally virtual stairs.

Sony has announced a change in the relationship between two of its, err, Sonys, namely Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment. If we understand the press release correctly -- the pop-up pictures were an immense help -- SOE will be reporting directly to SCEI president and group CEO, Kaz Hirai, as of April 1, 2008. The structural change is "designed to mutually benefit both companies by further accelerating the PlayStation business through SOE's strong online gaming expertise," which ultimately boils down to more "exciting entertainment offerings" to consumers.

SOE will continue to develop said exciting entertainment offerings for the PlayStation 3 and PC, with company president John Smedley reporting to Hirai and making sure he says things like, "We are thrilled to become a part of the incredible team that has made PLAYSTATION 3 the premier platform for next generation online gaming."

SOE is currently hard at work on The Agency, a promising spy-themed MMO shooter for PC and PS3.

Sony bigwig Kaz Hirai is hoping that this next fiscal year, which begins in April, will mark a point where the PlayStation 3 loses its money sink status and becomes profitable. Said the president of SCE at the Consumer Electronics Show (via Reuters), "We want to get to the positive side of the equation as quickly as possible," later adding that the company is "going through the budgets right now. That (profitability) is not a definite commitment, but that is what I would like to try to shoot for."

Hirai cites the dropping costs of components used to make the PS3, as well as the removal of chips related to backwards compatibility, as examples of how the console is becoming cheaper to produce (and therefore less of a detriment to the company's bottom line). Hirai noted that the declining cost is "in line with what the company had expected." Not explicitly stated but certainly important are the titles expected next fiscal year: LittleBigPlanet, Home, Final Fantasy XIII, and the still-exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4.

Previously, Sony stated that it had sold 1.2 million PS3s since Black Friday -- NPD figures for December should reveal how that measures up to competitors. Microsoft recently stated its belief that the Xbox 360 is "on track to register the biggest year in video game history," while the Consumer Entertainment Association predicted industry growth to continue, albeit at a slower pace than last year.

1UP got their mitts on the latest issue of Famitsu Weekly, in which they interviewed Sony's man with the plan, Kaz Hirai. Since we don't have our copy handy just now and our Japanese translator is out sick with a terrible case of invisibility, we'll just have to settle for 1UP's highlight reel, notable for some particularly refreshing bouts of candor from PlayStation's top dog.

When asked about the delay of Home announced at the Tokyo Game Show, Kaz responds, "I personally am not satisfied with the current version of Home. This is a very big project for the PS3 and we want to make sure that we deliver to our hearts content." It should come as no surprise that Kaz isn't happy with where Home's at; otherwise, they wouldn't have made the hard decision to push it back past the holidays.

Also covered is the 40GB model and its absence of backwards compatibility, PS3 price drops, Monster Hunter III, the sale of the Cell processor manufacturing facilities, and the company's plans for the holiday. Most interesting is Kaz's response to the last question: "Returning to Japan, I have done my best in the given limited amount of time. Not everything I envision has turned out 100% but we as a company have worked together towards our goals." How's that for candor?

[Via GameDaily]

In addition to becoming the PlayStation 3's power button of choice, the PSP has made relations with the PC. At the Tokyo Game Show press conference, Kaz Hirai announced that the PS Store will soon be accessible via the computer.

According to Hirai, you will be able to purchase and download PSP content without using the PS3 as a middle-man. The service is reportedly available now in Japan; no word on when it will be coming elsewhere.

[Via Engadget]

In an interview with Kikizo, Sony global president Kaz Hirai alludes to future iterations of the Sixaxis controller. Hirai says that they're "obviously looking" at what do do with the Sixaxis now that they've come to an agreement with Immersion. He says they're actually looking at a variety of things they can put into the controller and they'll say something when they're ready to.

Hirai points out about the controller, "I mean, as you know, that's also an evolving peripheral, if you will, in that we started out with the original PS1 controller with no analogue, and it's come all the way to this point, so obviously, as we go forward, it's not the final model for a PS3 controller, so we'll see what comes down the road." It is impressive to think that the same controller, with minor tweaks every few years, has been a staple of the PlayStation going on 15 years. So, when will we finally hear about what's going into the next Sixaxis? There's still plenty of conventions left this year.

