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Phil Harrison on frustrations with SCEJ

Posted on February 22nd, 2008 at 04:35 EDT

Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WW) has gone on record to admit his frustrations with the Japanese branch of the consumer electronics giant, specifically in regards to how slow it conceded the idea of social gaming.

According to Harrison, Japanese executives did not share the belief that families could enjoy gaming together, an idea that had already been embraced by the European arm of the company with releases such as EyeToy and SingStar.

Speaking during a private lunch at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week, Harrison commented: It's a very interesting and frustrating thing for me to experience because I have been banging the drum about social gaming for a long time, with SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz.”

"And our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan – people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other's homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii."

Harrison also expressed his thoughts on Nintendo’s Wii Sports title, stating that it embodies the very idea of a true ‘next-generation’ game, before sharing his admiration for Nintendo’s success in marketing and sales.

"What's interesting with Nintendo adverts – and they are the same the world over – they always show the view from the television back to the sofa, which is very clever. And what do you see? A family or friends all on a sofa," added Harrison.

Source

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What are your thoughts?
posted 4:42am EST - February 22nd, 2008
1

Good for him. Nintendo is doing very good for sure. Hopefully Sony can pull ahead in the end.

posted 4:50am EST - February 22nd, 2008
2

They need to try and sort the online gaming first. Granted its virtually lag free compared to XBL but the lack of the in-game message/chat service is very lame. SORT IT OUT SONY!!!

posted 4:59am EST - February 22nd, 2008
3
so true Phil
posted 5:08am EST - February 22nd, 2008
4

He speaks of the truth

posted 5:17am EST - February 22nd, 2008
5
the truth hurts
posted 8:11am EST - February 22nd, 2008
6

Its good to see him make comments like this, shows that sony is not "arrogant" as there critics claim.

posted 8:40am EST - February 22nd, 2008
7

Well he speaks the truth

posted 8:41am EST - February 22nd, 2008
8

Tell 'em Phil.  Now maybe they will listen.

posted 8:57am EST - February 22nd, 2008
9

Phil hit the target dead on. I do think Sony should reach out to the family social gaming. I just want to make sure they dont pull a nintendo and totally turn me off with mario the 15th and barney's sing along for games (joking, dont kill me Wii fans).

posted 9:12am EST - February 22nd, 2008
10

To me the Wii is not a competator of the PS3 - I have both system ones for me the others for the kids.  Yes I do enjoy playing the wii for a "short time" my PS3 I can play for hours!

posted 10:50am EST - February 22nd, 2008
11

Funny,i thought the japanese branch would be...i don't know....abit more smarter than this.

posted 11:33am EST - February 22nd, 2008
12

psn id: gingo... Phil knows whats he's talking about and it was very nieve of the japanease song division to not beleive that their countries vision could change

posted 12:47pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
13

Phil hit the nail on the head. Sure the Wii isn't a direct competitor to the PS3 per se, however creating family fun time on the Big Black Beast is important if you want to expand market share. They pulled it off last gen with the PS2 and this era should be no different. Sony owns tv game shows for heaven's sake, where's the Wheel of Forutne's, the Jeopardy's, etc.? With the PSn you can make those downloadable with puzzle packs and make a killing!

posted 12:56pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
14

singstar and eyetoy games suck though !! and FYI I am from the UK (Europe) !! Leave Japan alone !! They have the BEST developers !!

posted 3:16pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
15

I'm not into social gaming per se, but I do like playing on LANs.  On the rare occasion I get my parents to play one of my consoles, they usually enjoy it.

posted 4:32pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
16

wow, it makes japan sound like a cold, cold place.

posted 4:53pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
17

At least he admits to what he believes

posted 6:12pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
18
change side a quote from HAZE i can fell the pressure he had to endure because of slow development. japanese never change old tradition they still in the PS2 era. that y developer like Valve refuse to make games for sony console. im soon to change side if no good AAA games & HOME this years beside MGS4.
posted 7:28pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
19
While his statements ring true it's a bit strange that he was just bashing Nintendo for not being able to capture a wide enough market, I assume, in comparison to the PS3. My only other problem with his statement is that with comments like this he could very well choose to leave Sony because of their proposed lack of understanding the impact of social gaming, and possibility the impact Home could have, which could be a direct result of how slow the progress on this service is going. I'd hate to loose Phil to Nintendo or MS. He's too valuable. He knows his s*** and he's a very forward and upfront kind of person, and that's exactly what Sony needs to keep. He seems, at times, to be more straight-forward rather than spitting out a bunch of marketing jargon like some of his other comrades at Sony. And lastly, us gamers don't really care about why mommy and daddy are fighting, we just want to play games all day and know that everything on the home front is okay. I don't like that Phil doesn't approve of the Japanese office. Hopefully everyone will get their act together because this the year that Sony could take over. But if they can't get their butts in gear they could also lose this (possibly) once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch up and maybe pass the competition (well the 360 anyway; the Wii is way too far ahead at this point and it'll probably stay that way).
posted 7:29pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
20

Social gaming is there as Phil explains with success with EyeToy and Singstar but these are games aimed at the casual audience which PS2 had many casual gamers. SCEJ say families in Japan don't play games together and Phil says look at the Wii, but I have to say how many gamers in Japan are playing the Wii by themselves with games like Mario Galaxy and are through with playing Wii Sports? I really cannot see families or groups of friends always spending time playing games together. They will play together now and then but the majority of play time will be single player and all the family games will wear thin.

Japan isn't really all that interested in online play where you socialize even more with many of millions of players.

I believe Sony Japan got it right with the PS3. At the moment it’s a console for hardcore gamers bought by hardcore gamers. I think Singstar on the PS3 has been released a few years early. The Eyetoy and Singtar on PS2 was released much later in the console life when it became cheap to buy and very popular among casual gamers who would buy this crap. These family games need to be released after when PS3 has been bought by the hardcore and when PS3 is cheap enough for the casual player to join.

We all must agree that the PS3 is the wrong piece of hardware to buy just for a bunch of friends to play a simple eyetoy game, is that why there is all that power and sophistication in the PS3 to play simple family games?

I admit social gaming can be fun among your friends every so often but that’s for some other hardware to do.

I don't think Sony needs to worry about those games anyway when the PS3 is going to get HOME, has many millions playing together online and LittleBigPlanet. I'd rather have these for social gaming than what the Wii has to offer.

posted 8:45pm EST - February 22nd, 2008
21

Phil harrison is arrogant though. Maybe not right now but he is.

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