We hooked up Rob Fahey from Eurogamer.net with Sony’s head of worldwide studios, Phil Harrison, for a long and intense interview that will lead to a whole series of pieces to be published on Three Speech. Here’s the first, with Phil Harrison talking PS3 hardware.
If you were going to pick somewhere to work, this wouldn’t be a bad choice. We’re in a modern office near Oxford Circus in London, with tall glass windows all down one side which look out over the rooftops of Soho; in the distance, the London Eye turns slowly. Perhaps even more distracting than the view, though, is the giant plasma screen which dominates the office - and the PlayStation 3 which sits underneath it. Lots of offices in London have great views of the river or the city’s landmarks - very few, right now, have great views of Ridge Racer 7, which is what’s on screen at the moment.
We’re in Phil Harrison’s office, and we’re here to talk about the PS3. Sony may be a Japanese company at heart, but if you’ve got questions about the forthcoming console and its software, this is the right place to come. Since he was appointed as head of Sony’s worldwide studios - the guy in charge of software, in other words - Harrison has become the company’s straight talker. There are plenty of people you can talk to if you want visionary, non-specific babble about the entertainment systems of the future. You talk to Phil Harrison if you want a straight answer about why the hell Sony is insisting on a Blu-Ray drive for PS3, or what they were thinking when they dropped rumble from the pad.
So we ask those things…
First things first. Blu-Ray, the disc system which the PS3 uses, is probably the most controversial aspect of the console. The discs, which are the same size as DVDs, can hold either 25 or 50GB of data - compared to 4.7 or 9GB on DVDs. That’s great, but less great is the fact that the inclusion of the drive is believed to be responsible for much of the cost of the console, and Sony admits that Blu-Ray shortages are behind the decision to delay the European launch of PS3 to 2007. What’s more, Sony has been accused of putting the drive into the console just to drive sales of high-definition movies on Blu-Ray discs - effectively making consumers pay for a Hi-Def movie player in their console, whether they want one or not.
So what’s the real reason for Blu-Ray being in every PS3? Are people who just want to play games, and aren’t bothered about Blu-Ray movies, really going to see any benefits?
“Well, they’re going to get, in their console, not just the movie format but the data transport format - which will be at least the next ten years,” Harrison explains. “DVD is not sufficient capacity to power the kind of data consumption, or to feed the data consumption needs of Cell and RSX. It’s got nothing to do with movies. Just purely as a gameplay device, we need Blu-Ray to supply the kind of data that PS3 games use.”
“It’s not just about graphics - it’s about 7.1 audio, it’s about speech, it’s about having up to 1080p movies built into the game; it’s high res textures, it’s animation, it’s everything that goes into making a very rich and varied next-gen experience. Already, at our launch titles, we’re getting up close to the 25GB limit that we have on our Blu-Ray discs this year. Next year we’ll raise that to 50GB, and I’d expect that we’ll be getting close to that in the fairly near future as well.”
“Don’t take my word from it - there was a great quote from a guy from EA who said that whenever there’s a new disc format, you always struggle to think how developers will fill it, but they always do. I suppose that game development is like gas, it expands to fill the available space. Once you have that technical capability, the creative desire to exploit it follows very quickly thereafter.”
One of the things that people are concerned about is that discs will be filled with high-resolution video scenes rather than actual game content - which seems like a fair concern, since at the moment game creators seem to be fitting next-gen titles perfectly well onto DVDs. The question, then, is whether there’s relevant, interactive content that is going to need this sort of disc.
“Absolutely,” Harrison says. “I mean, not every game is going to fill 25 or 50GB. I completely accept that - but there will be games that require that this year, and will push that further in years to come. It’s not just, as you say, about movies - it’s about 7.1 audio, it’s about animation, it’s about high resolution textures. If you have a graphics chip capable of displaying the textures in a high enough resolution, the designers would want to exploit that benefit creatively.”
“So partly it’s visual, partly it’s sound, and partially it’ll be down to gameplay benefits as well - more levels, more detail, richer experiences. Also, I see nothing wrong with having non-interactive, full HD sequences as part of the game - that’s all part of the production value and the experience that you get when you buy the game. I don’t see that as a weakness at all.”
One spanner in the works, though, is Sony’s own announcement a few weeks ago that it’s going to be shipping some games where you buy a cheap disc with relatively little content on it, and then download more content over the network as you go along. Two titles like that are Singstar and Gran Turismo HD - which begs the question, what do you need a Blu-Ray disc for if you’re just going to be downloading everything and storing it on the PS3 hard drive? Doesn’t that make the whole Blu-Ray idea a bit, well, irrelevant?
Not so, says Harrison. “Both of the games that you cite there will have very large databases of content on the disc - I don’t know exactly how big today, but definitely way more than anything we can do on DVD,” he says. “Then, those games will be extended and expanded via downloadable content, which will be added to the user’s hard drive.”
