Bringing PlayStation Back to Basics

Sony's Phil Harrison discusses the challenges facing the brand and the gaming world's explosion

by Kris Graft

Sony Computer Entertainment World Wide Studios boss Phil Harrison has a rather full plate. As the man overseeing SCE's first party offerings, he's responsible for making sure that Sony's own titles are the ones leading the way from a creative and commercial standpoint.

In this interview conducted during last week's Tokyo Game Show, Harrison talks about the challenges facing PlayStation, and echoes SCE group CEO Kaz Hirai's sentiments about bringing the business "back to basics," a difficult task in a sector that's become more about entertainment in general than just gaming alone…

One of the things that Kaz Hirai said during his keynote is that the PlayStation business needs to "get back to basics." Is he implying that Sony Computer Entertainment has lost its way a bit compared to past console generations?

Phil Harrison: Yeah, I think it's a fair observation. Our business is bigger, it's more complex, we have more platforms, you know, there's more stuff—networks, games, movies, music. There are so many opportunities for distraction that it's really easy to make an assumption that the core business that you're in, videogames, is being well-served.

The point I'm trying to make is that Kaz is saying, let's make sure that our core business strategy is working before we start pushing off into too many different new areas. It really harks back to a strategy and a comment that our very first corporate president said when we started the PlayStation business. It was a guy called Terry Tokunaka, and Tokunaka-san was a very smart, very clear-headed thinker when it came to business. He said, "Our strategy is really simple. If we're the creative and technical choice of the developers and the commercial choice of the publishers, everything else will be cool." I don't think he said "cool," but everything else will be, you know, fine. It's important to remember those two things, to be the creative and technical choice of your development partners and they will make the best games on your system and create a business model and a business opportunity for your publishers and your other stakeholders. That is as good as it can possibly be.

Are you saying that the focus on the basic core strength of PlayStation—gaming—has been compromised as Sony tries to make the PS3 more of a multi-functional entertainment platform?

I wasn't talking specifically about PlayStation 3. I was just talking about our business generally, as we've grown into a multi-platform company on four platforms if you include PlayStation Network. We don't have four times the people, so it's something that we have to keep an eye on. What Kaz was talking about in the keynote was making sure that we have great communication and partnership with our licensees and make sure that we provide them with the best tools and technology and listen to what the gamers are asking for and to listen to what publishers and developers are asking for, DualShock 3 being an example of that. I think it's the right approach.

It's interesting how Sony is talking about making relationships with external developers more open. So do you think that Sony has not been open enough with third party developers this generation?

I don't think it's a question of not being open enough. I think we can always be more open to create better partnerships with our developer partners.

Kaz talked about sharing assets and "know-how" and things like that.

Right, and we've developed some interesting things inside the technology base of World Wide Studios that we're starting to share with our third party teams as well. That helps them make the most of the platform, so it's a virtuous cycle.