“2007 is the year of the software” – Sony’s Harrison

Phil Harrison started 2006 as the new president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios. Just after almost one year of manning the post, Harrison became an instant household name (to hardcore gamers at least). He is known to make comments here and there, sometimes discussing things that truly matter.

Harrison recently talked about the past year and what lies in 2007 for Sony. The good thing about him is that he never denied that Sony indeed had a shaky year. Choosing to look at the brighter side of things, the official mentioned that 2007 is just around the corner and suggested that the war being fought on hardware domain now moves to software and content.

Furthermore, he insisted that users are becoming more and more important to companies. Aside from being consumers, these same people are now being looked at for ideas and suggestions on how to improve the gaming industry. According to Harrison:

The video-game business for the past 20 years was about shipping closed experiences. Somebody made a game. Gamers bought it. They played it. End of story. Next year you’re going to see user-created experiences in a number of interesting ways on PlayStation 3.

Aside from that paradigm shift, the official is also suggesting an industry makeover. The comment was made after discussing PS2 title Bully (the game was created by Rockstar and is about a boy and a troubled prep school). Harrison lamented:

I fervently believe that the biggest challenge we face is that our industry is referred to as ‘video games,’ and games are supposed to be fun. Games should deal with fear, should deal with comedy and with death. They should deal with peril, with drug offenses. I’m not sure how we can escape when the leading brand is called PlayStation.

Most importantly, Harrison reiterated that they are bringing back PSP game Loco Roco “in a couple of new ways with some new friends in the future.” Finally, he couldn’t help but brag in the end about their console’s hardware prowess. As we all know, the PS3 is an advance technology given its controller, multiple processors and constant firmware upgrades. “Nobody will ever use 100 percent of its capability.”

Phil Harrison started 2006 as the new president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios. Just after almost one year of manning the post, Harrison became an instant household name (to hardcore gamers at least). He is known to make comments here and there, sometimes discussing things that truly matter.

Harrison recently talked about the past year and what lies in 2007 for Sony. The good thing about him is that he never denied that Sony indeed had a shaky year. Choosing to look at the brighter side of things, the official mentioned that 2007 is just around the corner and suggested that the war being fought on hardware domain now moves to software and content.

Furthermore, he insisted that users are becoming more and more important to companies. Aside from being consumers, these same people are now being looked at for ideas and suggestions on how to improve the gaming industry. According to Harrison:

The video-game business for the past 20 years was about shipping closed experiences. Somebody made a game. Gamers bought it. They played it. End of story. Next year you’re going to see user-created experiences in a number of interesting ways on PlayStation 3.

Aside from that paradigm shift, the official is also suggesting an industry makeover. The comment was made after discussing PS2 title Bully (the game was created by Rockstar and is about a boy and a troubled prep school). Harrison lamented:

I fervently believe that the biggest challenge we face is that our industry is referred to as ‘video games,’ and games are supposed to be fun. Games should deal with fear, should deal with comedy and with death. They should deal with peril, with drug offenses. I’m not sure how we can escape when the leading brand is called PlayStation.

Most importantly, Harrison reiterated that they are bringing back PSP game Loco Roco “in a couple of new ways with some new friends in the future.” Finally, he couldn’t help but brag in the end about their console’s hardware prowess. As we all know, the PS3 is an advance technology given its controller, multiple processors and constant firmware upgrades. “Nobody will ever use 100 percent of its capability.”