GN: Your plans for South Africa in terms of PlayStation Network — do you have any plans of having local servers available at any time in the future?

SF: First of all we have the service (PlayStation Network) — it's free to use, which is a big point and gives us an advantage over our competitors. It is something that we take very seriously and we're very much looking at that kind of development in gaming going forward. We are focussed on it.

To answer your direct question as to whether we'll have a server built in South Africa specific for this market, the answer is very unlikely. Hopefully the latency would improve as and when your broadband capacities improve. We are very much in touch with those companies here and obviously they're going to be important business partners for the likes of PlayStation going forward.

The big date that I see on the horizon where all these companies — especially Telkom and cable companies — are gearing towards is 2010. So I think there's going to be a gradual improvement that we're going to see in the next 18 months in the lead-up to 2010 whereby these slow, latent kind of problems will be addressed by telco's locally which will improve the situation. But in terms of server, I wouldn't have thought so.

GN: In terms of the PlayStation Store — any plans of having a local one, tailored with downloads and stuff for the South African market?

SF: Yeah, I think that's possible. You will probably have noticed that the store is in Rand so it is localised in that respect. It's something that's in its infancy at the moment and we're very much looking at what works in the storeroom and what's not. Because in reality it's a very small, small part of the business at the moment.

So it's something that's very future proof. And in order for that to happen we need to talk to our business partners over here, like Ster-Kinekor, and get them involved. At the moment it's very much being led from the head office. So there's conversations that needs to be had between us and our distributor over here, whereby these guys are enticed and excited about offering local products. So I can see that it would be something that will develop, will happen over time. It's not something that's on our immediate agenda but certainly it's on our radar and you might see it within a year or something like that.

GN: And Home? How far is that away and will there be regional communities within it?

SF: Home is a very exciting opportunity. The information that even we hear about internally, within Sony, is quite limited. It's one of these huge animals that's ready to burst out of the cage and is incredibly exciting in terms of the opportunities that it gives.

What we must make sure though is that when we launch it, we launch a credible product that doesn't fall over. So what we're delaying it for, and what we're trying to get right, is to make it really future proof and bullet proof so that it doesn't launch and then fall over.

There is so many complexities in terms of servers and what you mentioned with the previous question — there's a huge number of issues that needs to be ticked off and I know that there's all sorts of trials, betas, going on at the moment that are being tested and they're coming upon problem after problem after problem, so there is tests and retests to set it up. But it's on the horizon for next year.

When, we're not going to make a comment upon just now, but it's on the horizon and we'll be offering, I guess, regular updates on timing and roll-out and capability. But it's absolutely amazing where it can go and different companies that it can bring in, local content, local companies and involvement and obviously local based communities is what it's all about. And it's something that we're very excited about and sure, the sooner it happens, the better, but we want to make sure we do it right.

GN: Just in terms of the localised communities — will it be driven by Sony or will gamers be able to set up their own communities?

SF: I think an element of both, to be honest. The capabilities of that particular aspect have not yet been fully defined. I'd have to say that I'm more of a commercial guy, not a technical guy, so I don't know the technical problems or possibilities of those particular areas within this market, but if it's technically possibly then we have the tools — in terms of commercially — to make it happen.

GN: Staying on the community topic, are there any plans by Sony to support local gaming communities, support the local gaming scene — in terms of game development but also in terms of the players themselves? The feeling that one gets is that the community is feeling a little isolated, where Sony is up there and the gamers down there and that they're not really being taken care of or taken into consideration. I realise that we are a small market, but we are also a growing market.

SF: You're a very important market. The only way that I would answer that — I suppose there's two ways of answering it, because there's kind of community based involvement that is the human touch, which is again done locally through our local distributor and they can create events and marketing based activities that hook in and target our fan base, if you like. That is ongoing and there are all sorts of plans and ideas afoot in order to include and involve our communities.

I guess going forward, more technically, the more that consumers are enabled and capable of going online through the PlayStation Network, that itself lends itself to community based involvement and not only gaming, but sharing of products and trading and so on.

So I think it's a kind of two-edged approach, whereby the more this market buys in to PlayStation Network and it comes as standard that your PlayStation 3 sits in your front room, connected, then you immediately start to feel more connected by definition. And the other side is a more human side, which is something that we're working on ongoing.

GN: So it's also a question of building momentum locally to raise, if you can call it that, critical mass?

SF: It is, I mean... it's difficult, isn't it, because when you sell something out of a box, it's such an unhuman way of communicating so the ways in which we've communicated in the past have been traditionally through magazines. We have an official magazine — not in this market — but we have an official magazine fan base in Europe for example, and in the US. Over here it's been very much more web based, chatroom based, and then communities that Lana might be better suited to add to.

