Tag Archives: ray maguire

Sony’s just confirmed that SCE UK head Ray Maguire is to leave the company after a 17-year career.

More »

SCE Europe senior vice president Ray Maguire has outed an upcoming LittleBigPlanet content pack for use in the classroom.

More »

SCE UK boss Ray Maguire has encouraged that videogame design courses should be presented in schools as a viable career choice.

More »

Ahead of the series’s anticipated fifth title and its launch worldwide tomorrow, SCE UK boss Ray Maguire has told EG that, while gaming tastes and technology may have evolved, the world is still keen on Gran Turismo.

More »

Sony’s officially confirmed UK rental service LOVEFiLM is coming to PS3.

More »

SCEE SVP, Ray Maguire, has told Eurogamer he doesn’t “particularly” expect a huge day one success story for PlayStation Move.

More »

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has warned that the company will cease to invest in the UK should the government fail to provide incentives or tax relief to the games industry.

More »

Sony UK boss Ray Maguire has said that he is very “pleased” with Sony’s first-party titles, and that he is not “too fussed about the competitive bits or people’s comments” regarding such matters.

More »

Activision’s Andrew Brown has quizzed Microsoft’s Neil Thompson, Sony’s Ray Maguire and Nintendo’s David Yarnton over on MCV on when digitally distributed titles will overtake boxed products.

More »

UK bossman for PlayStation Ray Maguire has told GI how “fantastic” the BAFTA win for LittleBigPlanet is.

Maguire was speaking at the Children’s BAFTAs last night in London, saying: “It’s absolutely fantastic.

“LittleBigPlanet is one of those games that comes along and it’s absolutely unique. It’s unique in the way it’s formed, it’s unique in the way it touches consumers, the way it allows them to contribute to the art form itself. It’s as much a part of adult entertainment as it is kids’ entertainment and that’s one of the special things about it.”

Media Molecule boss Mark Healey said the win for LBP “means a lot” to him and the studio.

“It means a lot,” said Healey.

“It was always an early ambition to make something that appeals to adults and kids, specifically that adults and kids could play together and have fun and I suppose winning this some way confirms that maybe we did that.”

Find more through the link.

SCE UK boss Ray Maguire has expressed “serious concerns” about a Watchdog program airing tonight in the UK, which takes on PS3 hardware failures.

“From [our] correspondence to date, I have serious concerns as to the accuracy of these allegations and the likely tone of the Watchdog report,” said Maguire in a six-page letter you can read in full on GI.

“The information that you have provided suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the technical issues and a mis-characterisation of SCEUK’s OOW repairs policy.”

Maguire added: “We entirely refute the suggestion that PS3 consoles have an inherent defect or other design issue which is akin to any warranty issue experienced by another console manufacturer.

“SCEUK has sold 2.5 million consoles in the UK since March 2007 and stands by the quality of its products. Clearly the allegations you propose to air in your program might have the potential to adversely effect Sony Computer Entertainment’s reputation for supplying high quality products and customer service and we take very seriously any issues that can impact the public’s or our customers’ confidence in those products.”

This is going to be awesome. Have a read of the letter, then watch Watchdog at 8.00pm BST on BBC 1 tonight.

UK PS boss Ray Maguire has told GI that PSP install base has grown to 50 million globally, and while the system had been under-supported in the past, that is all about to change.

“It was slightly under-supported, mainly because a lot of the energy was going into stuff we’re doing for PlayStation 3. There was an added complication in that the UMD model wasn’t brilliant for third parties, either,” he said.

“But I think as the installed base has grown – we’re now at 50 million globally – the PSP has become one of the best-selling formats ever, and I think people are seeing that they need to get back into it. I think we had a bit of a barren year last year, and this year we seem to have a bumper crop.”

When asked if the change from 2000 to 3000 will prompt new sales, he stated that people would buy the product because of the overall package and content instead of hardware revamps.

“I think the hardware specs are probably the lower part of the decision-making process now. The hardware does what it says, so that’s great, but people don’t buy hardware for hardware, they buy it to get to content”, he said.

“The content was where we were weak last year, but it’s where we’re strong this year, and the services around it are getting better as well.”

Full interview here.

UK PS boss Ray Maguire’s told GI that more than 2 million PS3s have now been sold in Britain.

The exec also confirmed that PSP has gone beyond the 3 million mark in the UK.

“If you look at the RRP that we’ve had out there for 2 million units, and compare it to PlayStation One and PlayStation 2, it’s amazing that we’ve got to this kind of level,” Maguire said, speaking of PS3.

“Actually, I’m really pleased with that – it does show that the premium product was the right strategy to have.”

There’s an interview here.

