PS3's Tretton Praises Blu-ray

[sj001]

http://www.hollywoodinhidef.com/blog_detail.php?id=145

Fascinating, hard-hitting interview with Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America in Foster City, by San Jose Mercury News. Here are a few key points from the extensive interview that you should read in its entirety when you have time:

* On whether he believes Sony made a mistake in going with Blu-ray instead of HD DVD, given costs and market share of HD DVD:

"...everything I’ve seen has Blu-ray outselling HD-DVD handily. And I think the other thing that’s lost on people getting into an HD-DVD-Blu-ray battle, is that Blu-ray is a great format for movie playback, but for the PlayStation 3, I think the most important thing is the Blu-ray drive for gaming and the ability to have 50-gigs of storage on a PlayStation 3 game as compared to 9 from our competition at max.
...When we first came out with the CD format as compared to cartridge, ...people said, “that’s amazing, it’s never going to get any better than that.” And then DVD came out, and initially people said, “Why do you really need DVD? CD has plenty of storage capability,” and five years later, 95 percent of the content was on DVD. I think you’ll see the same thing with Blu-ray. And people say, “Oh, 9 gigs is enough. You just put two, three, four discs in a box.” That obviously isn’t going to fly long term.

* On PlayStation sales projections for this year:

We expect to sell 33 million pieces of hardware across the three platforms. And that breaks out to 12 million PS 2s, 11 million PS 3s, and 10 million PlayStation Portables, and then we don’t break out software, but our forecast is 250 million units of software across those three platforms.

* On dropping to #3 in next-gen gaming consoles representing a "disastrous" year for Sony:

...if we have 67 percent growth over last year in our revenue, and if 45% of all software sold is on our three platforms, I’ll take that kind of disaster all year long.

* On getting "wiped out in Japan... , losing share in Europe... ... behind in North America,... behind worldwide right now with the PlayStation 3":

... we outsold the Wii last month in Japan, and I think the traction for the PlayStation 3 is extremely good in all three worldwide markets.

* On perception that Sony has history of backing failed formats from Betamax to mini-disc to "the player that’s in the PSP":

Yeah, and we’ve had some history of having some success as well... 160 CE companies backing Blu-ray [editor's note: now more than 170], seven of the eight major studios backing Blu-ray [editor's note: now 7 out of 10 studios if you include MGM, New Line, Lionsgate and DreamWorks; or 4 of the other 6 "major studios"]; you’ve got Blu-ray content outselling HD-DVD two-to-one, and by an even greater margin worldwide. You’ve got a machine in the PlayStation 3 that’s got over 2 million units in North America that plays Blu-ray movies, and those to me are all positive signs. Now if you want to rattle off the HD-DVD statistics that are more superior to those and are more advantageous, I’m more than happy to listen.

[Editor's Note: the interviewers did not respond with HD DVD statistics that are more superior or advantageous.]

[sj001]

Notice Scott mentions Dreamworks as backing Blu-ray... interesting? Or a mistake?

[makingmusic476]

He makes a good point about ps2 games. Most of the ps2 games from 2000-2001 came on CDs (I own many), but by 2003-4 all games were released on DVDs, and by 2005, games like MGS3 were filling up DVD9s.

The same should happen with ps3 games. Kojima has already expressed his wishes to use a BD-50 for MGS4.

[makingmusic476]

Originally Posted by sj001

Notice Scott mentions Dreamworks as backing Blu-ray... interesting? Or a mistake?

I think he was just listing the four "non-major" studios that make up the rest of the ten.

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by sj001

Notice Scott mentions Dreamworks as backing Blu-ray... interesting? Or a mistake?

I think it's just poorly phrased, Tretton mentions seven out of eight major studios backing blu-ray, but that doesn't add up unless he knows something about Universal and Dreamworks we don't. The editor adds a clarification that if you include a bunch of smaller studios, they have 7 out of 10, with Paramount, Dreamworks and Universal being the only red ones. So probably Tretton doesn't consider Paramount and Dreamworks as being major studios.

It's too bad even the Home beta's been pushed back yet again, that would've made a big difference in sales this holiday season for everybody to see what Sony was planning. I do hope by Q1 he means January.

[sj001]

Originally Posted by androvsky

I think it's just poorly phrased, Tretton mentions seven out of eight major studios backing blu-ray, but that doesn't add up unless he knows something about Universal and Dreamworks we don't. The editor adds a clarification that if you include a bunch of smaller studios, they have 7 out of 10, with Paramount, Dreamworks and Universal being the only red ones. So probably Tretton doesn't consider Paramount and Dreamworks as being major studios.

It's too bad even the Home beta's been pushed back yet again, that would've made a big difference in sales this holiday season for everybody to see what Sony was planning. I do hope by Q1 he means January.

Yeah, reading through that, I think that was what he meant... but, you never know! Especially with Dreamworks looking to split away from Paramount.