http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-15015-1323-4-4-x
In an overlooked March interview, David Reeves talks about Sony's E3 plan, next-gen console features, and a possible retooled PS2.
wo weeks ago, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe President and Chief Operation Officer David Reeves gave a revealing interview to the official European PlayStation site. The problem is, nobody noticed--at the time. However, the interview is packed with interesting details about Sony's strategy for next-generation gaming.
First up were new details on Sony's upcoming portable game deck and multimedia player, the PSP. While he admitted the only concept model seen by the world was only "made of fiberglass," he said he was "pretty confident that it will come out in calendar year 2004." It was unclear if this 2004 date was for Japan or Europe, since Sony Computer Entertainment America representatives stated in February that the PSP's US debut will be in early 2005.
While talking about wooing movie studios to adopt the PSP's Universal Media Disc (UMD), Reeves dropped the bombshell that games for the deck might not be regionally coded. "What we can expect, probably, is that games will come out with no regional coding," he said. However, his rationale for region-agnostic games was the PSP's "worldwide launch," even though SCEA reps have hinted that it may be released in Japan before other territories.
Besides saying the PSP will have upgradable functionality (including GPS), Reeves also confirmed that Sony has indeed addressed developers' concerns that the device's original 8MB of RAM was inadequate. "It will have 30MB of RAM now (which it didn't have before)," he said. Reeves also said the PSP's graphics would be "beyond" the PlayStation 2's capabilities. "There's so much depth and perspective on that size screen, it will look better than the PS2," he told the site.
The SCEE president also reconfirmed that the PSP will be shown at his year's E3 in May.
He also said expo-goers "will probably see the PSX again" at the event, which is a precursor to the hybrid PS2 and personal video recorder to receive an American launch next year.
Reeves also said that much of the PSX's functionality will be included in the PlayStation 3. "I think you can probably guess that the PS3 is intrinsically linked with the PSX," he said. "You could probably envisage having the PSX and [then] branching out to the PS3, which has all-singing, all-dancing features, with maybe a hard-disk drive." Reeves said that Sony may also offer a cheaper, stripped-down version of the console. "There might be a normal PS3 for gamers who just want to play the movies and have better games," he continued. "So you might see two versions. One is a home server; the other is for someone who can't afford whatever it might be--600 or 700 euros ($730 to $850)--and wants just to pay 200 euros ($245) for a new-generation games machine."
Interestingly, Reeves said Sony may release a repackaged, rebranded PlayStation 2. "Maybe also--something we haven't talked about--is that we made a change from the PlayStation to the PSOne. So we may, in the course of time, make some cosmetic changes to the PlayStation 2 and come out with something that's a little bit sexier but probably [will present] no changes to specs or anything like that." This speculation is backed up by the fact that Sony registered the trademark "PStwo" a few months ago.
Reeves also talked about Sony's intention to get into the broadband distribution of games and movies, which he said would resemble how games are currently downloaded onto mobile phones. However, he said the broadband effort would take time and would face hurdles. "You can't just go in and say, 'Download a movie' to try to get 50 or even 100 million people to do that," said Reeves. "Those consumers don't have the knowledge base."
