Phil Harrison: “no regrets whatsoever” with PS3

For the sake of accuracy in reporting, Phil Harrison replied “no regrets whatsoever” when asked by GameDaily.biz about Blu-Ray’s inclusion in the PS3. The attitude the SCE Worldwide Studios President has taken with promoting the PS3, however, can be reflected by that statement: “no regrets whatsoever.”

The guy strikes us as funny, but we (well, this writer, anyway) slowly realized, funny in a good way. The guy may have quite the history of saying stuff that end up mangled, tangled, and the butt of some jokes, that once someone wanted him to seal those lips. Given the chance (and a lot of time to talk), however, he sometimes comes off middle-of-the-road, even as he thumps the PS3 as his gospel.

Given the chance to thumb down the opposition, he doesn’t even come off as aggressive, too arrogant, or completely snarky (although knowing the opposition in-depth may not be one of his strong points). The long DICE interview with GameDaily has to be left as a Via link, for you to take in the raw, but we’ll take some snippets of note here as a teaser.

• Still definitely “no regrets whatsoever” with Blu-Ray’s inclusion in PS3, even if he describes the decision as “painful.”

The rest of Phil Harrison’s statements, and the jab at the competition that isn’t quite the jab (quite kind, actually) after the jump.

For the sake of accuracy in reporting, Phil Harrison replied “no regrets whatsoever” when asked by GameDaily.biz about Blu-Ray’s inclusion in the PS3. The attitude that the SCE Worldwide Studios President has taken with promoting the PS3, however, can be reflected by that statement: “no regrets whatsoever.”

The guy strikes us as funny, but we (well, this writer, anyway) slowly realized, funny in a good way. The guy may have quite the history of saying stuff that end up mangled, tangled, and the butt of some jokes, that once someone wanted him to seal those lips. Given the chance (and a lot of time to talk), however, he sometimes comes off middle-of-the-road, even as he thumps the PS3 as his gospel.

Given the chance to thumb down the opposition, he doesn’t even come off as aggressive, too arrogant, or completely snarky (although knowing the opposition in-depth may not be one of his strong points). The long DICE interview with GameDaily has to be left as a Via link, for you to take in the raw, but we’ll take some snippets of note here as a teaser.

• Still definitely “no regrets whatsoever” with Blu-Ray’s inclusion in PS3, even if he describes the decision as “painful.”
• Price drop? “At the appropriate time and when we can afford to, the business model of the industry is to pass those savings (in long-term production and cost-cutting) onto the consumer, but we’re a long way away from doing that yet.”
• Upon a decent return-of-investment perhaps? Or, as Shirley Manson once put it, “When I grow up, I’ll be stable… I’ll turn the tables”?
• Rumble? Nope, BUT “Having said that, there will be specific game function controllers, potentially like steering wheels that do include vibration or feedback function – not from us but from third parties.”
• Will this mean that devs will include code to support force feedback or rumble (complete difference between both, by the way) for compatible third-party simulator controllers (e.g., steering wheels and flight control yokes/sticks and throttles)? Ask them (third parties), if you must, but if you ask us, why not?

When asked about the competition, and what they could (potentially) “learn from Sony” (uh-oh, everyone please stay calm…):

• Both companies clearly have great strengths and they’ve both done some wonderful things in their respective fields. (Told you the guy’s surprising)
• Nintendo: (a) He respects their innovation in the Wii, and everyone else, should be, too (really surprising). (b) “I’m not sure that it has the technology base to propel that platform in the long-term. So I think their platform lifecycle is inherently going to be shorter.”
• Do note that the trade-off of this decision is that the Wii is more affordable and profitable for Nintendo, but the implication is that there has to be a Wii 2.0 to keep up with the next-gen competition.
• Microsoft: “Microsoft’s approach I think is far too built around a single game IP, one IP, and they could learn the benefits of a killer catalog rather than a killer application. And having the broad software support in multiple genres, in multiple categories, in multiple age groups is what really propels a platform for the long-term.”
• On the other hand, the Xbox 360 has that year-long lead, which does mean that the platform does have a library of games to draw from. But Phil’s statement does have merit that ultimately, it comes down to the library of games that drives a platform’s life, although that practically is a fact of gaming life, anyway.