Peter Dille has argued that there are certain things other networks, namely the Xbox Live, can’t achieve while the Playstation Network can. Peter noted LittleBigPlanet as a good example of what PSN can achieve.
Multiplayer: One of the things that [Sony Computer Entertainment of America president] Jack Tretton talked about in his speech today is .. that the goal for Sony is to make PlayStation Network the pre-eminent online service f or console gamers. Xbox Live has so many years of advantage on you guys. What do you think PSN needs to do or become to be that premiere online service for console gamers?
Peter Dille, v.p. of marketing, SCEA: Really, with PlayStation Network, I think we need to continue to work and iterate and make the platform better. I think if you look at what’s happened over the last year, there’s been tremendous strides, but we’re not going to stop today. We had a firmware upgrade a couple of weeks ago where we introduced the Trophy system. We have in-game XMB. These are things that our userbase was clamoring for and we were eager to make them happen. I think the introduction of the video download service is something that really enhances the entertainment value inherent in the PlayStation 3 and that’s something that I think is great to check that box.
But I think one of the things that differentiates the platform is that we’re doing things on our network that you can’t do on any other platform, including Live. And I come back to “Little Big Planet” as an example. … We’re putting the development tools into the hands of the consumers and then using the network to upload those back up to the network. That’s sort of the two way communication you can have on the network from the game design perspective that you can’t find anywhere else. I think “SingStar” is another great example where you can download content — and we’ve all seen downloadable content, whether it’s with “Guitar Hero” or “Rock Band” but with “SingStar” you can record your performance and put it back up to My SingStore. That all of a sudden changes the dynamics and creates more of a social networking site, which I think is a big win for PlayStation Network.
Multiplayer: And why are you saying those are things you wouldn’t be able to do, say, on Xbox Live. Because I know they have some video uploads and stuff like that. What’s inherently the difference that makes it more possible on PSN?
Dille: Well, I think if you look at the reaction of a game like “Little Big Planet” at Game Developer’s Conference where it got a standing ovation, it’s based on how special that product is and people recognizing the potential of it. So I’ll focus on what we have versus what the competition might have. I think what we’re doing is pretty cool. I also think it comes back to great value. There’s an awful lot of content you can get on the PlayStation Network. We’re not charging consumers a subscription fee to get online and play games head to head. So it’s no hidden fees and jump right in. We’re pretty excited about what that offering represents.
