Ray-Maguire
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Sony UK boss Ray Maguire departs
Ray Maguire, Sony Computer Entertainment's UK managing director, has decided to leave the company. Maguire helped establish the PlayStation brand in Europe, with a career in the division that spans 17 years. He made the choice to leave after "a lot of soul searching" and described his future personal growth as "essential." Sony Europe president Andrew House wished Maguire luck on his future endeavors. No word yet on where Maguire is going next or where Sony will look for a replacement.
LittleBigPlanet 2 teacher pack coming to UK PSN in May
Sackboy is grabbing his trusty Trapper Keeper and heading to Avalon Elementary next semester. The LittleBigPlanet 2 "Teacher Pack" is currently being developed by Media Molecule and it's said to be packed with "demonstrations of National Curriculum, based in game levels that other teachers have made." The pack will feature PlayStation Move functionality, SCEE senior VP Ray Maguire told MCV. "The pack will be a really useful way of starting to track and develop interest and involvement in games-based learning," Maguire noted. He also added that SCEE is aiming for a release "by the start of the summer term in May." In other news, schools in the UK have a summer term starting in May. We're so, so sorry, you guys.
Sony execs talk PlayStation Move expectations, PS4 details
The PlayStation Move is now less than a month from hitting stores shelves, and it looks like some Sony execs are already busy starting to manage expectations. Speaking with Eurogamer this week, Sony Computer Entertainment senior vice president Ray Maguire chose to compare the Move's launch to that of the EyeToy for the PlayStation 2, saying that "exactly as with EyeToy in the PS2 days, it's a product that needs to be sampled. You need to get your hands on it. You need to understand it. You need to try it." Maguire further went on to say he's "not particularly" expecting "massive" day one sales, but that he expects sales to grow as word of mouth spreads. In other PlayStation news, Sony's Kaz Hirai seems to have effectively ruled out a download-only future for the eventual PS4 in an interview with MCV, with him saying that a "digital future is over ten years away." Hirai then went on to note that "we do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope," and that "here's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium." No word if that also applies to Sony's future handhelds as well.
Sony doesn't expect huge day one sales for Move, counting on word of mouth
Though you've probably already developed your own preconception for how the peripheral will perform, Sony Computer Entertainment senior vice president Ray Maguire recently aired out his expectations for PlayStation Move sales in an interview with Eurogamer. "Am I expecting a massive day one? Not particularly," Maguire explained. "We didn't with EyeToy, either. It went on to be massively successful." Maguire later added, "exactly as with EyeToy in the PS2 days, it's a product that needs to be sampled. You need to get your hands on it. You need to understand it. You need to try it." We certainly get what Maguire is saying, but for some reason, we doubt people are going to have any trouble wrapping their minds around the whole "one-handed motion-sensing controller with analog stick dongle" concept.
Activision UK head polls execs from 'The Big Three' on digital distribution, cloud gaming
[Image credit: Vermin Inc] If it weren't for the fact that the recent "Andrew Brown asks" is a featured piece on UK-based MCV, the answers to his questions repeatedly starting with "Whilst" would have likely tipped us off to the Britishness of the feature and all involved. Both Sony's Ray Maguire and Nintendo's David Yarnton employ the subordinating conjunction whilst responding to questions about everything from the future of digital distribution to what the industry will look like in 2019. Though the Sony and Nintendo execs were a bit more reserved in their predictions, Microsoft's Neil Thompson believes digital distribution will "explode in the next three years." All three gentlemen admitted that retail will still play a major role for (at very least) a few more years. As for cloud computing, only Microsoft's Thompson seems to be on board. "I'm convinced cloud will play a central role in the games industry of the future ... our strategy is certainly to enable people to connect to their key entertainment content through innovative services that span across multiple devices." Our only worry is that, by the time all this future stuff arrives, we'll be too busy cruising around in our flying cars to care.
