GS: So how you can be so sure of your move?
AL: When you looked at the PSP, before E3, you had this notion of what the PSP might be, right? When you got to E3, and you actually got to look at it and hold it in your hands. The reaction with everybody I talked to at E3 was “Wow, this thing is cool, I want to own itâ€. As a company dedicated to making highly creative games, we are convinced this is the right platform at the right time.
And when somebody’s done that good a job of just the physical form factor of the thing--and has connected with people in the games industry, who are generally 18-to-34 year old men and women, you get a pretty good idea of who the consumer is and how big the market could be.
GS: It just feels cavalier to base the company's future on a toy.
AL: This is not a thing for kids to play with on the school yard--which is I think the history of portables. PSP is targeted towards a group that has not had a portable before. A lot of gamers love portables and a lot of gamers play Game Boy on the plane, waiting in line at the movie theatre, or waiting for their planes. The best games on the Game Boy are just brilliant, but they aren’t actually for us adults. The PSP is clearly going to be for grownups.
GS: There's still no data, Aaron. No data.
AL: Even without any data it’s extremely exciting to just be a part of something totally new. We have tried to do new things, we want to do new and creative things, and the PSP absolutely seems like a terrific space for that.
