Sony revealed the PlayStation 4 at a New York press conference last week and following the unveiling we met with Sony's VP of Worldwide Studios, Michael Denny.
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The impression we get is that Sony has set about building PS4 with developers in mind. Do you think that's fair to say?
That's absolutely right. The starting point and focus with PlayStation 4 was that we wanted to have the best gaming system out there - the best next-gen gaming system with gamers at the heart of it. To do that we needed to bring the best games and the best content to it. Getting the game development community and world's best creators on board early was vital for us.
There was collaboration from early days and some things that weren't accurately reported before we even got here maybe took some people by surprise. Decisions to go with 8GB of high speed system memory is fantastic for the development community and to make sure we get the best game experiences we can.
I think that's right. Again it comes back to a focus and strategy of wanting the best content, because it's aimed at gamers and that's what gamers want. We want a variety of content as well; what I was particularly pleased about last night was that we had some big-hitting, triple-A titles but we also showed a flavour of how we're still willing to be more than open - as open as we can be - to get all sorts of content on the platform.
At the meeting you listed PS4's five design pillars; simple, immediate, social, integrated and personalised. What do those philosophies specifically mean for PS4 software?
It's not particularly the software... those are the pillars we put out there in terms of what will make the experience compelling for gamers. So when you go through them, 'simple' and 'immediate' together is of course something gamers would want - things to be one button push away, background downloading and being able to play your digital content as it's downloading.
'Social' is not just about importing your social graph from social networks, but the ability to share content a lot easier. These are all tenants that will make the overall experience a much better one for gamers. In a way they're not things that you put on the box or the wrapper, but they'll help you all understand why we've chosen those as pillars because they'll help make the experience a whole lot better.
What does the move to next-gen mean for your publishing business and the resources required to make these more advance games?
It depends on the game. I think what we're seeing anyway in the industry is a polarisation between the triple-A games at the top end, which are getting more and more budget going in to them and even on current-gen have a lot of resource and effort going in to them.
Actually, I think you'll be surprised that with next-generation PlayStation 4 it's not that much of a leap up, because these games on current-gen are already pushing things to the max in terms of resources you're putting in to them. But I think it's important to remember that we did talk games like The Witness and other smaller, innovative games we want to bring to the system.
It's not one size fits all; it depends on the content, it depends on the market you're going for, the genre your games for... but I think it's important that there's always a place for those big, triple-A experiences.
Yeah, I think that's right. When you look at it from a first-party studio point of view, that's really our remit - to bring exclusive content to the platform and to help differentiate it from other platforms. Ultimately I think content and exclusive content makes a big difference to consumer choice and that will only continue.
Where do Sony's studios stand in terms of moving to PS4 development and possibly continuing to support the PS3? The company of course has a strong track record of supporting its older systems...
The first thing to say is you're right - when you look at PlayStation 3, the line-ups this year such as Beyond, The Last of Us and third-party games such as new Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed games... PlayStation 3 is still getting some awesome games on it.
I think this year Vita is really starting to come in to its own as well with Media Molecule's Tearaway and a new Killzone coming to the platform as well.
Of course as a first-party studio we have the whole PlayStation ecosystem to support and concentrate on. Different teams are drawn to different platforms depending on their outlook as well. I think it's fair to say that other than the games that were announced last night, there are a lot more Worldwide Studios teams working on PlayStation 4 as well.
You also showed Destiny and Watch Dogs at the meeting, which both will be released on PS3 and PS4. Do you foresee cross-generational titles becoming a common fixture this year?
I think that's publishers' choices. I can absolutely understand why they want to do that; PlayStation 3 still has a long way to go, it's got a big install base... so why not have your best content on it? With PlayStation 4 you saw the quality of Watch Dogs, so to have games like that for the amount of gamers who will want to go to PS4 at an early stage is fantastic.
What's Sony stance on that strategy? Would you consider cross-gen releases?
I think as a first-party studio we're always going to want to get the best that we can out of any platform. Now, sometimes the best you can is when for example you look at Vita - and we've done it for a number of titles - where we've had Cross-Play.
So when there's something extra, some features we can give in terms of connectivity for example, a trade-off between platforms or something for the PlayStation ecosystem... I think that's something we'll always look at as well.
Massively. As we said from the beginning, because we had the gamer at heart this was always going to be very development-led in terms of what we wanted as a system - and there's no more important thing than the game interface, the controller.