Sony VP Ray Maguire claims UMD 'wasn't brilliant' for third parties, forgets we're living in the present
Apparently the folks at Sony Computer Entertainment UK are experiencing some time anomalies of late, with Senior VP Ray Maguire talking about PSP's much-abused UMD format in the past tense. It might not be the biggest blunder on earth -- he stated that "The UMD model wasn't brilliant for third parties," and it certainly hasn't been -- but with rumors all over about Sony dropping the format in the near future, it's not looking good for those little ill-fated discs. Maguire went on to add, "The downloads side of it will increasingly become a bigger part of its future," so it looks like either way we know where Sony's emphasis lies, and we won't be shedding too many tears if / when it comes to pass.[Via Joystiq]
Sony's Maguire: UMD 'wasn't brilliant' for third parties
One of the most important classes in blogger college is Learning to Decipher Executive Quotes 101. So, for example, when Sony responded to Dave Perry's claims of a UMD-less PSP 2 with a, "Can't comment either way," we knew that meant, "We're not ready to announce that yet, but yeah, totally." Now, SCE UK's senior VP Ray Maguire has given us a new assignment, to which we'll now apply our 6-hours of LDEQ.So when Maguire says, "The UMD model wasn't brilliant for third parties," what he's really saying is, "When we do announce that we're dropping UMD, remember that no one, not you, not anybody liked that thing, except maybe pirates." And when he goes on to add, "The downloads side of it will increasingly become a bigger part of its future," he's actually saying, "No, seriously, this is totally happening." No, no, don't thank us. Thank Prof. Steinburg and the rest of the St. Vincent's Community Blogging College faculty. We couldn't have done it without them.
PS3, PSP reach sales milestones in UK
Sony has announced that that the PS3 and PSP have passed 2 million and 3 million sales, respectively, in the UK. Of course, the recent release of Killzone 2 plays a big part in the achievement, with Sony UK's managing director, Ray Maguire, calling it a showcase of "the power of PlayStation 3." More interesting is Maguire's view of the PS3's future, however, which he believes "suggests more longevity" in the wake of selling units at a comparatively high price.On the PSP side, Maguire points to renewed interest in the platform, stating that the PSP-2000 helped emphasize the "portability of the device" to consumers. The interest is said to extend to third-party developers, who have "woken up" to a new business model oriented around online content.
SCEE's Maguire explains why LBP, EyeToy can only be from first-party dev
Games development is expensive. No wonder third party publishers are avoiding exclusives, working on as many multiplatform titles as possible. However, SCEE's Ray Maguire argues that the most innovative creative risks cannot come from third-party ventures. Speaking to GI.biz, he explains that it's the responsibility of first-party studios like Sony Computer Entertainment to make the most innovative (and perhaps, risky) gaming ventures."It's really important, because if anybody has a responsibility to take a risk, to take a chance on development - and this is a huge expense - then it has to be us as a first party. There are many people who have said that everything from the original EyeToy all the way through to LittleBigPlanet wouldn't have happened from a third party publisher, because the risk is too difficult, or too much to take when you've got a potential multi-platform strategy in front of you."Certainly, adapting LBP to multiple platforms would've created a far different experience for Media Molecule. In a gaming era where it's even more important to differentiate your platform from competitors, first-party successes like LBP can really cement a platform's position. "So we take those risks - some of them come off, and some of them don't. We've been reasonably lucky in that most of them have been okay. With SingStar, Buzz!, EyeToy and now with LittleBigPlanet we think that's typical of overall investing in something, taking a risk, but when it comes right? My God, it comes right."
Sony on DLC: 'Nothing is ever exclusive'
Back in May, David Reeves hinted the possibility that the upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive DLC content for Grand Theft Auto IV is heading for the PS3 version in the future. It looks like Sony is at it again -- when pressed for a statement about the exclusive downloadable content the rival console is getting by videogamer.com, SCE managing director Ray Maguire said the following: "One thing to remember, nothing is ever exclusive. Things get wrapped up for a period of time for a large amount of money and if it's a strategic decision by competition to do that then we have to live with that.Maguire also took the chance to take a jab at the competition's practice of buying exclusives. "I would much rather that we were investing money into making sure that we've got great R&D and we start producing games like LittleBigPlanet, rather than paying other people a huge amount of money to stop people playing their product."It's almost common consensus at this point that exclusives from third-party publishers are a thing of the past. However, can we say the same for DLC content? Time will tell, we suppose. What's your 2 cents?
90% of games bought online by 2018, claims SCEE's Maguire
Since we're all good at guessing what will happen in 10 years, we thought it might be interesting to see how Sony feels about the future of the videogame industry, especially with the advent of digital downloads in the next couple of years. SCEE's Ray Maguire predicts that by 2018, over 90% of game sales will take place online.But it's not really an issue limited to the videogame software industry: "... that's not true with ISPs in the future. This isn't merely a games industry issue. It's an issue for every industry with companies that have a website – and when we look at user generated content, it's a people issue." So what do you guys think? Will we have almost complete destruction of the retail industry in ten years, or will we still have access to both?
