Kaz Hirai (SCEA) Interview - 1up/EGM

[jvd]

To many developers, where is the motivation to make their game Live-compatible if they don't have any online setup, and/or don't care about the service? MS doesn't even pay a portion of the subscription fees to each publisher.

More replay . If you have a choice between two fps , both got the same reviews and both are tactical ops games but one has multiplay over live and the other doesn't the majority of people will buy the one with live .


Instead of ms saying to the devs hey everyone go out and make your own online stuff and good luck have fun . Ms made live which lets the casual gamer easly use live and the fact that every developer making online games on the x360 will use live , it makes the casuals much more likely to go online with thier games . Because its simple and fimilar .


Don't really see how you can say live is a bad thing . The fee I don't agree with , but they do provide servers to play on which cost money . So i can see it balanced out .

 

[NavNucST3]

People will HAVE to start buying newer tvs in the US when the analog signal gets cut off.

When is this ? I would love to see stations cut off ntsc broadcasts . That will be the death of the tv industry .

Also that tv your talking about ? 60hz at 1080p ?

jvd,

I wish I could give you an exact date, but the FCC keeps allowing the media industry to push the date back, if you can believe it, the first proposed date was 2003!!! then 2005,2006, now I think we have a bill in Congress for 2008.

Westinghouse 37" LVM-37W1
on the plus side for sony fans I believe the TV can only do 1080p with DVI
it is 1080i for other connections I believe. I will have to study it and see if I will replace one of my hd sets with this one.

 

[jvd]

I think you miss understood .

That date is for all channels to broadcast in hd not to stop broadcasting in sd . You really think the goverment will tell the few hundred million people who own sd tvs on a certian date , oh well go buy a new tv these don't work anymore ?

 

[blakjedi]

please tell me you are kidding
either that or you have been exposed to moronic Xbox owners.

I wish I was playing. I never heard someone say I'm an xbox fan and then turn around and say something so true in Sony's favor like NucNavST3 did. He actually told people about a 1080p TV that is being sold for under $2000. I still can't believe it. He's a good guy.

Its not under 2k but thats not here or there... I'm checking for best buy's that carry the tv to see whether or not it just accepst 1080p signals (many monitors do that) or if it displays 1920X1080 which according to BB site it apparently does... If so yeah for westinghouse and best buy!

 

[NavNucST3]

Come on guys, $50 a year...WoW cost more than that and its for that one game. $60 gets you a 12 month subscription, a communicator, and Crimson skies. My bank wants me to pay them $7/month to keep MY money in THEIR bank, lol...I know get a different bank.

It seems like there is some nitpicking going on here. Equating Nintendo and developers to Xbox Live and developers seems a little far fetched. Nintendo had the most strick guidelines, that covered the entire process of game making for their system. MS may say hey it needs to be live aware, but they arent saying you guys need to make sure that not only is it live aware but it also needs to be a full fledged online game. AFAIK, MSFT is NOT controlling the entire process the way Nintendo did back in the days.

 

[NavNucST3]

I think you miss understood .

That date is for all channels to broadcast in hd not to stop broadcasting in sd . You really think the goverment will tell the few hundred million people who own sd tvs on a certian date , oh well go buy a new tv these don't work anymore ?

No, the government wants the entire analog spectrum back for things like national emergency services, its not about just broadcasting in HD. As a matter of fact it doesnt technically say HDTV just DigitalTV...and that is EXACTLY what the governement is saying, your TV is dead unless you buy a new one or get a converter box. Regrettably, there are people fighting this so we may be stuck with SD for much longer, that and low powered OTA HD antennas.

 

[wco81]

Speaking of restrictions, it's too bad X360 games can't support mouse and keyboard for game control, even though the consoles have USB ports in the front.

A guy in another forum who's got ties to the Tiger Woods team said that they also wouldn't support mouse and keyboard for console versions of their games because they plan to have online tournaments and they don't want people who only use controllers to be disadvantaged against people who plug in a $10 USB optical mouse.

Why not just have separate rooms for people using different input devices?

 

[NavNucST3]

please tell me you are kidding
either that or you have been exposed to moronic Xbox owners.

I wish I was playing. I never heard someone say I'm an xbox fan and then turn around and say something so true in Sony's favor like NucNavST3 did. He actually told people about a 1080p TV that is being sold for under $2000. I still can't believe it. He's a good guy.

Its not under 2k but thats not here or there... I'm checking for best buy's that carry the tv to see whether or not it just accepst 1080p signals (many monitors do that) or if it displays 1920X1080 which according to BB site it apparently does... If so yeah for westinghouse and best buy!

