American Ninja Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 GDC 06: Phil Harrison Q&A InfoThe man behind the software answers a ton of PS3-related questions. by Chris Roper March 22, 2006 - After this morning's Sony keynote address, Phil Harrison held a brief Q&A with the press to answer a few questions and clear up any lingering misunderstandings about Sony's recent announcements. There are still some mysteries about, but the meeting was certainly productive and gave way to some new info. One of the first questions presented to the president of Sony's Worldwide Studios was with regards to the system 60GB hard drive and whether or not it will actually be included with the system. Harrison answered that it will undoubtedly be a key component of the system and that developers should program titles assuming that the drive is there, but being that his role is more software-oriented than hardware, he couldn't give a definitive answer as to whether or not it will be in the box. He says that we, and even he, should know for sure at this year's E3. Concerning backwards compatibility, Harrison said that PSOne and PS2 games will in fact see "optimizations" when played on the PS3, but details on exactly what those are will need to wait until later. When asked about having the PS3 release a year after the Xbox 360, Harrison said that he has no concerns with his competition. He feels extremely confident in Sony's hardware, software and development tools, enough so that the system will have no problem competing with and even trumping its competition. As well, Harrison noted that Sony has in fact never been first out of the gate in any generation (Saturn before PlayStation, Dreamcast before PlayStation 2). Mr. Harrison went on to talk about how the PlayStation 3 development should pose less of a learning curve or struggle for developers than the PlayStation 2. He fully admitted that the PlayStation 2 can be a difficult machine to program for given its highly proprietary design, but the PlayStation 3's fully programmable Cell processor and common graphics architecture via nVidia's RSX should make for much easier development. Downloadable content should cover more than just games and game content in the end. The system's commerce site should house music, movies and more, allowing for access to almost any form of media through the system in wholly digital form. Extending beyond the PlayStation 3, after the system's launch these sorts of things should also open up for the PSP, allowing users to connect their system and download or transfer content directly to their portable system, even content designed specifically for it and not the PS3. In essence, the two will work together almost seamlessly. Sony has recently stated that its "basic" online service will be free, though it was unclear exactly what this meant. Harrison explained that anything outside of paid downloads or specialized subscriptions counts as "basic". In other words, all of the key features of the system, like your friends list, video chatting, grabbing free updates and indeed playing online will be entirely free. There will however be a few special case games that require paid subscriptions, like MMOs. When asked about the ongoing Immersion lawsuit and if it has to do with the secrecy of the PS3's controller, Harrison said that the lawsuit has absolutely nothing to do with the new controller and that Sony plans on fully unveiling it at this year's E3. Lastly, and quite possibly the coolest bit of new info of the day, Harrison confirmed that PlayStation 3 software will be region-free. Developers will be able to put localized versions for multiple areas on a single disc and release the same game across the globe. In other words, foreign releases will be playable on your standard system, though whether or not you'll find English (or Spanish, French or whatever) translation on there will be up to each developer. Source: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/697/697725p1.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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