makingmusic476 on 07 July 2008
I’ve known Phil since 1994, when he became the official evangelist for the PlayStation project. I’ve always been impressed with how good he is at articulating very technical things to non-technical people. Then he moved to product development in Europe, and we were peers – I was running the group in the US and he was running the group in Europe, and we met regularly. So when he became President, Worldwide Studios in 2005 and became my boss, he asked me not to just run the US group, but to participate as a part of Worldwide Studios management — to form and lead the strategy for the entire group. Phil’s departure was unexpected, and we miss him, but as far as where we are going, we have so many things we are already working on, so I just continue that drive.
This gives me hope that he will be a worthy replacement for the great Phil Harrison.
That was one of the key initiatives that Phil and I worked on. Before, we were part of each regional organization of Sony Computer Entertainment, so we were a little bit at arms’ length, and didn’t necessarily share information from an early stage. But after Worldwide Studios was formed, we have been sharing our technology and developing a common infrastructure. After two and a half years, the distance between the London Studio and Foster City in the US might as well be as close as the distance between London and Liverpool. I may be exaggerating, but we feel as if that is already happening.
This gives me hope that Sony's first party titles will be even better this gen then they ever were before. What with Naughty Dog thanking quite a few of Sony's other studios in the credits of Uncharted, to Guerrilla Games mentioning that both Insomniac and "the God of War guys" (Sony Santa Monica) have assisted them with ps3 development, it's quite apparent that Sony's studios are really working hard to improve development across the board, and development was already stellar last gen.
Hell, just look at what GG have been able to do since joining Sony. Killzone 2 is leagues above anything they've worked on previously.
Sony's first/second party will be a monster this gen, I can feel it. Uncharted, Resistance 1/2, and Ratchet & Clank are just the beginning. Bring on Killzone 2, Team ICO's next game, and God of War III!
Edit:
My role is to run first-party development, and we are always exclusive. Because, in this generation, it costs much more to develop one product, it’s just natural for third-party publishers trying to recoup the investment from multiple platforms. I think that’s pure economic pressure, pushing most of the third parties to move from some exclusive titles to more multi-platform titles. Because we know that is the trend, we, as a company, can invest in our first-party studios; in terms of exclusive titles, our role becomes more important.
And this leads me to believe that they will continue buying more studios and making that first party grow!
Next stop, Media Molecule. :)
