E3: Sony’s Jack Tretton on PS3 price, Killzone, GTA4

Although a bit late, 1Up finally released their interview with Sony CEO Jack Tretton and senior director Dave Karraker. After getting a little feedback from Sony’s executives on the company’s presentation at the E3 Media & Business Summit, ol’ Tretton mentioned these minor details in the interview:

• Grand Theft Auto 4 was not at Sony’s press conference during E3 because the publishers didn’t send it. That’s right: they sent an email and everything, but they just didn’t get a video back, simple as that.
• Killzone 2 will not be released by this year. It’ll be released on the first half of next year.
• When asked what motivates third-party developers like Insomniac to stay exclusive to the PlayStation 3, Tretton believes that it’s because of a long standing relationship between Sony and Insomniac, and it’s probably in the best interests of the company to stay exclusive. He also answered that it would be better for them to ask Ted Price himself (CEO and President of Insomniac Games) about it.

It’s inevitable that when faced with the president of Sony America, you ask him what his views are on the price of the PS3. Given references to the price of the previous generation in consoles (the PS2 sold for US$ 199) and how the Wii seems to be favoring with consumers because of it’s relatively cheap price, Tretton was then asked what his target price was for the PS3 and how it would be different from the PS2.

Eager to know his answer? Click on Full Article to read on!

Although a bit late, 1Up finally released their interview with Sony CEO Jack Tretton and senior director Dave Karraker. After getting a little feedback from Sony’s executives on the company’s presentation at the E3 Media & Business Summit, ol’ Tretton mentioned these minor details in the interview:

• Grand Theft Auto 4 was not at Sony’s press conference during E3 because the publishers didn’t send it. That’s right: they sent an email and everything, but they just didn’t get a video back, simple as that.
• Killzone 2 will not be released by this year. It’ll be released on the first half of next year.
• When asked what motivates third-party developers like Insomniac to stay exclusive to the PlayStation 3, Tretton believes that it’s because of a long standing relationship between Sony and Insomniac, and it’s probably in the best interests of the company to stay exclusive. He also answered that it would be better for them to ask Ted Price himself (CEO and President of Insomniac Games) about it.

It’s inevitable that when faced with the president of Sony America, you ask him what his views are on the price of the PS3. Given references to the price of the previous generation in consoles (the PS2 sold for US$ 199) and how the Wii seems to be favoring with consumers because of it’s relatively cheap price, Tretton was then asked what his target price was for the PS3 and how it would be different from the PS2. Tretton responded:

I think you bring up a great point. Unfortunately — and I’m a consumer just like you and or anybody else — we all want things as inexpensively as possible and ideally we want them for free. Gas costs US$ 3.50 a gallon, doesn’t mean we stop driving, movies cost $10 or $11 when they use to cost $4, but we still go to the movies, but for some reason a state of the art videogame machine was $249 in 1995 and the belief is it should be $249 forever. I think the reality of the world is, if you want increased technology, you’re gonna have to pay for it. I think consumers are responding at least in terms of software pricing by saying “okay, I get that, that’s a great game that obviously has a lot of depth for it, I’ll pay $59.99 for it.”

There used to be a belief that you couldn’t charge over $40 for a videogame, and I think the same is true for hardware, if there is value there and the consumers understand it, they’ll pay for it. I don’t have a target price in mind; it varies by consumer. There are a lot of people who obviously were very comfortable with the $599 because they went out and bought a PS3. I think, at the end of the day, it’s the balance between price and value. If it’s all about price, we win because we have the $129 machine, if it’s all about technology, because I think PS3 have the most advanced technology. I think PS3 will achieve the heights that PS2 did when we marry up the value and the price to the average consumer’s satisfaction.

Via 1Up