LJP: If I can differentiate here — we have 700 000 PlayStation 2s in the market. We have very dedicated groups of people who get together on a regular basis to play against each other various games. Whom we've over the last 7 years interacted with quite well. It's worked for us and as we've grown we've seen uptake of more machines and more software in those areas where people actually get together and do it. We do participate in those events on a regular basis.

PlayStation 3, we have a much smaller base although it's growing very quickly and the interaction with the machine is a little bit different. You don't have to be in the same room in order to chat to each other or play against each other, because of the network. So your whole relationship with your gamer becomes slightly different.

Having said that, I would think that when this base increases in size the communication from central, which is currently where the network sits, will become far more localised. Because currently if you're looking at broadband connectivity into the network I think we've got less than 2000 people who are actually on the network, buying at the store.

So you're looking at a... it's almost like very disconnected sections of your PlayStation community. So you have your micro community of 2000 people who are interacting and using the machine as it should be used, and the rest, which is another 25 000 odd units that are not using the machine as it is supposed to be used. So it creates a very difficult market to speak to. But, as I said, it's not something that we're going to give up on and we'll continue.

GN: You are learning as you go along.

LJP: Absolutely. I mean, this thing has been launched since the 23rd of March — it's still 8/9 months in, so we're very young still.

SF: There are two other valid points to mention about community, maybe in a slightly different sense as well. And that's the way in which gaming is developing. It's gone from a very much backroom kind of one person activity that sits hidden away to, firstly on PlayStation 2, a much more social style of gaming with games like 'Buzz' and 'SingStar' being very involving and community based on a small scale in your own room with family, friends, whatever. Which has been fantastic and has broadened our audience.

Now, the one thing that PlayStation 3 then takes that a step further is that it again allows that; it's a little more of an invisible community because you don't have to be in the same room as Lana says. But one thing that is enabled is that we allow the consumer, the end user, to ultimately dictate where he takes his gaming.

So suddenly from Sony selling a game in a box and you do as the box says, as a consumer going forward you still buy that box but you adapt that box to the way you want to use it. So you can go online and play online, but you can also buy online, you can adapt your game by buying extras for it. And a game like SingStar that's coming out this Christmas — not only will you not be limited to the songs on the disc, you will be able to go to the Sing store and buy what songs you want, individually.

Which is a fantastic future proof kind of community way of you take your gaming as seriously as you like and take it where you want to take it. And a Big Brother doesn't have to be involved, if you know what I mean. It really is a different way of looking at it. And it's not out of a box anymore, it's tailor-made for you

GN: From a PlayStation 3 point of view, any plans of supporting competitive gaming locally?

LJP: We're doing a lot of work with AGASA at the moment — we support them, we are looking at assisting them with tournaments and stuff and also getting people overseas. It absolutely is a focus for us.

We would like to see development coming out of this country but obviously the development of PlayStation 3 going the way that it is, it's enormously cost restrictive to actually develop a PlayStation 3 game here. If you look at what's happening in studios that Steve is just around the corner from, you've got 80 or 90 people working on just a single game for years.

So the issue here with South African developers is that it is cost prohibitive. However, that doesn't mean that we don't have very creative, very able people in this country who should probably be passing their ideas on to the people who can assist them with development. I'm not sure what SCEE's view on that is?

SF: We don't really have a policy on it, to be honest. Creative ideas are always encouraged and the way that our development teams have evolved over the years have been huge, as Lana said. In Europe alone I think we have over a thousand people working on development just for SCEE, Sony Computer Entertainment. So it's a huge network of people who are already involved.

How to get involved as a South African? I don't really know. I'm not involved in development directly and I guess it's something where you encourage ideas. It's like anything in life where you've got a business idea, or an idea: you have to go and find the right guys who will buy into it.

LJP: There are also university courses for development. I know there are in Europe; there aren't any here at the moment, but there are in Europe. So it is a relatively expensive option for South Africans but there are courses available.

GN: PlayStation 3 games at the moment are not region coded. Will that change in the future?

SF: I don't believe so, no.

GN: What is the motivation behind not region coding it? Don't get me wrong, gamers are very happy about it.

SF: I guess we've just made a conscious business decision and we've talked to all the various people in the different key territories, sort of head office in Europe, head office in Japan, head office US. And there are two angles you look from: from a games angle and a movies angle. And I think what we're ultimately graduating towards is this infuriating problem that we've suffered from, which is split delivery timings — games coming out in the US before coming out in the rest of the world and the like.

