Last week, Geekscape was lucky enough to sit down with President and CEO of Sony, Kazuo Hirai, to discuss the success of the Playstation 4 and the brand going forward. What shocked us the most however, was his willingness to reveal details on its successor, the Playstation 5, which is already in development! Below are the highlights of our sit down.
Geekscape: Thank you for having us, it’s a real honor!
Kaz Hirai: My pleasure.
Geekscape: Okay, lets cut to the chase. The Playstation 4 has been a massive success, breaking records left and right and being nearly impossible to find in stores. What do you think was the biggest difference between this time and the PS3’s launch, which struggled so hard out of the gate.
Kaz Hirai: You’re absolutely right. That initial E3 was a humbling experience for us at Sony. There were a lot of things we wish we could take back.
Geekscape: I’m assuming you mean the price point?
Kaz Hirai: Oh no, not at all. Do you remember that quote, and I’m paraphrasing here, that “we could release no games for the PS3 and it would still sell,”?
Geekscape: (Laughs) Oh yeah, that was pretty bad.
Kaz Hirai: No, that wasn’t the bad part. What was bad was that we didn’t stick to our word and released a passable game like Resistance: Fall Of Man. Gamers nowadays don’t want games, they want to be able to share their vague screenshots on Facebook and edit videos, so with the PS4, we strived to launch the system with as little as possible, and our strategy seems to have worked.
Geekscape: But what about Knack and Killzone Shadow Fall?
Kaz Hirai: (Laughs)
Geekscape: …
Kaz Hirai: But seriously, we strived to make Knack and Killzone as uninteresting as possible, and I feel we succeeded, but I think we can take it much farther going forward with the Playstation 5.
Geekscape: Wait, you guys are already working on the PS5?
Kaz Hirai: Oh yes, it’s been in R&D for close to a year now. And launching the PS4 has taught us that it doesn’t need games. Let the third parties handle that.
Geekscape: That’s… Disappointing to hear as a fan of many of Sony’s IPs.
Kaz Hirai: You want to talk disappointing? How about giving fans a new Sly Cooper after they begged for it for years and having no one buy it? Or finally making a great Resistance game that goes completely ignored. And don’t get me started on that Twisted Metal mess.
Geekscape: …
Kaz Hirai: Look, the only games that sell from us are from Naughty Dog. Why waste the money? Have you seen our financials lately? We’re hemorrhaging cash here. I run a business, not a charity. And as long as our fans find it worthwhile to buy new consoles to play games from the previous generation, than who are we to get in their way with 1st party drivel not named Uncharted? We’re actually very pleased that people bought PS4’s to play Call Of Duty and Assassins Creed.
Geekscape: But I think…
Kaz Hirai: Let me ask you, did you buy Sly Cooper?
Geekscape: … No.
Kaz Hirai: Exaclty. If it makes you feel better, we’re considering HD porting everything, including our HD ports. I’m sure you can’t wait to pre order the Jak and Daxter HD’er Collection. Only on PS4!
Geekscape: That’s not exactly what I had in mind, but its better than nothing. Was there anything you thought could have gone better with the PS4 launch?
Kaz Hirai: No.
Geekscape: Nothing?
Kaz Hirai: Nothing. Well… It could have had more Ridge Racer. I can never get enough of that. But in retrospect, we probably released too many exclusives. As you can see, we’re looking to rectify that.
Geekscape: Hmm… So from the looks of things, it seems like you’re taking a similar approach to the PS Vita.
Kaz Hirai: What’s a Vita?
Geekscape: Erm… Nevermind. Anyway Kaz, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us!
Kaz Hirai: Anytime, oh, and by the way, The Last Guardian is coming soon, I promise. (Laughs)
So what did you all think of what Kaz had to say? Are you already lining up for your PS5? And how do you get HD’er than HD? Let us know!
