Tag Archives: sce

Andrew House, head of Sony’s global games division, has said the PlayStation brand can help Sony financially recover, and boost the firm after reporting an annual record annual loss of £3.6 billion in May.

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SCE UK boss Fergal Gara believes despite having a “solid foothold” with Move, the motion controller should have sold more units in UK.

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Quantic Dream boss David Cage has said the French developer is “staying exclusive” with Sony for the present and foreseeable future.

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PlayStation boss Kazuo Hirai has been promoted to executive deputy president of Sony, and may take over as chief executive when current incumbent Howard Stringer retires.

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We have literally touched this man. That photo didn’t take itself, you know.

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Sony’s Simon Benson has said that 3D is going to be “gaming’s biggest revolution” of the modern age, and PS3 will be there to help usher it in.

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Sony showed off a bit of 3D tech at GDC last week, and Ian Bickerstaff, senior engineer with SCE’s UK-based 3D team, told Gamasutra that the company’s very optimistic about the tech, but it’s also remaining “cautious”.

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Update: SCEE’s just sent VG247 a statement on the matter, saying the move is for SCEI only, and won’t affect any regional HQ like SCEE or SCEA.

“This is a rather complicated manoeuvre involving the legal entity SCEI in Japan,” a rep told us. “It has no effect on any regional HQ – ie. SCEA, SCEE etc are totally unaffected by this.”

Original Story: Sony’s announced it is to rebrand Sony Computer Entertainment to SNE Platform, or SNEP for short, before “absorbing” SNEP on April 1 and naming its PlayStation business SCE.

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Sony’s claimed it now has 2 million PSN accounts registered in Japan, reports Dengeki.

The benchmark was reached yesterday.

SCE said that 700,000 accounts access PSN in Japan, downloading 35 million pieces of content.

Thanks, Kotaku.

PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai has yet again stressed the importance of gaming to PS3, saying it’s the primary goal for the machine. Like, dur.

“The thing that I did when I took over last year was to boast the appeal of games themselves,” he told NBOnline.

“The main premise of the PS3 is video games. That’s the absolutely most important thing that we cannot lose sight of.”

He added: “We cannot allow Nintendo run off alone.”

More on Kotaku.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal at TGS, PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai has issued a note of caution to recent quotes saying the games trade will easily ride the wave of global recession, but has said it will be more resilient than standard manufacturing industries.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re recession-proof, but we expect to be hit much less than an auto company, for example,” he said.

“We expect to do very well in the year-end shopping season.”

Microsoft’s John Schappert added that the financial downturn is likely to make people wary of spending, pointing to recent 360 price cuts as a boon for the system.

“When you look at people, who are certainly more price-conscious than ever, that price is something people are going to be looking at,” he said.

More through the link.

PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai has said the games industry can surf the current wave of global financial panic by keeping people excited.

“As long as we can generate excitement, then we will be less affected than other industries,” he told the Financial Times.

The exec yet again confirmed that there won’t be a PS3 price drop this Christmas.

“The answer is yes, if you’re asking, ‘Are these the prices we’re going with this Christmas?’” he told the UK paper.

More through the link.

It may have “OMG!” scrawled inexplicably on its sidebar, but Gamepro can put together a pretty solid list. Today, the site rattled off its top eight most powerful videogame studios, and we mostly agree. In no particular order, Gamepro gave the nod to:

• Epic Games
• Bungie
• Rockstar North
• Maxis Software
• EA Tiburon
• Sony Computer Entertainment
• Blizzard Entertainment
• Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development

Valve, Infinity Ward, and Harmonix took home runner-up ribbons.

So, can you think of anyone who’s missing? We can’t, but we’ll probably end up face-palming and saying “duh” once you guys get to commenting.

By Nathan Grayson

Final Fantasy XIII? Grand Theft Auto? Who needs ‘em? According to global PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai, the answer is a resounding, “Not Sony.”