Now that all that pesky E3 business is behind us we can start talking Tokyo Game Show! The newly lengthened TGS has just announced the keynote speaker ... none other than Ken Kutaragi's successor, Kaz Hirai. Of course, Kutaragi delivered last year's (baffling) TGS keynote, so it's only fitting that Kaz take the baton this year.

Let's just hope he doesn't go all E3 '06 on us, with dry charts and boring numbers; we'd love to see some sex appeal from the new Pres of SCEI. Now, what's the name of his speech? "The Expanding PlayStation World, Business Strategy For New Growth." Well, charts are cool we suppose ...

We got a rare chance to sit down and talk shop with recently-named Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. President Kaz Hirai, and his US successor, Jack Tretton. These two had a lot to say, and we were more than happy to let them talk about where the PS3's going in terms of hardware, software, and services, why Sony's E3 presence this year is so radically different than last year, even a little bit about how things have been at PlayStation HQ post-Kutaragi -- check it out!

So out of all the three press conferences we've been writing up, we're giving each one a grade based on a new highly scientific Mega Man ranking system. Sony is our last one, but chronologically so we haven't gotten there yet. But this press conference had a much different tone then let's say last year's E3 press conference. How much did you guys look at last year's, how should we say, performance, and decide that you needed to do something different? What kind of decision making process was that?

Jack: Well obviously I was not as intimately involved in planning last year's press conference as I was in this one, but it's funny now that you look at that perspective and you see some of the other press conferences and how people are conducting themselves. I think companies are very proud of their success and they want to tell everybody how successful you are. But what you realize is that everybody already knows that and no one really cares. They want to know how you are going to be successful going forward. And so we've certainly taken our fair share of heat about, you know, the performance of PlayStation 3 in the first six to eight months, and I guess we wanted to focus our message on really telling you why PlayStation 3 is going to be successful going forward.

And its all about content, its about games, and I think going through that experience, you know, the light bulb goes off, and you go oh, wait a minute, its really all about the content and what we're going to do going forward to keep our platforms relevant. Its not about what we did 10 years ago, its not about how many units we've sold here or there. So clearly I think for points of reference and perspective we wanted to point some things out that we really wanted that press conference geared towards why people are going to want to buy games and buy our platforms and that was kind of the theme and the central message. I give Dave [Karraker, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, SCEA] a lot of credit for building off of that theme and coordinating tremendous amounts of presentations and content through the whole thing. But hopefully we've stayed on message and we've gotten the point across.

So why no word about rumble?

Jack: Well, I guess at this point the SIXAXIS controller is something that we're comfortable with and we've certainly settled our differences with Immersion. Is it something that can happen down the road? Absolutely. But the bottom line is we haven't made that decision and we didn't have anything to announce or introduce. Will we down the road? Possibly, but it's unbeknownst to me if we have a rumble controller coming out.

Oh I think you'd know before anyone!

[laughter] Well, you'd be surprised! It's a big company...

After yesterday's announcement that 380 new games would be available for the PlayStation 3 this fiscal year, more than a few of us quickly ran out of fingers trying to make the math work out. Lucky for us, the fine folks at Sony stopped GamesIndustry.biz before they got their shoes off (it was too late for us), explaining that Sony's Kaz Hirai was "citing international figures" and that "at least 145 titles are on the way to the US," with 105 of those being retail offerings. That makes a lot more sense ... but we're still left wondering one thing. Does Warhawk count as both a retail and PlayStation Network title?

Gran Turismo HD on the PlayStation 3 is no more. The game, which was due for release in Japan this month, has officially been cancelled, leaving developer Polyphony Digital to focus its energy on the completion of Gran Turismo 5. All is not lost, however, as what was Gran Turismo HD will now be offered through the PlayStation Store as Gran Turismo HD Concept -- essentially a playable preview of Gran Turismo 5.

GTHD Concept will be free to download and becomes available in Japan on December 24. There is currently no confirmation of a worldwide release date (what a nice holiday treat though!). This free business has us wondering what happened to that dubious rumor about Gran Turismo's excessive microtransactioning?

It appears that there will be no online elements in GTHD Concept (apart from the very act of downloading it), with SCEI's new Mr. Big, Kaz Hirai, explaining in an open letter released this morning: "For the genuine implementation of 'Online Car Life Simulation', please wait for Gran Turismo 5."