“There will be games that start off relatively small, in terms of initial disc capacity, and then the users can extend and expand the experience by downloading content. What that allows us to do as a publisher is perhaps a year after, or two years after, we can take all of that downloadable content and put it onto the disc, and republish, or add value, or some other incentive, to the consumers who didn’t buy first time around - so that gives us plenty of future proof options for how we deliver content to users. All of that is only possible because of Blu-Ray.”
Out of space. Check back on Three Speech soon for Harrison’s reply to our questions about rumble in the PS3 pad - and why Sony has added a HDMI video port to the low-end PS3 system at the eleventh hour!
By Rob Fahey (Eurogamer.net)
The trouble is that surely everything which Harrison says can be done via Blu-ray can also be achieved via the rival (non-Sony-controlled) format HD-DVD. particularly now that triple-layer HD-DVD manufacturing has now been cracked. And what role will the fearsomely control-freakish ICT copy-protection system play? Pretty soon, you will be able to buy an add-on HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 at a cost of just £130, and HD-DVD is notable for being about half the price (in terms of hardware) than Blu-ray. Sony reckons Blu-ray is higher quality than HD-DVD. But the quality differential between the two standards is nowhere near as significant as that between VHS and the enormously superior (but way pricier) Betamax. And we all know what happened in that battle.
Comment by Blurayman — Oct 16, 2006 @ 10:18 am
….What the hell is wrong with all the haters out there? Just because the Playstation 3 has a high price does not mean it sucks!…The X box 360 is good, but could be better…do any of you know how much a Blu-Ray player costs?…around 800 bucks or more! so sony is douing all of us a huge favor by having the Blu-Ray in the playstation 3!
Comment by Spotz22 — Oct 16, 2006 @ 3:30 pm
Surely the point is the 360 HD-DVD drive is for movie playback only… it will not, and cannot be used for games. The argument about Blu-ray is from the basis of a software point of view - in so much as the only way to produce games with hi-res textures, HD movie playback, 7.1 surround sound etc is with a large capacity storage drive (Blu-ray). The DVD drive at the heart of the 360 can only hold up to 9GB on a DVD9 disk… and when you look at even the early PS3 launch titles (Resistance Fall of Man), which currently clocks in at 22GB, you can start to see what PH means…
Comment by KITSON — Oct 16, 2006 @ 4:45 pm
Cards on the table - I’m a journalist, but not a technology or gaming journalist. Can someone who knows about this kind of thing explain whether the analogy being made so consistently at the moment between VHS/Betamax and HD-DVD/Blu-Ray actually stacks up and makes sense? Any insight appreciated.
Comment by High On Hope — Oct 16, 2006 @ 6:19 pm
Around E3 2005 the idea Sony isn’t innovative and Xbox360 may actually be a decent system got to peoples heads and it became cool to flame Sony down in the most biased way possible, just click on something with the word PS3 is it, and you will see what I am talking about. They can’t even agree that Sony has always provided good content and will continue to provide good content on their systems. 3/4 worth-having games this generation seemed to be on the Playstation 2. Yet Sony desirves a failure system for providing all that great content under one roof.
I wish I had time to organize this comment better, its just a lot of random scribbles. (:
Comment by Marcus — Oct 17, 2006 @ 1:06 am
I look at the PS3 specs and I am in awe. Sony really for the first time have listened to customers. Firstly the HDD is non-propriety. You will not be restricted what the 360 has, one size- one format…a microsoft form factor. After all in the past consoles do not make profits on straight hrdware but its in the accesories that help regain losses (eg the £20 8mb memory card)
Look at the high end system with a built in memory card reader for multiple formats. If only Sony would apply this across its other products. HDMI built in for videophiles and 7.1 surround sound as standard is a true leap in quality of games.
In short the PS3 is a meaty beast with powerfl CPU beyond what the 360 can do. People compare speads but what they are doing is comparing a Intel Celeron with AMD Athlon. I own PSP and 360. I know the 360 is not up to scratch and the PSP is a great handheld in terms of power but what I have found is this, I dont feel as ripped with 360 as I do with a PSP. I feel as though Im merely lending this console from sony. Sony’s past has caught up with them and the PS3 is simply what happens when you act to late.
Comment by Saee — Oct 17, 2006 @ 11:21 am
[...] Harrison on BD for PS3 (No Ratings Yet) Loading … [...]
Pingback by PS3 Blog.net » Archive » Phil Harrison Talks BD for PS3 — Oct 17, 2006 @ 11:48 am
The analogy of VHS/Betamax cannot be used in this case to show the relationship between HD-DVD/Blu-ray. Betamax was more expensive but also, had significantly less support from the movie industry. this is why betamax failed. However, Blu-ray has exclusive support from 4 of the 6 major movie studios, and the other 2 studios support both formats. So Blu-ray has support from all 6 movie studios and HD-DVD has support from 2. Also, the gaming industry, computer industry, and porn industry all support Blu-ray over HD-DVD. It’s not always about cost. It’s about support. And HD-DVD doesn’t cost half of what Blu-ray costs. Toshiba was selling their $500 HD-DVD player at a $200 loss to try to get their foot in the door.
