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Sony's Mark Levitan: Product functionalities will set them apart; 2009 is PSP's year (again) |
Listed in: Interviews Tags: interviews, John Koller, Mark Levitan, Microsoft, Sony
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Sony Marketing and Public Relations Manager Mark Levitan sat down with Here New Brunswick to talk about their game plan for their consoles, the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable.On the PS3 front, Levitan confessed that they have realized they can no longer rely on third party publishers. If they want their console offerings to be a cut above the rest, then they'll have to focus more on creating original IPs. Not that third-party publishers don't deliver, but it's just that they can't be depended on for exclusives.
As we've seen in the last couple of years, you can't really depend on third party for exclusives anymore. Fallout 3 is an awesome game and it's going to be awesome on the PS3 but I know it's on the Xbox 360 as well. So is Call of Duty: World at War and other titles.
Indeed, they do find that their own products are what set them apart from their competitors. "We look at some of the franchises we have now like Gran Turismo, God of War, and Resistance - those are amazing franchises that are among, in my opinion, the best in the industry," he furthers.
So given that it's been proven that their own games can stand on their own, what will then be the clincher for this console race? According to him, it's the price. But more than the price tag, consumers will also have to look at the functionality. That is why despite the numerous successful moves at price cuts of Microsoft, they're not budging.
Functionality is kind of hand in hand with price - you have to say to yourself, if you've bought an HDTV, 1080p resolution is important to you so maybe you want a Blu-ray player. If that's something you're considering, then obviously you're going to pick a PS3. You can go to any chain store and pick up a Blu-ray player for an extra 100 bucks, you can get a PS3.
... I think that funcionality will separate us from our competition.
Looking forward, Levitan says that "it is not a mistake by any means to buy a PSP now." There are a lot of strong titles just waiting in the wings, and they're sure to be big hits. MAG (Massive Action Game) is one such title, for example, as well as Infamous. Of course, there's Resistance: Retribution slated to come out February of next year.
In that note, he reiterates the claim that 2009 is going to be the year of the PSP. Hearing that, I cannot help but be reminded of John Koller's exact same claims just last month, particularly on how PSP's software decline will be reversed by 2009. In fact, he's been saying that for two years now. He also said the same thing back in 2007, claiming that 2007is the year of the PSP.
Not that I'm playing devil's advocate here, but hopefully, things will turn 'round for the PSP, so that their claims that every year is the PSP's year won't just be claims but actual fact.
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Comments
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Either this guy is completely delusional or he simply does not have a clean and clear grasp on the ACTUAL position of where the PSP is standing right now in the market. Even with this temporary spike in the Japanese market, they are merely repeating history.
They have released the 3000. Which professionals and amateurs alike agree is a DOWNGRADE to the current 2000 model. If they would have granted us an ACTUAL upgrade in system hardware along with improved form factor, then they could have made a proper comeback.
You do realize that once the DSi is released, Sony's demise in the hand held market will be made complete? I don't mean that any fanboy sense either. It makes no difference to me, i don't get to spend any of the cash from either company. But, the numbers are already speaking for themselves. Nintendo has reclaimed it's placed on the throne as #1 in sales and are now positioning themselves to literally crush the competition in the process.
Nintendo knows something that Sony has not fully grasped:
IT'S NOT THE HARDWARE THAT MOVES SYSTEMS.
----IT'S THE GAMES!----
Both in quality AND quantity. The month of September, the DS saw more releases than the PSP did for the entire YEAR of 2008! And, that's not speculation. That's the fact.
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I'll buy an x360 anyway next summer if my PS3 is not having enought love (JRPGs are my type of games and right now it sucks on the ps3...). I'll see. I hope FFvs13 won't be ported.... And I hope star ocean will be ported :S :'(
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Regardless of whatever you believe, you came here and bashed the PSP and basically said the same things trolls have been saying. That the PSP is dying. And you back that claim with nothing other then you dislike the new screen, and even with that you warp what's been said and change it to the new screen is a downgrade rather then that there is now a noticeable flaw.
So very sad.
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I just don't get it. Didn't anyone notice the psp 3000 ***** screen with its scanlines BEFORE release? What about the hundreds of hours of testing it? what about quality control? Either nobody noticed it, or sony was jsut really really dumb to think that consumers won't care about clear lines across the screen.
I hate DS, but DSi will pound the nail on sony's coffin.
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Where's my GPS?
Where's my Camera?
Where's my keyboard?
Where's my Blu-Ray PS3->PSP Portable Copy?
Where are all the PS3 games with remote play support?
Where are these unannounced blockbuster PSP games they keep talking about?
And why do MSPD cards still cost double the going rate per gig?
And while we're at it, I want that nice media dock with remote they sell only in Japan.