Blakjedi,

Look in the avsforums it is always on sale/rebate/whatever else or google it and you can find people discussing it. Everytime I have looked at it, it was under 2k, now finding it in stock, thats another matter. Its very popular, especially with PS3 fans ;-)

 

[mckmas8808]

wco81 I respect that EA dev but really I don't care if the person I'm playing has a keyboard and mouse. How much better can they really be?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

In almost any sport participants can gain advantage from having better equipment. As long as ALL competitors have access to the same hardware, and a $10,000 controller doesn't gaurentee a win so money!=success, it's fair game.

However I say a Tiger Woods tournament for money shouldn't run. If they do, I'll write a program and connect it to the USB controller ports to play the game instead of relying on thumbs and thumbsticks

 

[jvd]

wco81 I respect that EA dev but really I don't care if the person I'm playing has a keyboard and mouse. How much better can they really be?

alot . Ask any dreamcast player Yea its a draw back but it keeps things fair and with online gaming thats what matters

 

[wco81]

Come on guys, $50 a year...WoW cost more than that and its for that one game. $60 gets you a 12 month subscription, a communicator, and Crimson skies. My bank wants me to pay them $7/month to keep MY money in THEIR bank, lol...I know get a different bank.

One possible reason XBL has remained at 50: Playing online on PS2 is free.

As for WOW, subscription model has worked only for a handful of games. Everyone has been talking about a future where online is such an essential part of the gaming experience that everyone just starts paying to play online.

Well that hasn't happened for most of the installed base yet. I think most people are reluctant to add another monthly or yearly recurring bill. Last couple of things to do it were cell phones, ISPs and cable/satellite TV. Now satellite radio is trying real hard to get in on that recurring revenue action and MS is pushing for subscription revenues as well as microtransactions.

I think shrink wrapped media won't be displaced as the main source of revenues any time soon.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

As Sovere wrote, Sony has the bigger theoretical numbers in several areas so they are touting them.

This begs the question, what ARE they supposed to talk about then?! "Hey guys, we can support higher output resolutions and more controllers than our rivals."
"O-oh, better not say anything about our features then or we'll look like we're boasting."

<next interview>
"So how many controllers can PS3 support?"
"Um, we don't like to say."
"You've got blue tooth in there. Does that mean...what, 7 or 8 devices?"
"Look, we don't want to say. We'll feel bad about the competitors"
"Um, okay. What about output. You've got HDMI, three of them in fact. So you've got HDTV support. What formats?"
"Uh...just some. We've tried to future proof on upcoming standards."
"As high as 1080i, or progressive even?"
"Look, we really don't like talking facts about our hardware.
"And multiple output support."
"Sorry, I'm leaving. This is too embarassing and we're not in the industry to play down our rival's machines."

PS3 has features, and Sony have communicated these. Some (the cynics I refer to) seem to think the features added were just added for one-upmanship. Seeing as they didn't know what outputs XB360 had or how many wireless controllers it supports, they can't have added features JUST to spite MS. And looking at the hardware, they haven't gone out of their way to add nonsense features. The output is nothing clever - MS could easily do the same. The 7 controllers is just a 'side-effect' of using BlueTooth. So I can't see any reason to grumble about Sony laying down the technical aspects of their console's capabilities. If PS3 happens to have bigger numbers than XB360 in some respects (and don't forget, we're talking XB360 and not XB2 here ) then it looks good on paper, and maybe brainless Joe Public will get suckered in, but i don't think Sony can be held accoutable for Joe Publics inability to understand facts.

Though I accept Sony and MS do hype, play the numbers games, etc., in terms of PS3's presentation I disagree that Sony were just doing this with PS3's specs.

 

[Bobbler]

I think you miss understood .

That date is for all channels to broadcast in hd not to stop broadcasting in sd . You really think the goverment will tell the few hundred million people who own sd tvs on a certian date , oh well go buy a new tv these don't work anymore ?

The date is currently 2008 to stop all SD broadcasts. (who knows whether it'll be pushed back again, it seems like 2008 might be it though). You will have to buy an antenna/reciever for your SD tvs or just buy an HD/Digital TV/Tuner. With the HDTV prices going down fast I don't see why 2008 isn't fully doable -- that is still a solid 2 years (with things like PS3/X360 coming out to help make HDTVs even more wanted by people, we'll probably see prices shoot down even more in the next year). The FCC is pushing pretty hard to force all broadcasting to Digital (most networks/channels are also upgrading to HD at the same time -- NBC, CBS, ABC, etc).

 

[jvd]

Shifty how about games ? You can allways takl about games or thier online plans .


