Specifically, he talked about the promise that Sony's regions would be a bit more antonymous under Hirai.

"There is no question that Kutaragi-san ruled with an iron fist, but it was his vision," Tretton said. "In terms of how we went to market in region, that was anonymous."

But Tretton said that Hirai has a better understanding of the company's day-to-day operations and the challenges they face both in Japan and abroad.

"He's been in the regions. He's been in the trenches. He's been outside the towers in Tokyo," Tretton said. "I think there is a better understanding."

Tretton also touched on how SCEA and other regions had to struggle a bit with the perception of PS3 as a super computer created by Kutaragi and the reality that the console had to be a gaming platform first to sell.

"Kutaragi-san built the PS3 as a super computer for the home," he said. "We thought there was a risk of losing the game identity of the Playstaiton 3, so we tried to distance ourselves from that and we understand that credibility would be built with games."

See our other Tretton stories from E3:
Tretton Says No 360 Final Fantasy XIII Coming to Japan
Tretton Explains the Long Road to Home
Tretton: Sony Considering PSP with Harddrive

It's a brutal environment out there for an independent, particularly considering the size of the games that we're developing... But we've now signed up the new game and the future looks pretty rosy for us... our new game is going to be PS3 and Xbox 360.

I'm interested in creating completely new genres. I'm interested in exploring an emotional response to a game, which I haven't really seen. I've seen the visceral adrenaline response, but I haven't really played a game where I feel...tremendous loss... The initial response is that gaming needs good writing. I've heard that. They need screenwriters. Well, hold on a second. Before you jump to that conclusion, I don't want to impose cinema's narrative onto a completely different medium. I think that's naive. The fact that the player is also the audience means you shouldn't be imposing a scenario where the audience is passive. Don't put those rules onto gaming. So out of that came in my mind new forms of narrative. I said, "Well, wait a minute, what if there is zero narrative?"

Verbinski's Game [Los Angeles Times Thanks, hogarth1!] [Pic]

The main thing I learned at Nintendo was that being "anal" is the most important asset a game creator needs to have. Mr. Miyamoto has the uncanny ability to spot the most minute detail in any game; just the odd pixel out of place and he will strike upon it like an eagle. So, although we are nowhere near that level yet, I am trying to guide everyone at Q to get good at "the details".

The other thing I learned from Nintendo, is learning to look at your game from a distance towards the end of development and decide what really needs to be done to make the game into a sell-able product. This is almost totally separate from the creative "game-making" process and most companies let their marketing departments do it which, in my opinion, is totally wrong.

SURPRISE "To say 'we expected it to sell' would be vain. If we had known the Wii and DS would expand so dramatically in such a short time, we wouldn't have had shortages, nor would we have had to raise our financial forecasts."

SADNESS
"[When I see articles saying forced shortages are part of our strategy], I honestly feel sad. Game machine production amounts are set about half a year in advance, so they cannot be easily changed. The concept of the Wii is 'a machine that makes people who play it smile.' We wouldn't use a strategy that is at odds with smiling. Getting as many people as possible to show us their smiles when playing a Nintendo game — that's the energy source that drives us."

BORED
"Things grow bad the moment they're left in the same position. In particular, people can grow tired of entertainment such as games, so in order to make sure the consumers who took up the DS and Wii don't loose interest, new ideas like Wii Fit will become essential from here on out."

POSITIVE
"I am super positive. In this business (being a company president) if you're not positive, you'll immediately get weakened and won't be able to continue. Also, if I didn't have a positive outlook, I definitely wouldn't be able to say something like 'expand the gaming population.'"

JOKING
"This year we will release a new system. That is, of course, a joke. Our goal is to show our 'answer' to how to make sure the game population that has increased through the Wii and DS doesn't end as a short-lived boom. Even with the DS, there are still things left to do."

There are currently no plans for the PS2 version to be released outside of Japan, and no plans for a Wii version either. It is being released in Japan, due to the high demand for the game. So there are no plans for a worldwide release... so far.

Sure, there's a price advantage, but I think the Wii's popularity is only short term. However, we're thinking a long term view is where the PS3 will be popular... In the living room, parents control the TV, not the children. There are TV dramas they want to watch, so they tell the kids to go study. The Wii's concept is fun in the living room, but I think that is difficult in Korea. Game players put the PS3 in their room like with a PC monitor, and I can't imagine those types of players putting the Wii in their rooms to play alone. Also, when you're coming home tired, are you really going to play Wii Boxing by yourself?

Either third party developers and publishers will make money on the Wii platform, or they won't — and if most of them don't I think we'll see a big drop in support for the Wii next year, which could have some consequences for Nintendo, and very positive ones for Microsoft and Sony... So I think that the success of the Wii from the different publishers is going to be the determining point this Christmas...if you can't make money at Christmas on the best platform out there, then you have no chance all year long.

We can confirm that Cory Barlog, Game Director for God of War II, is leaving the SCEA SM Studio and we are grateful for his work and creative vision for the critically acclaimed God of War franchise... Moving forward, we are confident in the God of War team, as they are an extremely talented group of people that are passionate about the franchise and dedicated to creating even more epic content with God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP and God of War III for PS3.

