On Blu-ray and the blue laser diode shortage they suffered through: No regrets whatsoever, and it's those kinds of decisions, painful though they were to live through in the last quarter of 2006, those are the decisions that are going to propel PlayStation 3 to be a platform that lasts for ten years, like we've seen with PS1 and PS2. And it will be, I believe, reflected on as the smartest decision we ever made. On pricing and a possible price cut: BIZ: Jack Tretton recently said the PS3 would be difficult to cost reduce, and yet a Japanese exec followed that by telling reporters that Sony would consider a price drop. What are the odds that we'll see a lower price on the PS3 this year? PH: Well, I'm not sure about the context in which Jack made that comment... but the PS3 technology, as with any of our platforms, starts off life at a high price and then we engineer cost out of it. And that process is an investment that you make to combine chips into a single chip or to reduce components or combine components and redesign things, and that investment is part of our planned R&D effort to reduce cost. At the appropriate time and when we can afford to, the business model of the industry is to pass those savings onto the consumer, but we're a long way away from doing that yet. BIZ: But don't you feel pressure from the realities of the market and people who maybe don't want to spend $600? Do you feel there is pressure to drop the price this year? PH: Absolutely no pressure at all. I think that the reality of the market is that there's a great deal of software people want to buy, there's a great deal of software coming that will stimulate further activity in the market. We're very comfortable with the plan. More interesting stuff: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=15342

"BIZ: Can you name a few things about Nintendo and Microsoft that they may have done a better job at than Sony and a few things where perhaps they could improve and learn from Sony? PH: Both companies clearly have great strengths and they've both done some wonderful things in their respective fields. What could they learn from us? I think Nintendo, although I am very respectful of the innovation in Wii, and I think everybody should be respectful of it, I'm not sure that it has the technology base to propel that platform in the long-term. So I think their platform lifecycle is inherently going to be shorter, so they could have learned from us in terms of the high technology approach. Microsoft's approach I think is far too built around a single game IP, one IP, and they could learn the benefits of a killer catalog rather than a killer application. And having the broad software support in multiple genres, in multiple categories, in multiple age groups is what really propels a platform for the long-term. So I think those are the differences that we see between the platforms." Thats what I have been saying all along. Killer catalog is needed.

I'm certain Microsoft is now thinking "A killer catalog, I knew we were missing something" :| The fact is that a really strong third party line-up comes from a demonstrated history of strong system sales; in other words, you get the best third party games when you don't need those third party games.