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There ya have it. Professional review from a credible source.
No bias, no bull.
..btw, I could care less who's on top of the handheld race. I own BOTH systems and will own the DSi as well when it drops. You see, I win either way. I am a GAMER first. All I care about is a good system with good games in good quantity. I really dont care who makes what these days. I have been buying handhelds since their inception. And, i have seen them all come and go at this point.
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I don't think Muffinhead is speaking as a "fanboy", he's spot on - Sony haven't supported the console enough. I'm in the UK, so this is a British viewpoint of the console:
They could have released a slew of quality PS1 games on the store, maybe even translated some real classics like Rakaguki Showtime, but instead we get PS1 launch titles, arguably the weakest in the catalogue, and very few PSP games to download.
Secondly, the marketing has been woeful. I work in the industry but it doesn't take an expert to see that the comparison between Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP is world's apart - what has the PSP sponsored? Which games have been advertised on television outside of Crisis Core and God of War? When has the unit itself (certainly in the UK) ever been advertised? It's pathetic.
Now I own all 3 PSP consoles, and I love the system to death. That said, the main reason for this is CFW, which allows me access to the entire PS1 library, and I can demo a game by downloading an ISO - unlike most people however I then buy the game, and own more for my PSP than any other console (38 in fact). That said, I've had to import most of my games from either the US or Japan, so sales figures for games in the UK are further damaged by that.
Bottom line is that Sony need to concentrate on pushing some of the great games available on the system (and there are many) and the console itself. They need to back it up with desirable downloads on the store, get content up there that you can't get anywhere else by translating both Japanese PSP and PS1 games and releasing them as digital downloads - Gundam SEED, Mai HiME, DJ Max etc - make the official content more desirale than the pirated stuff and they'll rescue the console and find favour with developers, who had abandoned the console as a dead loss.
Admittedly the US store is way ahead of its tragic UK counterpart, so I'm looking at this from the UK point of view, but we don't even have access to games like Jeanne D'Arc. WTF?
Bottom line: Sony have been lazy, complacent and incompetent with this system - they've relied on the sexy hardware and Sony brand, and forgotten the games. Wherein Muffinhead is bang on the money.
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best feature ever. and why is lair the only bloody english ps3 game that takes advantage of it?! i cant wait till some developers actually give it a chance
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On Sony Marketing the PSP:
I've been to Japan a few times over the last couple of years and I can tell you the PSP scene is very different than it is here in the U.S. Everyone from people young and old, boys and girls are carrying their PSP everywhere they go. I seen this one young girl about 12 or 13 years old with a pink PSP (unless my eyes deceived me). Something I've never seen here in the U.S. and it makes sense because here in the U.S. the pink DS is very popular among young girls. So why doesn't Sony use this kinds of marketing for tthe PSP? Part of smart business is realizing and noticing what is working well for you competition and incoporating it in your own products. If mean it seems that Sony is focused mostly on Japan and has forgotten about the rest of the world. We've all heard what Sony has promised, but how much of that have they delivered on?
Japan has 1Seg TV Tuner...U.S. DTV Tuner would be nice.
Japan and Europe have the camera that has been in the U.S. PSP firmware since 3.0
Japan has GPS
Japan has more colors and more bundles available to choose from.
Japan has the Sony sponsored wifi called Playstaion Spot
Japan has many great games that, while they are region free, are never translated to any other language
Ah hell just look at the japanese PS Store for PS1 downloads, long list of games there while the rest of the world has 20-30.
Sony should aggressively market the PSP how they do in their home country. Advertise more, make it more appealing to everyone rather than mostly male teenagers and young adult men, translate more blockbuster titles sooner like MHP 2nd G, give us the accesesories that we've been demanding long ago, give the PSP more worthwhile firmware features instead of crap like google search, and rely less on PS2 ports. Perhaps if Sony had done this much earlier people wouldn't have had to resort to using Pandora's Battery to breathe new life into their units.
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I do a little deving for the PSP and I realize what the thing is capable of. Sony would be smart if they released a dev kit for the masses and then had people submit their games to be sold on the PSN. I think a mass of home made games and apps supported by Sony (like flash games that made it to the XBox Live) would boost it's sales.
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Make like a tree and....go! HAHAHAHA!!!! It just goes to show, people don't actually understand the words that are coming out of their mouth. What they THINK and what they SAY are two different things.
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I chose the PSP over the NDS simply because it could do more and had a much higher resolution. Since day one I was disappointed with my PSP BIG TIME. 95% of my use with the PSP was homebrew. I bought a whopping three titles for my PSP. After about a year I sold my PSP in favor of the new NDSL. I've bought 20+ titles for my NDSL.
Your view of what is "crap" is not shared by most.
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