When you look at what we've done with DualShock 4, the starting point was what we could do to improve upon DualShock 3. As the Guerrilla guys said, the sticks are tighter, the triggers are tighter, there's less latency, rumble's improved, Sixaxis is improved...
Then you look at the extra features; the light bar, the touch pad, the share button and of course the headphone jack and speaker as well. I would say pretty much all of those are coming from features requested by developers.
Comments
39 comments so far...
Monkey-d on 26 Feb '13 said:
I still don't get what the point of an audio jack in your controller is, can somebody explain this for me please...
pp82 on 26 Feb '13 said:
None of the console makers are going to support native backwards compatibility as it is an easy way for them to make money by selling the old games to you over their services a few months down the line.
Gambini on 26 Feb '13 said:
I'm guessing to plug in your headphones so the audio doesn't disturb anyone else in the room?
I dunno, does that sound right? (No pun intended!)
TheCrimsonFenix on 26 Feb '13 said:
He likes to say it's "right!" a lot doesn't he?
ingy on 26 Feb '13 said:
Because hopefully they'll supply a wired headset to improve the quality and availability of communication for online gaming.
Here's hoping.
ian1982 on 26 Feb '13 said:
Its for the mic/headset that is going to be included in the box with your new ps4
sbradley88 on 26 Feb '13 said:
This.
qSPARTANp on 26 Feb '13 said:
HEADPHONE-PHONE JACK....................Hopefully to be used for a bloomin set of head-phones so that only the person talking into the "Head-phones" gets heard instead of some B**ch and kids in the background shouting at each other! Hardly ever used the PS3 for online because the voice chat was so awful!!!!!!
richomack360 on 26 Feb '13 said:
He should wear a tie. Duncan Bannatyne would never take him seriously.
It's so you can plug your toaster into it, whilst in the bath.
Bambis Dad on 26 Feb '13 said:
I find the 360 to be just as bad. Why there isn't an option to talk to your friends/team mates only in all games bewilders me.
corkscru74 on 26 Feb '13 said:
This is new! Unless I've missed something, has he just outed a new entry in the Ass Creed series? I know that Ubisoft let slip in their financials about a new entry but I seem to recall that was a new character and setting for Next gen. This sounds too soon for all that - maybe a 'Brotherhood/Revelations' style follow-up for Connor?
richomack360 on 26 Feb '13 said:
Because of this bizarre obsession with "networking" "social media" and "everyone must love everyone" approach from silly devs and publishers.
Seriously, I am a grumpy 31 year old, i like hearing my own voice and the voices of my friends - thats it, occasionally a few verses from Iron Maiden, but thats it.
Do I really want to hear a 13 year old screaming because he can't get what he wants ? If I did I would go to Asda on a Saturday afternoon and its miles away from my mancave, rather than pumped into my ears whilst watching my arse grow on my sofa.
RustySpoon80 on 26 Feb '13 said:
Ah, but the mic is in the controller (a mono headset is included) so you'll hear them more.
It's good in that everyone can talk, but it's bad in that EVERYONE can talk.
God bless the mute button.
StonecoldMC on 26 Feb '13 said:
Party Chat and Mute?
Bambis Dad on 26 Feb '13 said:
Are you threatening me?
In my defence it has been a few years since I played online on my 360. If they've included a feature that allows me to only talk to my mates then hats off to them.
StonecoldMC on 26 Feb '13 said:
Threten! I cant even spell it
.
Yeah, the 360 has been able to do all of that for ages. Don't worry though, I'm sure Sony will let you talk to your friends on the PS4, who knows, MS might even let you use Skype
.
NinjaWizard on 26 Feb '13 said:
Yeah they have 'Party Chat' now which you and 7 other friends can privately chat to each other even if you are all playing different games or not playing a game at all. You can also set up your account so you can only hear and be heard by people in your friends list. Hopefully PS4 will have some sort of feature likes this as the PS3 is a bit of pain after you have experienced the communication options on the 360.
S-Smith on 26 Feb '13 said:
Could you imagine the whole of the 'PlayStation' back catalogue of games being on the cloud????????????
THAT WOULD BE F**KING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! 
(but would take ages to do i bet, oh well if they start now then at least in a few years time it might all be brilliant to have & use) I really wanted FULL PS disc games playback but if there is a hope of another way of doing it(i.e the cloud way, then cool i can live with that) + I didn't like the 'Exclusive content' thing again for next gen :-/ You know MS will get the good stuff 1st i bet. Oh well.