That we will do.

File this one in the delicious irony department: the same day Kotaku's Brian Crecente posts a video of his son playing a brand new demo unit of the PS3, SCEA boss Kaz Hirai tells the Associated Press that his 12-year-old son doesn't yet have a system. Despite the younger Hirai's begging, Kaz said that his son "hasn't touched one and he hasn't seen one ... that's only fair for everybody."

Can this possibly true? Do members of the press now rank higher in the battle for new Sony hardware than the president of the company? Or was Hirai's quote a Steve-Ballmer-style "I feel your pain" PR feint designed to mollify gamers hurt by expected shortages? We report ... you decide.

[AP story via VideoGamesBlogger]

I set my alarm yesterday morning. I had a date with Sony Gamer's Day, 2006. And yes, Grammar Rodeo champions, that apostrophe means that it was just for me. Also, about 100 to 200 other journalists and analysts showed up, but I let them stay.

Sony's annual all-day press event held few surprises. Instead, it was the last big event before the PS3 retail launch, and we reporters got to play more games, eat fancy hors d'oeuvres, and talk to Sony executives.

In the late morning, I attended a lunch that was supposed to be with developers but occurred without them; a roundtable discussion had been canceled. Instead, I got to listen to analysts at my table spout lots of semi-confidential numbers off-the-record. Numbers like "40%," and "5,000,000." (Yes, commenters, those are completely out of context; don't start any rumors.) After eating fancy food that may have been prepared entirely by a team of Cell processors -- it was that good -- I headed to San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood for the presentations.

Our colleagues at GameDaily BIZ spoke with Victor Viegas, CEO of force feedback patent holder Immersion, about Sony VP Kaz Hirai's recent comments on the PS3 controller's lack of rumble. Hirai told Kikizo in a taped interview, "If we have to come up with technology ... to isolate the vibration from the sensing, but if that means that the controllers are going to be so expensive, then we're doing the consumer a huge disservice by coming up with a controller that is not very affordable."

Viegas responded that his company "knew how to technically solve their problems" and they now "know how to do it without adding any incremental cost." He even cited a third party PS2 controller, the G-Pad Pro, that "incorporates both motion sensing and vibration and goes for the retail price of just $29.95." That's only $5 more than a Dual Shock.

We can't help but be shaken, rumbled even, by the irony of proclaiming cost sensitivity as the purported rationale for excising the controller's force feedback functionality when the console it will wirelessly communicate with has been criticized, by most everyone below the 35% tax bracket, for being extravagantly expensive. Note to Sony: We're pretty sure anyone ponying up $500-$600 for a PS3 would be more than willing to shell out an extra $5 for force feedback.

With Nintendo's rumbling, motion-sensing controller combo going for a princely $60, and Microsoft's rumbling, motion-free 360 gamepad going for a steep $50, how should Sony price their lightweight, rumble-free Sixaxis? They've already said it's got to be affordable.

Other peripheral pricing:
PS3: Dual Shake is dead, long live Sixaxis

Read - Hirai: No Rumble in PS3 Controller Due to Cost
Read - Immersion CEO: Rumble + Motion Not Cost Prohibitive

In a rather bland interview with Cnet, Sony's Kaz Hirai proclaims that the Blu-ray format is the best choice for gamers when compared to the capacity in its fiercest competitor, the Xbox 360. He told Cnet:

Our decision to include the Blu-ray player ... in all of our PlayStation 3s was the right decision. Look at the massive amounts of data that's required to provide a truly immersive gaming experience in true HD. If you only have a DVD ROM drive, which can only go up to about 9GB or so, you're going to end up with a game that's going to have two or possibly even three discs. And then you're going to have to ask consumers to swap discs out or cache all the game onto the hard drive which I think is an inconvenience -- not to mention the fact that you're going to fill up a 20GB hard drive very quickly with some of these games. So trying to go without a Blu-ray drive in the PlayStation 3 really is a nonstarter.

Pretty much a diss to the 360 and its capabilities, Hirai believes that the Blu-ray is key to the PS3's ultimate success. Considering how massive a game like Oblivion is on one disc, does the extra storage capability of the Blu-ray disc even matter?

On a another note, Kaz still says that production of the PS3 has yet to start.

[Thanks, KingOfGods]