As long as they don't let kk talk though i'm fine with whatever the rest of sony says . KK was bashing ms again in egm .

 

[NavNucST3]

Come on guys, $50 a year...WoW cost more than that and its for that one game. $60 gets you a 12 month subscription, a communicator, and Crimson skies. My bank wants me to pay them $7/month to keep MY money in THEIR bank, lol...I know get a different bank.

One possible reason XBL has remained at 50: Playing online on PS2 is free.

As for WOW, subscription model has worked only for a handful of games. Everyone has been talking about a future where online is such an essential part of the gaming experience that everyone just starts paying to play online.

Well that hasn't happened for most of the installed base yet. I think most people are reluctant to add another monthly or yearly recurring bill. Last couple of things to do it were cell phones, ISPs and cable/satellite TV. Now satellite radio is trying real hard to get in on that recurring revenue action and MS is pushing for subscription revenues as well as microtransactions.

I think shrink wrapped media won't be displaced as the main source of revenues any time soon.

I am such a glutton for punishment, let it be known that I ALSO have XM satellite radio...brother with all this crap you would think I had money. I guess I am used to the subscription model and generally I would rather pay yearly than monthly.

I guess I don't see how people are thinking that online WONT take off...for the casual gamer they dont HAVE to pay for it, and they still reap the rewards on the weekends.

 

[mckmas8808]

Shifty how about games ? You can allways takl about games or thier online plans .

They did talk about games. Did you miss the tech demos? I don't think Sony's ready to talk about their online plans. To me it seems like they are still ironing things out. They have to support the PSP, PS2, and PS3 on the same network. This will not be an easy task. But remember the PS3 is coming out after the X360 so expect certain things to be announced later from Sony than MS.

 

[Acert93]

wco81 I respect that EA dev but really I don't care if the person I'm playing has a keyboard and mouse. How much better can they really be?

Depending on the game, a HUGE advantage.

Input devices can make a huge difference. e.g. a lot of people in BF fly with the Mice/KB combo. And some are ok, but all the best pilots I have flown with and against were big into joysticks. The simple reason being the KB/MS was like a sitting duck. The other day I was on and I was calling out who was using the KB/MS. Why? Because they could not make a long smooth turn. They were dead meat.

FPS is another obvious one. I will take a game pad FPS player on any day of the week if I can use KB/MS. Not even a fair competition.

KB/MS is not ideal for all games of course. I would not want to use them for a fighting game. But introducing KB/MS to certain genres would be really uneven. They guys with KB/MS natively supported in Halo 3 would just cream the game pad gamers.

It would be no fun.

I like the idea of a "KB/MS only server" but that is just more work for the developers AND the fact is that they would have to detect that it was a KB/MS and lockout this combo from normal servers, etc... just a pain and I am SURE someone would find a way to abuse/circumvent this.

While I would LOVE KB/MS support, the hurdle of making it fair for everyone is a challenge. The games are meant to be FUN. Catering to the 5-10% who REALLY want a KB/MS, only for them to unbalance the game (remember, most people are playing in their living room and are not setup for a KB/MS there) defeats the purpose.

I am also sure MS does not want to give people the impression the 360 = PC. KB/MS would blurr the line even more.

Who knows, maybe Sony will ship with a KB/MS.

Either way, as much as I LIKE the combo, the fact is it could really screw up online play. And if it is not fun people wont buy the games.

 

[Acert93]

Although... in the Bach interview:

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24592

11:15

Will there be KB support for the 360? Technically possible, no decision on that as of yet.

My guess is when the KB/MS comes out they will leave it up to the publishers to decide the support issue... and I think for reasons stated above most wont in game. I would like it if they could, but I understand the play issues that would result and do not blame them for NOT supporting KB/MS.

Which is sad because I have small hands and the KB/MS is a setup that is not a disadvantage for me and I do quite good at

 

[EpicZero]

are these developers for the games that sony publish exclusive ? Or can they jump to another console or publisher and become third party ?

Can you also list these devs so I can find out what games your talking about and see if they intrest me

MotorStorm from Evolution Studios - They are exclusive to SCEE.

Heavenly Sword from Ninja Theory - This title at least, is exclusive to SCEE, Ninja Theory is not.

Eyedentify from SCEI - Obviously exclusive.

I-8 from Insomniac Games - They have yet to develop for anything but Sony platforms, so while they aren't exclusive, it's very likely they won't be going anywhere.

Untitled SCEE London Project - Exclusive.

How can you say that you haven't seen many original titles this generation from Sony? Sony has put out a vast amount of original titles/new IPs, more than both Microsoft and Nintendo, that's for sure.