I think ultimately the objective is to eradicate that problem so that we have worldwide releases. That's what I understand to be the key motivation. It also cuts cost — you don't have to do it in different formats and the transfer of code from PAL to NTSC and this kind of thing all adds cost to development. And it's something in this modern day and age, where we're all conscious of keeping price at an affordable level, it's an added benefit to avoid.

GN: So in a business sense it doesn't make sense to you to change back to region coding?

SF: No it doesn't, as long as we're following the principles of worldwide release. I only represent Sony, I don't represent all the other development teams and so on. At the moment we do have a region code for movies, but not all movie companies follow that code. Some of them avoid it. So it's a very personal question to answer and it does vary by developer and it varies by movie company. But ultimately it's a choice of cost against release strategy.

GN: There are a couple of wishlist items that gamers would like to see. One of them is IPTV for the PlayStation 3 — is that coming, or not?

SF: (Chuckles) Yes, but it won't be for a while in South Africa. It is being looked at in UK, Germany, and the like. There are many technical reasons why it can't happen immediately in South Africa. It is something, again, for your PlayStation fans out there — I imagine it being kind of on that telecom Richter scale going towards 2010. And if you look at 2010 — and I think 2011 there's actually a cut off date when all the various bodies around the world have to come in line technically as well — we'll be OK for South Africa. So I don't see it for a couple of years.

GN: The other wishlist item is in-game XMB.

SF: Don't know. You're asking the wrong person, I'm afraid. You'd need to ask the development side, technical side.

GN: LittleBigPlanet — is that rolling out with Home?

LJP: I don't have a release date for that. I know the developers were very excited about it in February.

GN: And so were gamers, but it seems that it's gone quiet...

SF: What I can tell you... we as commercial managers of Sony get regular updates on the latest development issues, the issues that you want to hear about. The next one that we are due is in February where we're going to sit down and everyone from the whole of Europe and Australia and South Africa that handles PlayStation is going to come to this meeting and we're going to give an update on all products.

So your direct answer would be your proper update will come post-February and you'll really find out more nuts and bolts about timings and what stage of development they're in.

GN: One of the big problems — from a gamer's point of view — that is prohibitive to buying a PlayStation 3, is the lack of titles. Obviously that will change. But how badly has that hurt Sony's business?

SF: I think it's an area that is a little bit over hyped. And I can only go back and look at history at where we were at this stage with the PS2. If you look at where the PS3 is relative to where the PS2 was there's an amazing difference. The quality and the quantity of the games that we do have are enormous. I mean, you go back 10 years and you were playing PhantaVision.

In terms of big titles that are coming out that are going to be worthwhile, the ones to mention from the Sony studios that we're particularly proud of, you've heard of SingStar already, which is a fascinating development just because of its network enablement on PlayStation 3. We've got Uncharted: Drake's Fortune — a very anticipated game. We're really excited about it. I've seen it firsthand, pretty much run through the whole game and it looks awesome. Haze, Assassin's Creed, Kane & Lynch, FIFA... You add all of that and I'm telling you it's all coming before Christmas hopefully.

LJP: Including Smackdown Vs. Raw, which in our market does exceptionally well — did exceptionally well on PlayStation 2 and we expect it to do just as well on PlayStation 3. It's a relatively mainstream title.

SF: And I think exclusive to PlayStation 3 — Haze is exclusive and we have an exclusivity window on Unreal Tournament 3 as well. Drake's Fortune is a Sony-only title so that's going to be exclusive too.
(time will tell, libellule)

GN: Is there anything that you'd like to add?

SF: Some of the exciting things that are going on behind the scenes — the much heralded and spoken about KillZone 2 on the PlayStation 3. We had a presentation from the development studio which is right next door to my office in London and I saw the latest real gameplay. They took me through a whole section of the game.

I have to say it's definitely the best gameplay and immersive involvement in the gaming world that I've ever witnessed. It blew everything out of the water in terms of look, feel, action, fear factor, emotion, lighting, mood — unbelievable. Everything that was pitched at E3 two years ago, I believe, will now ultimately be upheld.
(same here, time will tell)

In terms of launch, that's going to be here next calendar year. Hopefully this time next year it will have launched and we're really anticipating that as an exciting title.

PSP Slim & Light is just flying at the moment. Another exciting feature is the sat nav function. We're just about to sign the licence to have that run in South Africa. It's a GPRS system so it's competing with Garmin and the like — it's a full, mature, adult, sat nav system. This is actually an adult, full version sat nav system. It comes with a little peripheral that clicks into the USB connector on your PSP; it comes with a bit of software and away you go.

