- 601
Is this good or bad .... Why do I have a feeling Sony Playstation Net will go pay like XBox/Windows Live.
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/interview-soe-president-discusses-sce-integration/?biz=
As we reported this week, Sony Online Entertainment has restructured to strategically align itself with Sony Computer Entertainment. What does this mean for the company and how it goes about making games? We chatted with SOE President John Smedley to find out.
Here are some of the highlights from our conversation.
On SOE's creative vision and what role SCE will now play in that:
"We're going to be picking their brain and their expertise, particularly on the PS3, but to me it's an opportunity and not a restriction. It's more like we get the chance to pick the minds of some of the smartest people I've ever met."
On Yair Landau leaving Sony Pictures:
"It's coincidental on the timing, but this has been in the works for a little while now... The fact that we're moving underneath the PlayStation guys [is good because] Yair built us up. He made us who we are, and now he's leaving the company and we're moving over underneath SCE because it's felt we can have a lot more synergy with Sony Computer Entertainment."
On how long the SCE/SOE restructuring has been in the works:
"This has been discussed for some time, but I can't give any timeframes."
On SOE not exactly being new to SCE:
"Keep in mind that we developed EverQuest while we worked at SCEA. I worked there for six years before this. So that's not widely realized by people. They think of EverQuest and they think of SOE but really SOE was part of SCEA at one point, so it's kind of coming home for us."
On how SCE will leverage SOE's online strengths:
"I think what Kaz [Hirai] would like to do is leverage our web experience and expertise, and plus we have technology. We've been developing tech for many, many years in the online space. We actually developed the back-end for the PlayStation Network for the last couple years, and another concrete example is we've got technology that can enable digital objects. We can lend digital object technology to any PlayStation games that want to do that. So we've got the combination of experience and the people to help just about any online endeavor that's within the PlayStation family."
On the PlayStation Store and Home:
"For some time now we've been working closely with the team at SCE and any announcement about [the store] will be forthcoming. [Regarding Home] we're happy to help out in any way that's needed. Up until this point, the guys over at SCEE are doing just a terrific job with it. We've gotten to see it recently, and frankly it's just moving along well. We're here if there's anything we can offer [for Home's development] but right now things are going so well... [our help] is not needed."
On SOE's focus with PC vs. console:
"We've been very much a PC house and we will continue to be, and we're adding PlayStation 3 to the mix of things that we're doing. And we've been developing PS3 games now for some time. We're basically a multiplatform company... so we're continuing to do that. If you look at The Agency, our DC universe MMO, and ever our Free Realms title, we're doing PS3 versions of all of those games."
On whether we'll see an MMO on consoles to rival the success of WoW:
"I absolutely do [think we'll see that], and in fact I think by having a stable platform where every customer has an online capable box is a huge, huge potential advantage in building an MMO because you've already got an online userbase. It's a massive advantage over the PC and we don't have to worry about graphics cards or things like that. It's going to be very big. Console online gaming in general I think is going to be one of the next huge phases of growth in the online gaming space."
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/interview-soe-president-discusses-sce-integration/?biz=
As we reported this week, Sony Online Entertainment has restructured to strategically align itself with Sony Computer Entertainment. What does this mean for the company and how it goes about making games? We chatted with SOE President John Smedley to find out.
Here are some of the highlights from our conversation.
On SOE's creative vision and what role SCE will now play in that:
"We're going to be picking their brain and their expertise, particularly on the PS3, but to me it's an opportunity and not a restriction. It's more like we get the chance to pick the minds of some of the smartest people I've ever met."
On Yair Landau leaving Sony Pictures:
"It's coincidental on the timing, but this has been in the works for a little while now... The fact that we're moving underneath the PlayStation guys [is good because] Yair built us up. He made us who we are, and now he's leaving the company and we're moving over underneath SCE because it's felt we can have a lot more synergy with Sony Computer Entertainment."
On how long the SCE/SOE restructuring has been in the works:
"This has been discussed for some time, but I can't give any timeframes."
On SOE not exactly being new to SCE:
"Keep in mind that we developed EverQuest while we worked at SCEA. I worked there for six years before this. So that's not widely realized by people. They think of EverQuest and they think of SOE but really SOE was part of SCEA at one point, so it's kind of coming home for us."
On how SCE will leverage SOE's online strengths:
"I think what Kaz [Hirai] would like to do is leverage our web experience and expertise, and plus we have technology. We've been developing tech for many, many years in the online space. We actually developed the back-end for the PlayStation Network for the last couple years, and another concrete example is we've got technology that can enable digital objects. We can lend digital object technology to any PlayStation games that want to do that. So we've got the combination of experience and the people to help just about any online endeavor that's within the PlayStation family."
On the PlayStation Store and Home:
"For some time now we've been working closely with the team at SCE and any announcement about [the store] will be forthcoming. [Regarding Home] we're happy to help out in any way that's needed. Up until this point, the guys over at SCEE are doing just a terrific job with it. We've gotten to see it recently, and frankly it's just moving along well. We're here if there's anything we can offer [for Home's development] but right now things are going so well... [our help] is not needed."
On SOE's focus with PC vs. console:
"We've been very much a PC house and we will continue to be, and we're adding PlayStation 3 to the mix of things that we're doing. And we've been developing PS3 games now for some time. We're basically a multiplatform company... so we're continuing to do that. If you look at The Agency, our DC universe MMO, and ever our Free Realms title, we're doing PS3 versions of all of those games."
On whether we'll see an MMO on consoles to rival the success of WoW:
"I absolutely do [think we'll see that], and in fact I think by having a stable platform where every customer has an online capable box is a huge, huge potential advantage in building an MMO because you've already got an online userbase. It's a massive advantage over the PC and we don't have to worry about graphics cards or things like that. It's going to be very big. Console online gaming in general I think is going to be one of the next huge phases of growth in the online gaming space."
