Kaz Hirai: We had no choice but to have Blu-ray on PS3
They had to go and bite the bullet, explained Sony boss Kazuo Hirai in regards to their Blu-ray choice. Simply put, it appears that they had “no other choice” but to have Blu-ray into the PS3. But there’s more than meets the eye. Find out how Hideo Kojima fits in the equation.
They had to go and bite the bullet, explained Sony boss Kazuo Hirai in regards to their Blu-ray choice. Simply put, it appears that they had “no other choice” but to have Blu-ray into the PS3.
Asked if the inclusion of the Blu-ray drive into the PS3 proved to be a mistake in hindsight:
Purely from a gaming standpoint there was no other choice for us. Why? The capacity of the disc. Last year’s Metal Gear Solid 4 was pushing 50GB as it was. If it was on DVD it would have been a 6 disc set. The packaging and cost would have been prohibitive and it would have been hugely inconvenient to consumers. So from a gaming standpoint there was really no choice if you wanted a high definition gaming experience.
Kojima-san has been pushing the boundaries already. And then there is the motion picture issue. The PS3 installed base certainly went a long way to making the movie studios aside with Blu-ray rather than HD-DVD or supporting both.
Ultimately it ended up being the right thing for the entirety of the industry as consumers don’t need to hedge their bets. We had a lot to do with making Blu-ray the de-facto standard. That’s great. But our decision to include a Blu-ray drive in the PS3 was mainly driven by gaming priorities and what the content creators could do with the storage space.
Ah yes… the stealthy Kojima-san. His answers are pretty expected, actually. But if you read between the lines carefully, it would seem as if we also have Kojima to thank for pushing the boundaries and creating – and showing – that necessity for more efficient means of storing huge contents into a single space.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how the Blu-ray was born.
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Via Guardian UK
