Shaky Sony Prepares to Reveal All at GDC

The early months for the PS3 could have gone better; Phil Harrison will be giving the console a boost this week.

Page: 1  2 

Phil Harrison has an unenviable task ahead of him. The lanky Sony executive will speak on Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. His appearance comes as Sony weathers a storm of negative press surrounding the PlayStation 3, which critics say is too expensive and light on must-play games.

Harrison's talk, titled Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Videogames, will touch on Sony's vision of the PS3 as a platform for people to come together, share user-generated content, and, perhaps more importantly, get involved in the digital revolution and spend money online.

Last week, rumours outed a new service called PlayStation Home, which, if confirmed, would tap into the success Microsoft has had with its in-game Achievement rewards and the popularity of Nintendo's Mii avatars. Sony strongly denied the rumours, so strongly in fact that many took it as tacit confirmation.

Whatever comes out of the meeting this week, it may not be enough for the PS3 to enjoy the sort of lead the PS2 had over the GameCube and the Xbox.

Larry Probst, the exiting head of EA, the biggest publisher in the games industry, said this week he expects Sony to see its slice of the videogame pie shrink with the PS3.

"We expect that there will be a more level playing field this time around than last time," Probst said in an interview with Reuters. He still thinks Sony will come out on top, but not as easily.

One shortfall of the PS3 relative to the Xbox 360 and the Wii is its lack of support for rumble in the Sixaxis controller, but last week Sony made up tech company Immersion, which had won a patent infringement case brought against Sony.

Page: 1  2 

NEXT PAGE >>