SCEE's Maguire lets slip 'firmware 2.4'
Ray Maguire, chief of the UK division of Sony Computer Entertainment, let slip a few details about an upcoming firmware when speaking with MCV. "Achieving one million PS3 sales faster than both PSOne and PlayStation 2 is even more gratifying considering PS3 is a premium product introduced at a premium price," he told MCV. "Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer, firmware update 2.4 and the strongest line-up of games through our third party partners and our own studios. I'd personally like to thank our trade and business partners for helping us on the start of the PS3 journey." [emphasis ours]Remember when Sony's official site leaked in-game messaging, only to have it mysteriously disappear? There's only two conclusions we can get from this: first, in-game messaging is definitely coming this summer. The other? Maguire is going to disappear as well. We'll miss you.[Via NeoGAF]
Ray Maguire gives his thoughts on Sony's strategy
SCEE's managing director Ray Maguire has stayed out of the spotlight compared to his cohorts Kaz Hirai, Peter Dille, Phil Harrison, and probably some other names we don't remember. He sat down for an in-depth interview with Edge, but we're here to shorten it up for you, though we strongly encourage you to read the whole thing. A bulleted list of the main points follows! Some babble on backwards compatibility being removed, which we've all heard and the matter's been beaten to death with a blunt cudgel. A new item appears in the rationale for the move -- the Cell chip. Ray says: "... how do we allocate things within the Cell chip? And there is a big cost involved with doing the software emulation. So it's a cost issue, and – as we always do – we want to bring the price of the hardware down." The decision to drop the 20GB PS3 from the European launch was a smart move, Maguire said, since they still had the biggest launch ever with just the 60GB. The reasoning? Europe is one of the "most successful territories in the world in terms of people's propensity to [play videogames]" and so early adopters got what is still believed to be the best package -- the 60GB PS3. The console library has come under scrutiny ever since launch and Maguire concedes this fact. However, he says, "it's an area that's starting to change." He goes on to say how games are starting to run different on the PS3 in a good way, thanks to the standard hard drive (we'll go into this idea more when we review Bladestorm early next week). There's plenty more discussion about Remote Play and third-party support in the coming months, but we don't want to spoil everything for you! It's a great read and showcases how the PS3 might try to change things around in 2008 with an ambitious library of titles lined up (some will probably get pushed back to 2009, in which case we'll feign surprise and counter with "well, it's still fiscal 2008" and snub our noses like proud fanboys). Still, if we don't buy the stuff, it won't matter what Sony does.
SCEE predicts UK PS3 sales doubling this holiday
Ray Maguire sat down with Edge magazine and talked about the upcoming surge of PS3 console sales this holiday season. Maguire treats this surge like fact -- we all expect it to happen. He's so confident the PS3 will sell this holiday that he believes in the UK, sales of the PS3 will double. That means 1 million PS3's will have been moved off the shelf since launch. In addition to the sales of the console itself, Maguire believes that games will no longer be an issue this holiday season: "we're in the period of crossover now, where people will start to develop on PS3 as the lead [platform] if they're multiformat ... because of the Cell chip and because it's got a hard disc in every device, the way of generating games - if you start with PS3 - is you can create the optimal, ultimate game. And then you can knock out functionality to put it onto other platforms." Ouch! Well, since we have yet to see those claims bleed over into actual games yet, maybe something like Devil May Cry 4 will cause that statement to become fact. Who knows.
Maguire: New PS3 all part of the master plan
With the European 40GB PlayStation 3 finally out in the open, Sony execs just can't stop talking about it. According to Ray Maguire, SCE UK managing director, Sony's newest console is part of "a very carefully thought-out plan." While acknowledging that other factors like decreasing production costs, industry pressure and a need to increase its install base contributed, Maguire said Sony has been considering this model since the PlayStation 3 launched.Of course, the main complaint against the PlayStation 3 has always been its price, but Maguire thinks the lower-priced 40GB model will appease the haters. "If the product was too expensive, of course they're going to feel 'anti,' but now I imagine there will be some changing of attitudes," he told MCV. It's true, the 40GB model's price is much closer to the Xbox 360's, only with a lot more features. However, only time will tell if the move will help Sony recapture the lead in the console wars.
