Sony exec admits PSP more about media than games
Dave Karraker, new PR head for Sony, was recently confronted by Gamasutra in a pretty intense interview. While it focuses mostly on the upcoming PLAYSTATION 3, Karraker had a few interesting things to say about the PSP:
The PSP is doing incredibly well, and I think that you'll see even more interest behind it now that the PS3 is coming out, because the inner-connectivity between the two, I mean you saw the demo in terms of accessing your PS3 harddrive through your PSP. That's just the tip of the iceberg of what can be done with that... I'm not just talking about games, I'm talking about entertainment content as well. Already the TiVo-to-go option for the PSP is turning into a huge hit for us, as people discover that they can take the shows they've already stored on their TiVo and put it on their PSP and while they're riding the bus to work or to school, they can watch television shows on the PSP, I mean that's huge. You can't do that on anything else. So again, I think when you compare the two products, the Nintendo product versus our product, it's kind of apples and oranges. We're providing more of an entertainment system, and they're focused more on gaming.
While the Nintendo fanboys may criticize Sony's approach to creating a media convergence machine, I highly applaud it. I do a lot more things than simply game on my handheld, as I have no desire to carry around a huge laptop to watch movies, listen to music, and use the internet.
Karraker says that the company has to create more games that appeal to the Japanese demographic.
Yeah, you have to realize what games work best on the PSP, like action games work really well, sports games work really well...those aren't the most popular games in Japan – it's RPGs. And RPGs don't necessarily lend themselves to the PSP, although I think we've got some really great ones. And it's just a matter of getting the consumer in Japan accustomed to the idea of playing an expansive RPG on a handheld device.
I somewhat disagree with Karraker on this point. The PSP has a lot of expansive RPGs, and the Japanese love well-designed, large RPGs on handhelds (Pokemon, anyone?). The PSP has failed to really get a great RPG that uses the PSP's unique features, and cuts down on the load times. Hopefullly, something like Jeanne d'Arc will change that.
Oh, and two more things:
GS: And how do the emulated downloads work for PSP? Have you announced pricing?
DK: Basically you just download them to the PS3, and bounce it to your PSP, and those will all be under $5. And then there will be downloadable content from hotspots.
GS: As an ex-Saturn person, do you think there's any chance of that downloadable content there?
DK: Oh, absolutely!
[Via DS Fanboy]
