GDC 2007, Phil Harrison admits: not enough PS3s for GTA IV-exclusive

Speechless. You’d think that SCE Worldwide Studios head Phil Harrison‘s candid humility could not top his candidness with Kotaku’s Brian Crecente… think again. During a GDC 2007 blogger’s conference, he was asked if he was concerned that the PS3 was “losing exclusives,” including the much-touted (and tattooed) Grand Theft Auto IV. Answer: no he wasn’t worried, reported IGN. But that wasn’t the moment of humility.

THIS WAS: Harrison told bloggers that (he thought) the reason why GTA IV went multi-console was because the PS3 didn’t have the installed base to support on its own the considerable investment Rockstar would need to plug for the next-gen title. In other words, there weren’t enough (projected) PS3s in the market to justify exclusivity to Rockstar/Take-Two. Ergo, or as we paraphrase, to pay the bills at Rockstar, Peter Moore got his tattoo.

IGN described Phil’s answer as “very candid.” We’d add “shockingly” somewhere in there, too. Reading up on this exclusivity issue from past articles, Microsoft did do some aggressive marketing to attract publishers to the 360. But you also have Phil here admitting to bloggers (who may hang on his every word – or hang him with them) what he just admitted – which is understandable enough from a business perspective. After all, a company sits on its bottom line.

Yet Phil, ever positive Phil, also believes that in good time, the PS3 should receive some exclusives, too. And past the exclusives, the console shall receive its fair share of multiplatform titles, too. He cited the PlayStation Edge toolset, saying that it should become easier for devs to code for the Cell and thus make it easier to bring their titles to the PS3, whether exclusive or multiplatform.

And with more PS3s being sold and more of them in living rooms, the time will come, too, when PS3 exclusives will be worth the investment to make them. Whether the world of gaming will see more – or less – exclusives in the coming years, we can say this: so as long as Sony keeps plugging the Cell for development teams with tools like Edge, the PS3 will stand a good chance in this generation.

Speechless. You’d think that SCE Worldwide Studios head Phil Harrison‘s candid humility could not top his candidness with Kotaku’s Brian Crecente… think again. During a GDC 2007 blogger’s conference, he was asked if he was concerned that the PS3 was “losing exclusives,” including the much-touted (and tattooed) Grand Theft Auto IV. Answer: no he wasn’t worried, reported IGN. But that wasn’t the moment of humility.

THIS WAS: Harrison told bloggers that (he thought) the reason why GTA IV went multi-console was because the PS3 didn’t have the installed base to support on its own the considerable investment Rockstar would need to plug for the next-gen title. In other words, there weren’t enough (projected) PS3s in the market to justify exclusivity to Rockstar/Take-Two. Ergo, or as we paraphrase, to pay the bills at Rockstar, Peter Moore got his tattoo.

IGN described Phil’s answer as “very candid.” We’d add “shockingly” somewhere in there, too. Reading up on this exclusivity issue from past articles, Microsoft did do some aggressive marketing to attract publishers to the 360. But you also have Phil here admitting to bloggers (who may hang on his every word – or hang him with them) what he just admitted – which is understandable enough from a business perspective. After all, a company sits on its bottom line.

Yet Phil, ever positive Phil, also believes that in good time, the PS3 should receive some exclusives, too. And past the exclusives, the console shall receive its fair share of multiplatform titles, too. He cited the PlayStation Edge toolset, saying that it should become easier for devs to code for the Cell and thus make it easier to bring their titles to the PS3, whether exclusive or multiplatform.

And with more PS3s being sold and more of them in living rooms, the time will come, too, when PS3 exclusives will be worth the investment to make them. Whether the world of gaming will see more – or less – exclusives in the coming years, we can say this: so as long as Sony keeps plugging the Cell for development teams with tools like Edge, the PS3 will stand a good chance in this generation.