Archive for May, 2009

As of today, I am resigning my commission. Tosh has wonderfully agreed to take over PS3Blog.net and all that that entails. That is why the domain was moved today.

As of today, I am just another reader at PS3Blog.net (though I may occassionally write something).

As of today, I no longer have to worry about comment spam, word counts, or whether or not the red stripe lines up with the other red stripe.

As of today, I am no longer the pre-eminent voice for the PS3 gamer on the internet – that’s now xBerserker.

As of today, I welcome Tosh as the master of this domain, and wish him all the best.

Sony has expressed a desire to be a more “open” company and move away from proprietary vendor lock-in strategies. Side-stepping the major issue of the PS3 and PSP platforms themselves which are Sony’s proprietary crown jewels, here are some clear cut specific steps I would LOVE to see Sony take:

1. Mac + Linux Support for all PC software. This is huge. Sony produces some great MMO’s, great creativity suites, and essential support software for their Sony Reader and PSP devices. Sony currently demands that the user use Microsoft operating system software in order to use these applications. The current consumer market is largely Windows only, but Sony is a major player with market shaping power in these fields, multi-platform support is well within their means, and it will buy them HUGE goodwill, even among Windows owners, which will ultimately translate into larger sales. Many people such as myself use Windows out of necessity, but are big fans of non-proprietary, non-vendor-lock-in technology.
2. Pre-installed Linux on VAIO general purpose computers.
3. Public SDKs for Game Developers: PhyreEngine and other related tools?
4. Web Services. Make all game data (playtime data, play stats, etc) available publically through web services.

From an interview with Sony CEO Howard Stringer:

What does all this mean? Very simply, it means that Sony has begun the transition from a closed system to an open one.

I wish the Japanese media would recognize how important this is. I also put a lot of effort into making sure that many people understand the value of what Sony is trying to do here.

Next we will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3, because the number of PS3 units sold puts a limit on the scale of the network possible. Sony has a vertical structure for each product line, an organizational structure that resists change, so it will take time to achieve this network growth. However, a large number of employees share my opinion on this.

The PS3 has always been very open from a hardware perspective, but it’s still a very traditional closed platform. The video game industry has been completely dominated by this closed platform model for years. For Sony to move away from this model would be huge.

Does he mean PC/PS3 titles (like Sony’s Free Realms)? Cell phone games? Support for PS3/PSN games embedded into TVs and blu-ray players?

It has been a surprise twist that Sony is publishing a lot of the world’s most innovative and exciting video game content, yet consumer interest is limited because of the platform that the games run on. Many consumers pick one of the big three console platforms and for the life of the system, they only consider software content for that platform. Other consumers have some interest in games but may not want to buy and setup a traditional console system.

I assume we will hear more on this at E3? Anyone care to guess how Sony might make this move?