GN: So you can use your PSP as a GPS device?

SF: Correct. So you can use it in your car, on foot, on your bike — there will be peripherals coming out to strap it on your car, your bike, whatever you want.

We're about to sign, we're getting the company involved over here that do all the mapping, we're signing with them. They've got really good coverage over here so it's not going to be something that's a bit half-cock. It's full on and covers all the key areas and roads and streets. It's a cracking little development and something that just shows you where the future can go — it's endless; it's not just about gaming and all these things anymore.

LJP: The thing is if you're looking at the PSP, PlayStation 3 — it's about convergence. Everything happening in one place, at one time; it's convenience, it's quick. This is the thing that we need to get across and it's perhaps something in the South African market that we haven't been as good with as we should have, is that PlayStation 3 is not the way you perceive PlayStation 2 to have been. It's a media centre, it can form part of your life in a way that PlayStation 2 didn't. The PlayStation 3 needs to be in the centre of your life — it should not be hidden in your bedroom or your study anymore. It's a media centre.

GN: For how long are you planning to still sell the PlayStation 2?

SF: PlayStation 2 is just the most unbelievable bit of tech around — it just keeps on selling and selling and this year in South Africa there has been very little price movement and it's still selling as well as it did last year, even with the pressure that the Rand has put on the price going up.

There's a new model that's been announced. In Japan it's launching about now. That is due to come to South Africa... they haven't announced a pool date yet, but I would suggest a betting man would go March, April, May time next year. It will be lighter and a little bit cosmetically different but ultimately technically superior because the adaptor is built-in so it just looks a bit sleeker. So there is much life in the PS2.

There are new markets that we're hitting in South Africa that we've never hit before. We've already done double the quantity of PS2s that we did on PSOne, so it shows you how the community has grown. We're very aware of the new markets that are opening up in South Africa and the new types of people and so on so it's something that we're very much behind.

We're definitely going to keep on manufacturing it, it's not going away. There are still people making software — there are countless number of titles coming out next year that I already know about. It's a phenomenal success. It's here to stay and I certainly see a minimum of two to three years before PS2 will become history.

GN: Do you foresee software development for it tapering off though?

SF: It depends on who you're talking to — if you're talking to me at Sony then most of our guys are focussed on PlayStation 3 at the moment. However, we still continue to produce SingStar titles and some of these more family entertainment style games such as Buzz and from time to time we might launch a SOCOM or something like that.

But the people who are still developing are the third parties — the EAs, the Activisions, the Ubisofts — who are very motivated to keep on developing because of the installed bases that they're selling to. Lana mentioned earlier WWE — I mean, an astounding number of people are buying into that franchise over here in South Africa; the numbers, you just wouldn't believe.

LJP: South Africa is the second largest PAL market for Smackdown Vs. Raw, so we're looking on PlayStation 2 at about 25 000 units to go over the festive season.

GN: Did the continued popularity of the PlayStation 2 over the PlayStation 3 catch Sony a little bit unawares? In other words, wasn't the original intent for the PlayStation 3 to replace the PlayStation 2 user base?

SF: No... I mean, ultimately yes, but short term, no. The people you're aiming at are quite different. I mean, someone who would be looking to buy a PlayStation 2 right now would not be looking to buy a PlayStation 3. He may do it in a dream kind of way, but not in a reality kind of way.

So the communities are very different that you're targeting. So yes, PlayStation 3 will ultimately replace PlayStation 2 but the fascinating thing about working in markets like South Africa is you've got such a diverse public with people at different stages of life and capabilities of buying different technologies depending on where they live. This leaves for a very vibrant market that will continue to grow on PlayStation 2 and PSP and PS3 and there's room for all of them. So yeah, we look on PlayStation 2 as a replacement for Wii, not for PlayStation 3. (Smiles)

GN: You'll have to do something about the controller then.

SF: (Laughs)

LJP: Well if you look at the EyeToy, you're using yourself as a controller. There is no controller, what better controller than that? You're hitting stuff out of the air.

SF: And of course on PlayStation 2 we are introducing next year a wireless PlayStation 2 controller. A first party one that will have Bluetooth, so it's going to be as good a quality as the PS3 one.

GN: Will it also include the SIXAXIS technology?

SF: It's not six, it's going to be four — FOURAXIS.

GN: And rumble?

SF: Can't remember, off-hand.

GN: And on the PS3?

SF: That is definitely coming. That will be here, again similar to this period I was talking of earlier, so March, April, May.

GN: Thank you for your time.