Isn't this SCEA's ineptness? Singstar is so ubiquitous in Europe and music games hit such a nerve in the US that I can only imagine that Singstar's failure to catch on was SCEA's own damned fault.
Phil Harrison dropped from executive position?
- Thread starter Shifty Geezer
- Start date
Isn't this SCEA's ineptness? Singstar is so ubiquitous in Europe and music games hit such a nerve in the US that I can only imagine that Singstar's failure to catch on was SCEA's own damned fault.
Define market duds?! Multimillion sellers, with lots of profit and, in the case of SingStar, a huge ongoing revenue stream. LBP too has a highly lucrative revenue stream in DLC. If one wants to claim producing profitable game franchises is failure, then sure, Harrison was a flunk! Otherwise, what more could he be expected to do in his position? Unless you're expecting him or any other SCEW boss to produce a string of 20 million sellers, his record is very good.
Edit : Also, bear in mind Phil was at Sony for 15 years, back in the PS1 days. His track record shouldn't be considered as just the last couple of years of PS3.
It's not a marketing thing, it's a culture thing. Over here, karoake is not big. The least popular part of Rock Band, by far, is the vocals...
Your European focus may be the difference here. As a North American gamer, the games Harrison has been pushing have NOT been very popular.
Harrison's leadership has arguably pushed Sony into more of a European focus, away from Japan and away from America.
Virtually every single one of the PS3's first party games has been a sales dud compared to expectations, at least on this side of the pond. Heads have to roll for that.
Killzone 2, for example...
Doesn't mean Phil didn't contribute majorly to Sony though. SingStar and Buzz! sold well worldwide. US is only one of the regions, albeit a big one.
Also it's hard to tell what exactly happened during the PS3's first two years from outside.
The important thing here is whether Phil learned new tricks. An exec is not defined solely by his failures. Mr. Jobs would be a good example.
Also it's hard to tell what exactly happened during the PS3's first two years from outside.
The important thing here is whether Phil learned new tricks. An exec is not defined solely by his failures. Mr. Jobs would be a good example.
Well I'm only quoting the content I know he had a hand in. He was at Sony for 15 years, including heading SCEA from '96 to 2000 where the PS brand completley dominated NA (and the world). During his tenure at SCEE, he introduced the games mentioned, and in those he did a good job IMO. The PS3 years were a bit uglier, because we had all that PR gobbledegook and Sony's right-hand not letting the left hand know what the plan was. But we also have Harrison saying he was being held back from executing his vision which was more Wii-like. In that view, he was definitely on the ball. He may not have been perfect, but who is?!
I've only listed a few successes. Phil Harrison's job wasn't just to okay 1st party titles. He had a lot of relationship building, department coordinating and tech development responsibilities too. It's selling him short to say 'Sony first-party titles didn't do well in NA, therefore he was no good at his job.' A key responsibility was to make money from the PS brands, which he did. Maybe the appeal wasn't as worldwide as it could be, but then what developers are? Bungie failed to ignite Japan with Halo. Does that mean whoever was the head of MS games at the time did a lousy job because he couldn't reach one of the key markets? And of course, that's ignoring the fact that he played a big role establishing PS as the dominant platform in NA.
I don't think that's true. Any of it. Hell, American Idol is stupidly popular and you have thousands, if not tends of thousands of talentless applicants stampeding over each other for the chance to embarass themselves on national television. I think it is a question of marketing -- Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour didn't just succeed because of their plastic drums.
The show is popular, because people enjoy watching it. Not because they enjoy doing it themselves. Very few people audition for American Idol...
It's a fairly well known phenomenon that the vocals are not very popular with most North American gamers. I've noticed it with my own friends and it's been mentioned many times in other communities. Karaoke bars are not popular here, Lips is not popular, Singstar is not popular, etc. It's a cultural thing.
FWIW, it is my experience that the drums + guitars are why Rock Band is as popular as it is.
Not that few. And those are the people who so love to sing that they'd go for national humiliation. As you tighten the spectrum to more local humiliations you're bound to find a lot more singers -- it's why these games work. Or are you trying to sell me that Americans were born without the sing in public gene? Or that at European schools children are taught to school at a young age, like the Von Trapps?
Fairly well-known by whom? I mean, I know people who say exactly the opposite, that the only thing interesting about Rock Band is the drum + vocals, everything else is boring.
