It’s widely accepted that a successor to the PlayStation 3 is getting closer and closer, but that hasn’t stopped Sony continuing to invest in new IP for the present console, as The Last of Usand Beyond: Two Souls prove. Fergal Gara, Sony Computer Entertainment‘s UK MD, has been explaining why the company continues to push new franchises out this far into the console’s lifespan.
“When you launch a new IP it doesn’t have to be when you’ve got a brand new console. We’ve got to keep the new IP going,” Gara says. “For me, what’s most impressive about the new IP… has been the diversity of it, the fact that it’s appealing to different consumer groups, radically different consumer groups. Take Beyond and Book of Spells, they could hardly be farther apart.”
“New IP is the lifeblood of the industry and I don’t think that is limited to a current generation cycle anyway. It’s not a conversation I’ve had but I don’t see any immediate reason why, just like Gran Turismo, you don’t go from platform to platform and keep on going,” he said in an interview with MCV.
“What we presented at E3 makes the best of our broad strength – handheld, console, motion gaming– it’s a really interesting hybrid of all the bits coming together so that’s exciting and that’s what we should do as a format holder.”
“We want to be and we are dedicated to being a broad church,” Gara asserted. “That’s what we are and that’s particularly important being fairly well on in the life cycle of the home consoles – embracing both your core audience and the people who can still come into that.”
Handheld gaming was pretty much absent from the E3 conference... but anyway, I love New IP, and I love many of Sony's studios so I hope they continue to deliver, but at the same time they should keep the most successful franchises of the current gen going like Uncharted and LittleBigPlanet, as they do with Gran Turismo and God of War.