SCEE knows early PS3 adopters may feel cheated
If you feel cheated for buying the PS3 upon its release, Sony UK's managing director, Ray Maguire, understands how you feel. He told GI.biz that it's natural to feel slighted, and "the difference between our industry and many other industries is that if you're selling cars or houses the price goes up steadily. Consumer electronics only goes one way and that's downwards."Maguire denies that Sony is making buying the PS3 confusing with different options, pricing, and bundles. "As products evolve the offerings change because they have to adapt to the needs of the consumers but I don't think it's been particularly confusing in six months to go from stand alone, to a bundled proposition into a low price entry level model ... We also have to remember that consumers don't search around the world for different configurations. We are a global company but we have to act locally as well."
Sony: Americans not cheap, only American labor
So as we suspected, when Sony UK exec Ray Maguire recently labeled Americans as cheap (with massive land, at least) in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, he didn't actually mean that we were tacky or spendthrifts -- according to a Sony rep who spoke with 1UP, Maguire was instead referring to the relatively low wages ($5.15/hour minimum wage versus ~$10/hour in the UK) when compared to other industrialized countries. So there you have it, not much to see here really -- though given Sony's almost complete dominance of our Ce-Oh no he didn't! series, it's not difficult to understand why this quote got pulled out of context and bandied about the interwebs like a pre-release iPhone. [Via Joystiq]
Sony clarifies Americans aren't 'cheap,' but U.S. labor is
Near the PS3 launch in Europe, Sony's UK Managing Director Ray Maguire was interviewed by GI.biz, and while discussing the cost of the PS3 in the UK said, "If you take what's considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive -- consider the US with its massive land and cheap people. Then you look at the UK -- a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium, and the cost of people is a lot more."Coincidentally, in the same interview Maguire also said, "Nowadays, with how the media works, not only does information fly around at the speed of light, so does mis-information. With blogs on the increase, people's thought processes are transferred from one place to another and picked up by people who might be lazy when it comes to finding out whether something is true or not."Well, to prove him wrong, 1UP went and followed up with Sony America today. They explained what Maguire was trying to say is that the cost of living and labor are different in the two countries. The minimum wage in the UK is roughly $10/hr USD against the US's $5.15/hr. 1UP concludes, "Wouldn't that make us, essentially, 'cheaper?'" Well, no. By that thought process the U.S. is essentially poorer. Sony is doing the U.S. a favor by making the PS3 cheaper for the well-populated, but poor, country.
Sony admits focus on PS3, finally going back to PSP
At GDC, we complained that Sony didn't care about PSP. Phil Harrison's speech was all about Sony's latest console effort, the PS3--Sony's handheld wasn't in the picture at all. Compared to Nintendo's continuous support of DS with original first-party titles, Sony appears to be neglecting PSP. Fortunately, someone at Sony's finally admitting that this is a problem. Sony UK boss Ray Maguire spoke to GI.biz about PSP, and how it will try to compete against Nintendo's incredibly popular handhelds."From a PSP situation we have a wider split of third-party versus first-party than our competitors do, who are very much first-party developers. We've been putting quite a lot of energy behind PS3, now we'll be able to split some of those resources and go back to the PSP to make sure we've got some compelling games coming. As a criticism, yes, perhaps part of that is true. But we have a solution in place."Obviously, God of War is part of that so-called solution. The localization of Jeanne d'Arc is another good step. However, Sony must do more to satiate our appetite for original games. When will we see some of these new "compelling games" that Maguire speaks of?See also:PSP won't get redesign; new colors coming soon?PSP will realize its potential this yearVirtual PSP debuts in PlayStation Home
Sony UK talks redesign plans, then denies it (again)
What a tumultuous ride this has been: SCEA says no redesign, and then SCEE managing director Ray Maguire slipped that Sony's current PSP offering was just the "first iteration" of the platform. Speaking at the PSP in Education event, he noted that a smaller, lighter version of the console was coming. Like John Koller, he made specific note that the screen size will never get smaller: it's one of the PSP's best features.Immediately after the event, a Sony spokesperson told Gamesindustry.biz that there are no immediate changes planned for the system: the only developments would come in the form of firmware updates. So, what's the truth, Sony? We've been hearing way too many conflicting reports about this touchy subject.[Via Eurogamer]