Singstar and Buzz etc are very casual games, they sold very well on the PS2, because you picked up a PS2 to play the games. I think I have bought about 6 PS2 and Singstar/Buzz pacakges, for when we are going away to a cabin or having a party at home. It was the replacement for the more traditional board and card games basically.
The winner got to keep the PS2 and the games, unless they already had it home.
Rockband and Guitar Hero: World Tour, is not very casual price friendly, ie it ends up at the more gamer type people. Ie I will not buy it for when we head up to the mountain next time.
I got singstar and buzz for PS3, but they only get play time if somebody comes over and we want to play, we did play some online in the begining, but now its just at parties/gatherings.
Altough I am still 26th on the Norwegian Buzz national champ comp So if I stay there until sunday, I get a price in Home.
The winner got to keep the PS2 and the games, unless they already had it home.
Rockband and Guitar Hero: World Tour, is not very casual price friendly, ie it ends up at the more gamer type people. Ie I will not buy it for when we head up to the mountain next time.
I got singstar and buzz for PS3, but they only get play time if somebody comes over and we want to play, we did play some online in the begining, but now its just at parties/gatherings.
Altough I am still 26th on the Norwegian Buzz national champ comp
So if I stay there until sunday, I get a price in Home.I don't know what else to tell you. I've lived in the US and Canada, on the east and west coasts, and I can tell you North Americans have an aversion to singing in public compared to the Europeans and Asians. That's why Karaoke is not popular at all here (comparatively), and same with all of the singing-based games.
And while games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour do have vocals included, I can guarantee you in North America the vocals are the least popular instrument and usually the last one chosen when groups play the game.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Uh. You do know that they have auditions for the privilege of having an audition right? What you see auditioning on TV is what you have AFTER they've already gone through one audition to earn the right to be auditioned by Simon and company.
Basically it's Pre-audition. If you are one of the few that make the cut then you are allowed to attend the actual audition. Thousands of people are cut in the pre-audition stage to keep it to a manageable number when Simon and company come to town.
Regards,
SB
I'm well aware...I guarantee you if you look at what % of the US pop auditions for American Idol, it's well under 1%...
The fact that some people audition for American Idol is not really strong, to say the least, in supporting the statement that public singing is very popular with Americans.
The fact that some people audition for American Idol is not really strong, to say the least, in supporting the statement that public singing is very popular with Americans.
Well, yes, clearly, but no one's saying that only american idol audition candidates would play singstar. I'm saying that singing is far more common than you think -- you also can't believe that every single person who would sing in public is auditioning, can you? To make it clear, my assumption is that for every person who actually auditions, there's many more who don't. I have no idea how many, but I'd say that 10 is a lowball guess. Note the word guess.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Granted it's all personal experience, the only kind any of us is going to have. But everywhere I've lived in the US. Texas, California, Nevada, Washington state, Idaho, and Hawai'i, having a lot of friends that like to sing isn't uncommon.
There's also a reason that for a while Karaoke home machines were selling in the millions. And were a popular holiday/birthday gift for a few years. I'm not sure they still are as I'm not the partying age anymore.
You can't tell me, you've never taken a roadtrip with a bunch of people where at some point someone has started to sing along with the radio. Or been on public transportation and had someone singing along to whatever he's listening to through his headphones. Or been at a party when some people (usually girls) will break out singing something.
Or been on a raid in an MMO and had someone start singing in teamspeak. Maybe I'm just the oddball and attract all the people who like to sing everywhere I go even though I'm in the tech industry and not the music industry.
Regards,
SB
There's also a reason that for a while Karaoke home machines were selling in the millions. And were a popular holiday/birthday gift for a few years. I'm not sure they still are as I'm not the partying age anymore.
You can't tell me, you've never taken a roadtrip with a bunch of people where at some point someone has started to sing along with the radio. Or been on public transportation and had someone singing along to whatever he's listening to through his headphones. Or been at a party when some people (usually girls) will break out singing something.
Or been on a raid in an MMO and had someone start singing in teamspeak. Maybe I'm just the oddball and attract all the people who like to sing everywhere I go even though I'm in the tech industry and not the music industry.
Regards,
SB
Wasn't that actually after he already resigned?
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