StonecoldMC on 26 Feb '13 said:
You mean like The Witness?
Bambis Dad on 26 Feb '13 said:
Is that the one with Harrison Ford protecting the backwards, technogically challenged community?
StonecoldMC on 26 Feb '13 said:
Just another day at the office for me
.
Bambis Dad on 26 Feb '13 said:
http://i.imgur.com/JXqJg.png
RonaldoCarrazedo on 26 Feb '13 said:
The audio jack is a good feature specially for those who got married and have to listen to the constant moaning about volume levels, lol. Jokes aside the more I read about the PS4 the more I want to ditch my poor ported pc games and ps3 and go next gen. Unless Micro$oft pulls a hat trick with new Xbox beating all those features and getting something really innovative otherwise I'll stick with Sony again.
Get Over Here on 26 Feb '13 said:
This really is a breath of fresh air in the gaming industry isn't it?
I'm serious when I say Sony should be applauded this new generation. No-one else looks like they give a damn about gamers and a diverse range of games. Makes me eager for the PS4 even more.
sbradley88 on 26 Feb '13 said:
You can guarantee that as long as there is a yearly release for COD, there'll be a new Assassins Creed out every year or so.
Gameoholic007 on 26 Feb '13 said:
Im just looking forward to the other annoncments to find out more of what the PS4 is going to do.
budge on 26 Feb '13 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rJDn0jR ... ata_player
ethanet1995 on 26 Feb '13 said:
funny thing is, i dont tend to look at my controller when gaming because i'm a little preoccupied with looking at the screen
wwinterj on 26 Feb '13 said:
The only issue with this cloud stuff as a substitute for backwards compatibility is that i'd have to buy my PS3 collection again and it won't be physical media. I'll be keeping my PS3 and games for these reasons. Sure it would be a pain setting up the PS3 everytime I want to play some PS3 games but needs must.
FixBeatGames on 26 Feb '13 said:
tell that to nintendo
FixBeatGames on 26 Feb '13 said:
i've never understood the backwards compatibility issues with consoles. when i bought a mega-drive, i didn't want to play master system games anymore. when i bought a ps2 i didn't want to play ps1 games anymore and when i bought a ps3 i didn't want to play ps3 games anymore.
years later, i like to play the games i loved 'back then' and don't mind paying (the usually extremely low price) for the entertainment. but they're few and far between. i've bought wipeout(ps1), rayman(ps1), oddworld(ps1) and san andreas(ps2) games off PSN and i've have ps3 for 5 years.
is it really that big an issue for the majority of people? or is it me who's in the minority?
Barca Azul on 26 Feb '13 said:
I was thinking about this and the more I think the more sense it makes. To sit on my sofa, I'd need a 4m plus cable to plug headphones in. I often play when others in the house are sleeping, with low volume, but that does take away sound and effects of playing sometimes.
It's actually a great idea IMO
HelloLadies on 27 Feb '13 said:
Turtle Beach wireless headphones. Problem solved.
leucocyte on 27 Feb '13 said:
it's not really an issue for me, as i will be getting a PS4 to play PS4 games. i barely have any slack time as it is when it comes to gaming, and hopefully the new KZ multiplayer or BF4 (assuming it's much improved on BF3) will provide hundreds of hours of play..
i have 3 PS3s which should ensure my PS3 stuff is playable for a long time to come. it would be a lot more convenient to only have one console hooked up though...
leucocyte on 27 Feb '13 said:
i have a set of sony's PS3 7.1 surround sound headphones - they better be compatible with PS4!.
dwhlufc on 27 Feb '13 said:
Same here. Very comfortable though aren't they?
XpAcErX on 27 Feb '13 said:
So they can package a wired gaming head set with each console just like the xbox does. That way everyone will have vocal communication instead of making people buy separate bluetooth headsets that they always forget to charge.
Rammsoldat on 1 Mar '13 said:
feel better after reading that, im glad they are focusing on content and variety
djhazardous on 2 Mar '13 said:
I think Sony want a unified microphone system like the 360's, almost everyone has a mic on LIVE and I think that's largely because Premium 360's included the mics with the console. The PS3 really suffers from a lack of mic/chat activity compared to 360, although some might consider that a good thing.
I'm going to make a bet they will include a wired headset with PS4. It doesn't explain why they would go with a wired one though - as apposed to a Bluetooth wireless one, which I guess could point to manufacturing costs and producing a more affordable SKU.