There's chatter that other members of the SCEA Santa Monica team are also leaving with Barlog. However, SCEA said this is untrue. No idea where Barlog will turn up next. How about in casual games studio Eat, Sleep, Play run by fellow former God of War director David Jaffe? As MTV's Stephen Totilo pointed out, it's already a stretch to think one GOW director has left to make casual games; but a second? Hrm. God of War: Chains of Olympus is out March 2008, while God of War III — hey, wait a minute... Sony just publicly confirmed GOW III. Seeing how successful the series is, that shouldn't be a shocker. Barlog leaving, well, that sure is!
Barlog Out [1Up]

Eds Note: Back on October 11th, Barlog blogged on his personal site:
"My main project I am working on is moving along quite nicely as well...I got to see some of the first level art to come out of the pipeline recently, and it looks pretty bad ass. We still have a ways to go in regards to our engine, but I can see the potential with this thing. I can't wait to start showing everyone glimpses of it, but that is pretty far off from now."
Take that for what it's worth.

...first of all, it's not true, because originally I granted my rights to Tetris to my Computer Center, to my organization, for 10 years. And when those 10 years expired, I got my rights back. And since 1996, I've been receiving some royalties for it. And I'm pretty happy with what I'm getting now. And I never complain about those 10 years, either... In order to fight for my rights for the rest of my life, I decided to give it up for a while and make it happen. This decision should be done before people realize what we've given them.

I think the original price-point was the right price-point, evidenced by the issues we had at launch when we couldn't supply enough units to consumers in the Japanese market and the North American market, and it was a huge challenge to try and meet that demand because of all the production issues we had. It wasn't a pricing issue, it was a supply issue.

...I think he's gotten to the point where he wants to try out other ideas beyond the PlayStation business. He told me the other day, 'I'm not getting any younger'... He's our honorary chairman, he swings by the office once in a while — if I ask him for advice, he'll give it to me. He's not engaged every day anymore but if I ask him to be engaged, he will be, and in the meantime he's pursuing his other passions and dreams...he hasn't really shared them with me just yet, but I think he'll share them with the world when he's ready to do so.

Hirai Interview [Spong]

Will they sell a lot of software? Certainly. Will it sell hardware? I think it's an open question... I think that the Halo 3 consumer already has the hardware, because they're playing BioShock and Crackdown and a variety of games that are, in the end, quite similar: first-person shooter experience, multiplayer capable online. Tell me what's new?

We're thinking of giving Ryu Ga Gotoku 2 an international release.

I'd like to clearly say, "The PS3 is a game machine." It's nothing more than that.

This is my personal theory, but all living creatures bear the task of passing down their DNA through reproduction. To reproduce, there's the necessity to show your superiority. The individuals who can do this well are the ones that were able to pass down their DNA... So I think it's natural for us to try to show that we're better than others. That's why we tend to compare our strengths with other people's weakness. This happens in any type of social organizations, such as in companies.

There are probably people who think that, looking at the output of Worldwide Studios, there are fewer and fewer Japan-developed 'Japanese style' titles coming out. But we definitely don't have the intention of just bringing Western games into Japan. We will keep on steadily releasing titles that are developed in Japan and designed to appeal to all Japanese users... Speaking generally, it's obviously much better business sense to have games that, even if they're developed in Japan and designed for Japanese users, will be received in the same way by Western gamers... While I can't give an accurate number here, there are a number of games which are being developed with the viewpoint of making the game consciously for the Japanese market but also wanting it to sell well in the West... Just because the foreign market is bigger than the domestic one, we don't intend to take strategy of just making what would have been considered previously as 'Western games' and saying 'We've got no choice but to do this' to our Japanese users. If we did that, there'd be no point in having the Japan Studio.

Yup! So, Japan, relax. More Japan-friendly games are coming, and the PS3 won't be wall-to-wall Western first-person-shooters. *Looks at Resistance, Rainbow Six and Call of Duty 3*
PS3 Content [Develop Mag, Thanks Jason!]

Of course, he checked the fundamental parts at the beginning. Then, I asked him to play an almost finished version. Some time later he called me and all he said was that it was fun and he thought it'd sell well.

Lets be honest. There's only two major franchises that are talked about not appearing on our platform: Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid.

That's the thing. Hopefully we're at the tipping point right now, where people will work with you and say, "We're going to make money the old fashioned way". Clearly there is a content and development necessity when you're the new kid. We're seeing that change over now when we have the install base and we will continue on our commitment to growth.

BioShock was traumatizing for many. Folks are just getting over the emotional scarring! No, strike that. People will never get over server downtime, piracy-protecting SecuROM and widescreen issues. Pain like this runs deep. Game site 1Up cornered BioShock dude Ken Levine to get his thoughts.

It was a screw up on our part. I don't think we were ready. We didn't know the game was going to do as well as it did [and the] servers got overwhelmed.... So it went down 6 hours one night and that was really stupid. People had just bought the game, spent $50 and they go home and find out they can't run it. That ain't good.

It [widescreen] was the way we want it to be, but clearly not every gamer agrees with us or how the way it was implemented. Hey, they spent $50 on it, they should have the right to play the game to their atheistic pleasure, not our aesthetic pleasure... While this may make us cringe a bit to see people play ad different FOV than we intended to, it's their game.

Ken Leving Admits BioShock Probs [1Up]