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Jul 8, 2009

Jack Tretton Says Sony Didn’t Want To Release The PS2.5, Wanted To Make A System Designed For 10 Years

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Jack Tretton Just Wants To Remind You That He's Not Interested In Price Cuts. Yet.

Jack Tretton Just Wants To Remind You That He's Not Interested In Price Cuts. Yet.

Remember the words “price-cut”? How could you forget. You read them everyday because we type them everyday. It’s everyone’s favourite topic. Never mind the games. Let’s talk price cuts!

Speaking with the Fast Company, Sony’s Jack Tretton wanted to address price cut discussion, namely the fact that the PS3 is designed with a 10 year life span in mind.

“People are having short-term thinking – the platform is not even three years old. It was $599; it’s now $399,” he said

“The focus on pricing is something we appreciate, but you have to have the conviction and the confidence that you are on the right path for the long term and ultimately you’ll get all the consumers you want. You won’t get them all day one, but we’re looking to get them over a 10-year period. It’s going to take different things to get different consumers.”

Tretton concluded that Sony could have simply pumped out a slightly beefed up PS2, a system that would have been cheaper but wouldn’t have served the lifespan that Sony are promising.

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  • scoob101
    Who said anything about DVD9? Just because you don`t understand that there are were countless other options available to Sony - its doesnt mean that they didnt exist. Sony designs formats for a living. They could have chosen a proprietry disc format that didn`t use exotic laser diodes which were a pig to make, and avoided all the wrangling with the blu-ray standards which delayed PS3 production..

    The same goes for cell. they could have designed a chip specifically for PS3, but no, they wanted to market CELL, the "supercomputer on a chip" - the idea being that it would open up other markets for that chip.

    Sony`s hardware choices when they designed the PS3 were HUGE. They narrowed down the choice by insisting that Cell and Bu-Ray be included as a marketing ploy.
  • I see where you're coming from now. You're saying they should have implemented other hardware, which could have been just as future proof at lower costs, right?

    Instead Sony opted to push the Cell and blu-ray to give the formats a boost?

    That's not specifically what Tretton is talking about in this piece though. I think what he's trying to say is that Sony could have done a transition similar to the GameCube/Wii switch, where the hardware gets just a minor improvement but as such the costs are significantly lower.

    I see what you're saying - and I'm sure the Playstation 3 hardware choices will go down in history as a grave error should Sony end up losing significant ground this generation. However, I think that discussion is for another day.
  • scoob101
    Youre missing the point - The assertion that a 10 yr lifecycle can only be achieved with expensive components like cell and blu-ray is nonsense.

    The same could have been achieved with cheaper components, but that would not have fitted with sonys desire to showcase CELL and to win the HD format war
  • While I agree are you suggesting that in 2015 (which is sorta around the time PS3 should be winding down) DVD will still be a viable format for video games?

    I appreciate what you're saying but I think these components were the only options for Sony.
  • scoob101
    "Tretton concluded that Sony could have simply pumped out a slightly beefed up PS2, a system that would have been cheaper but wouldn’t have served the lifespan that Sony are promising."

    Its not really true though, is it. Sony decided to showcase its latest tech (Cell and Blu-Ray) with the PS3, rather than design a games machine from the ground up.
    It would have been possible to design a machine with equal power to the PS3, but make it cheaper to make and sell. But that machine would cetainly not have been powered by a cell chip, and wouldn`t have had blu-ray.
  • Which as such would not have been as shelf life friendly as the current PS3 is. Which is kinda Tretton's point. Sony wanted to make a system that could last the full 10 years. And you can see how they did that with the PS3. Tons of untapped potential, interchanging hard-drives, blu ray. The PS3 could live on and on.
  • Stab at M'soft there, or maybe 'tendo (although 'tendo took a completely different approach), so its more at M'soft.
  • The XBOX 360's still a capable machine. They just rushed it out. The fact that it doesn't have blu-ray and a decent hard drive solution is starting to push them behind a bit but I still expect the 360 to be around in 2012.

    This is going to be a long generation in my opinion.
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