Speaking to GI, SCE UK boss Ray Maguire has said PlayStation 3 has “radical” functionality. So much so, in fact, that Sony spannered its initial marketing for the machine by focusing on other stuff rather than, you know, games.

“When we first started – because all the functionality was radical – we talked about that functionality,” he said. “And in doing that, maybe we weren’t strong enough on the games side of it.

“Now, with the strength of the games we’ve got coming out, this Christmas we’re definitely about the games. From our own first party, and also third party, there’s a feast of games for PS3 this year.”

Don’t worry about all the radicalness being lost on PS3 owners, though. No sir. People are just starting to “understand” it, said the exec.

“At the same time though, because we’ve been out for a couple of years now, people are starting to understand and discover the functionality of things like PlayTV, and that’s created the desire for people to upgrade to larger hard disk sizes. I just recently put a 320GB drive in mine.

“I think people are starting to come to grips with that, but what’s probably lesser known is the relationship between PS3 and PSP and the Remote Play functionality. Those are the things we have to work a little bit harder on – the GPS functionality, the camera functionality – all of those elements which of course give us content to sit on the PS3.”

There’s a full interview through there.

Speaking to GI, UK SCE boss Ray Maguire has claimed that PS3′s on the ascendancy while certain competing formats… aren’t.

“We might take a bit longer sometimes to bring a product to market, but when we do, we bring you the most powerful gaming platform ever to hit – and it will be something that will around for a very long time,” he said.

“It’s nowhere near even halfway through its lifecycle, and I could argue that some other competing formats are on their way down right now.”

More through there.

Speaking with Videogamer, Sony UK boss Ray Maguire has said that due to PlayStation 3′s ever-increasing install base, it now seems logical that developers will lead on PS3 and downgrade games to tailor for consoles with weaker processors.

“I think we now have an install base which is big enough for any third party to want to develop for,” said Maguire.

“Now the decision making part of development is which do you lead your development on? Is it easier to lead with the most powerful, both in terms of AI and graphics, i.e. PS3 and then just remove part of the functionality for the processors that aren’t quite as strong?

“I would imagine that’s very much part of the thought process now from a studio development point of view.”

Full thing through the link.

By Mike Bowden

PS UK boss Ray Maguire’s told Videogamer that LittleBigPlanet was delayed out of “respect”. We like to think he said “innit” as well.

“I just think it’s about respect,” he said. “We weren’t to know that a product that’s been in the marketplace since 2006 by a Grammy award-winning artist would have this kind of effect.

“But I don’t want to see anyone upset by something that we’ve done and we have to put it right so we did put it right. I think it was the right move.”

Sony decided to delay LittleBigPlanet, its flagship Christmas game, thanks to a song in the original version containing expressions from the Qur’an.

SCE UK boss Ray Maguire has dropped the biggest hint yet that 360-exclusive DLC – stage whisper left: GTA IV – may merely be timed and will eventually end up on PS3.

“One thing to remember: nothing is ever exclusive,” he told Videogamer in London this week.

“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.”

He added: “Obviously, what we have to do is make sure that our business plan is adhered to and we have the amount of money to invest in games rather than investing in stopping other people making games and progressing.

“So 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.”

Don’t lick him: he’s bitter. More through the link.

Speaking to Videogamer.com in London yesterday, PS UK boss Ray Maguire said that pressure for a PS3 price cut is obvious, but that Sony’s got to take care of business first and foremost.

“The pressure comes from the consumers, obviously, and so therefore there’s always pressure on price, but you know we have a business to run, and we have to make sure we’re doing the right thing for the shareholders as well,” he said.

“At the moment there’s a marketplace for PS3 and I think for this particular Christmas, with the kind of quality of games we’re seeing coming out this Christmas, I don’t think the price of the console is going to be an issue at all.”

A drop isn’t necessary, said Maguire, as the system was hitting its sales targets.

“It’s obviously selling extremely well in the UK and it’s the third largest single territory in the world,” he added.

“In the UK it’s absolutely on line. Obviously actual sell through is always relevant to price point. Now the price point we’re at, with the features we’ve got, that we obviously have to charge for, it’s absolutely on target.”

Maybe next year, eh?

BAFTA just confirmed its next games awards show, to take place at the Park Lane Hilton on March 10 next year.

Sony bigwig and awards chairman Ray Maguire said, “After extensive industry consultation, it was agreed that March would be the best time for the Awards, enabling the industry to enter all the major releases of the year.”

There are 13 awards categories: Action & Adventure, Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Casual, Gameplay, Multiplayer, Original Score, Sports, Strategy, Story & Character, Technical Achievement, Use of Audio and a new Handheld category which includes games for mobiles phones, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and Nintendo GBA.

There was no ceremony this year, due to the fact that the last one, by and large, was a bit rubbish.

Press release after the link.

More »