When queried about the issue by MCV, Hirai replied, “On the exclusivity front – whether it’s downloadable or not – one of the unrivalled strengths we have, and we’ve proven this time and time again, is the power of our internal worldwide studios. Our first-party product is obviously platform exclusive and is the best out there.”

Titles like Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, and SOCOM will serve as a “raft” for the company – keeping them afloat amongst a sea of competition.

Will those games be enough to stave off Microsoft’s increasingly-aggressive assault, though? Hey, don’t look at us for the answer. We’re not Michael Pachter.

By Nathan Grayson

Speaking to GI at E3 last week, Sony boss Kaz Hirai was careful to include caveats in the company’s current plan to make the Home beta available this autumn.

“I’ve said this on many occasions, and right now we’re aiming for a Fall open beta programme, but no beta should be opened before its time,” he said.

“It’s important enough of an initiative for the platform and for SCE, that we don’t want to prematurely launch it and then be dinged for having a bad service.”

There’ll be blood if it misses, Kaz. There’s a full interview with the exec here.

Speaking to the FT at E3, Sony boss Kaz Hirai has said that his target is for PlayStation 3 sales to exceed PlayStation 2 figures, now sitting at 140 million after nine years.

“It’s not fun for me replicating the PS2 numbers. I’ve seen that movie already,” he said.

“I want to try to see if we can exceed the PS2 numbers after nine years, otherwise why are we in this business?”

Sony told E3 attendees last week that sales of its original PlayStation, launched in 1994, had reached 102 million units and that PS2 had now passed 140 million worldwide in its ninth year on sale.

More through the link.

Nice to have some solidity among the scuttlebutt. Following confirmation this morning that Michael Denny has been promoted to SVP, Worldwide Studios Europe, SCEE has confirmed that the decision to can London Studios games Eight Days and The Getaway came from the higher-ups.

“It was a global decision,” said a rep when asked if Denny personally made the move.

Denny reports into Phil Harrison’s replacement, Shuhei Yoshida.

Eight Days and The Getaway were dropped in early June, with SCEE putting the cancellations down to “redistribution of resources and budget”.

Following rumour that European Sony studios boss Michael Denny was to be promoted into a more senior development management role at SCEE earlier this month, the firm confirmed this morning that the exec is to be promoted to SVP, Worldwide Studios Europe.

“I’m looking forward to this new challenge, and in particular, the opportunity to further my work with the many talented development teams, both internally & externally, that make up WWS Europe… we have an unprecedented portfolio of AAA titles this year, such as MotorStorm:Pacific Rift, Singstar, Buzz Quiz TV, LittleBigPlanet & Killzone 2, which we’re looking forward to showcasing further, over the coming months,” said Denny.

In addition, Scott Rohde – senior director at Sony’s San Diego studio since 2003 – will be promoted to VP, Worldwide Studios America.

Yasuhide Kobayashi will continue to manage Japan Studio as SVP.

After the break.

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Kaz Hirai’s told the BBC that he’s confident that PS3 will be the eventual winner of the current generation of hardware.

“I am very confident that after the 10-year lifecycle we will have the install base that we are looking for and that is obviously to be in the leadership position,” he said.

The SCE president added: “”We’ve only really begun to scratch the surface with PlayStation 3 but I am confident that given the long life-cycle we have planned for the machine we are going to have a very good install base in all of the major territories.”

There’s a video of the man himself speaking through the link.

Hirai was in London this week for the SCEE PlayStation Day. Read our interview with the Sony boss here.

Kaz is a nice chap. He only flew in to the UK this morning for the SCEE PlayStation Day in London, but he was still the consummate, media-trained super-exec we know and love when we tracked him down on the O2 showfloor. Hit the link for the SCE president’s thoughts on Europe, “changes” to E3, Grand Theft Auto and selling PS3 as a games machine.

We also asked him what keeps him awake at night. See if you can guess the answer.

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