I think it’s great that Sony is adding a Blu-ray player to the PS3. It is much different from Microsoft having an add-on HD-DVD. the difference? HD-DVD can NEVER be used for games because it would alienate every 360 owner. This would force every 360 owner to buy the add-on to play the HD-DVD games. Microsoft would never be that stupid. Therefore, HD-DVD will never be for games.
Comment by eclipsed4utoo — Oct 17, 2006 @ 1:55 pm
Yaeh, yeah, yah… Game consoles on’t need BR just now, but in a year or two, programmers will have serious problems with the DVD9 format… And Sony is planning to be on the market for 10 years with PS3, so it’s logical that it has so advanced technology. And come on… yeah, Sony really IS a little late to the party. X360 is here for almost a year. But so is Wii! And I haven’t seen any game on X360 that is so outstanding that it would be the reason to buy the console! X fans can go on and on about the “spectacular” Xbox live, but PS Network will be its fair contestent, ’cause it’ll be free. So, all those rumours on the Net about PS3 are just that - rumours. Some site without credibiliy needs popularity.. so what do they do? They publish a fake story about PS3 overheating or something like that. Of course… they are the first in the world to publish it, but it’s just because no one else knows anything about it. If Sony was in suh troubles, PS3 wouldn’t come out in November. And frankly, I’m sick of those non-argumented rumours!
Comment by Eraser — Oct 17, 2006 @ 6:03 pm
How many double-DVD games have we seen this generation? (Bonus disks not included) None that I know of, and the reason is simple: DVD as a storage medium for games has not yet been exhausted. Moreover, compression techniques continues to improve dramatically.
So it’ll be a while yet before 25gb and 50gb discs give benefit to the consumer. In the mean time, they’ll benefit developers short on time to optimise their code.
Comment by somebody — Oct 17, 2006 @ 6:35 pm
I’m an OG gamer which means to those that don’t know I’ve console gaming since the start. I’ve had just about every good system first the Atari 2600 as a kid through the NES & Sega Gensesis era to the current PS,PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, Xbox 360 and soon to be PS3 & Wii.
Since the maturity stage of the PS 1 and the marketing promotion for the launch of the PS2 Sony had been talking about increasing the lifecycle of the gaming console from 5 years to 10. So intially I don’t expect to see alot of games pushing the use of the Blue-Ray Disc capacity other than with the HD visuals and sound. However I feel the content that Phil Harrison is talking about coming soon. Because one thing Sony had, and I believe they still have is a plan to always bring the games. Nintendo use to hold this strategy real tough but alienated alot of the 3rd party of the years. Don’t get me wrong my 360 is nice right now but I say 6 months to a year I’m looking forward to Sony’s next ICO, Jak & Daxter, Resident Evil, God of War. Not neccessarily these games but unique and highly rated games just to name a few.
Crimson Saga
Comment by Crimson Saga — Oct 17, 2006 @ 8:39 pm
What an utter joke. I have three things to say:
1. Marketing rhetoric mixed with straight up bullshit. It’s all just about furthering Blu-ray’s reach.
2. Even PC games aren’t coming on more than one DVD.
3. A single layer Blu-ray disc is bigger than the low end internal HD, and they’re saying it’s barely enough. Hypocrisy?
4. There is NO WAY IN HELL a Singstar game could need more than 9GB.
Comment by Prime — Oct 18, 2006 @ 7:46 am
Oops, I meant ‘four things to say’ obviously.
Comment by Prime — Oct 18, 2006 @ 7:46 am
Here is the thing. Regardless of what you think, at some point in time the developers are going to need more space then current DVD will provide. Sony can choose to prep for that or follow the Microsoft direction and force you into a second box later. For myself, I would rather get it over with and have it all in one box.
Second, of course they are going to choose Blu-Ray. They are making it. Did you actually think that they were going to put an HD-DVD in the box? And what a bonus. Buy a top of the line gamine system with real power and get a Blu-Ray DVD player as a bonus. The simple cost savings over buying two seperate boxes is worth the price of admission.
If you don’t like it sit on the side lines and watch the rest of us play the latest games and watch the best looking movies available in your home.
Comment by michael — Oct 18, 2006 @ 2:42 pm
The ps3 is fit to last the next 10 years with out any need for hardware addons as i see it. The 360 already has addons(HD drive) just to keep up with an unreleased console, plus i dont think the 360 is going to be Microsoft only console release for the next ten years so when they release their next console it will be up against a ps3 with a huge user base, software catalog spanning 3 generations and film collection on blue-ray. Ps3 seems to me the best choice…and the 360 remindeds me to much of the dreamcast disaster.
Comment by Jason — Oct 27, 2006 @ 2:46 pm
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