Game Informer interviews Sony's Phil Harrison

[JTK]

You all will enjoy this.

Just watch how much FUD and misinformation gets shot down in short order here.

The latest issue of GameInformer magazine, December 2006, page 26.

Interview with Phil Harrison, Sony's president of worldwide studios:

It's a good interview but here's the most relevant portion:

Originally Posted by Game Informer

Question:

Minidiscs and UMD have struggled as media formats. Are there concerns about BD not taking off as a format?

Answer:

Well, first of all, MiniDisc is still the number one personal portable, digital recording format ion the world, 15 years after it came out.


Question:

But it didn't have the impact on teh general consumer that, say, the cassette tape had.


Answer:

No, because the world is digital now, the world's not tape. The UMD movie catalog on the PSP is over 400 strong. There are a huge number of games for the PSP that use UMD and we'll continue to push that format very strongly.


Now your question about BD discs needs to be clarified.

BD is NOT a Sony proprietary format and that was clear in Jack's presentation.

We are a partner of a much larger consortium that represents 80 percent of the consumer electronics industry, the world's largest computer companies, Dell and Apple, and also the consortium includes the vast majority of the major Hollywood Studio content.

Sony Pictures alone represents more than HALF the films EVER made with MGM and Sony Pictures.

So I don't believe there is any debate about BD discs being the next generation of high definition movie format for the industry and for the world.

But that is completely incididental to the fact that we need BD discs as a game format. You can see from the richness and detail that's going in to our games that we absolutely require the storage capacity.


Question:

On a gamer level, some people are talking about how BD holds more, but DVD is accessible faster.

Answer:

That is not correct.

It (BD) is indistguishable from DVD. You saw it today that the loading times are not an issue. When you've got that much content accessible, the benefits of Blu-Ray discs are clear.

There is NO consumer downside whatsoever.