On the back of a strong showing at Gamescom, Gamereactor caught up with European Sony president Jim Ryan to find out more about strategies, PS Vita, and transitioning from closed to open platforms.
Ryan had lots to say about PS Vita at Gamescom: "I think in hindsight the Vita did get left behind a little bit [at E3]," he told us. "But I think we put that right yesterday [at the Sony press briefing at Gamescom]."
"There really hasn't been that much top software released over the course of the last couple of months. We went to great trouble yesterday to demonstrate that is going to change, starting next month with Little Big Planet on Vita, then following up with FIFA, with Need for Speed, with Assassin's Creed: Liberation, and of course, with Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified. So we're very excited for the prospects for Vita this Christmas."
One of the most exciting announcements from E3 was for the new Cross Buy scheme. Ryan explained why it wouldn't be appropriate for all games appearing across both formats: "This kind of cross functionality between PS3 and PS Vita is something that we definitely believe in, however there are certain games where it just doesn't make sense."
One of the only concerns surrounding the initiative is whether third party developers and publishers are willing to get behind the idea.
"It's something that we're very happy to encourage. We'd like third parties to really embrace the cross functionality between the two formats, and Ubisoft has done this with Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, there is crossover with the PS3 game."
Ryan also touched on Wonderbook, another exciting innovation, this time aimed at a more family orientated market. During the interview Ryan elaborated on the need to find a balance between casual and core gamers, but he still had plenty to say about the exciting new tech first revealed in L.A. earlier this year: "At E3 we unveiled Book of Spells, and yesterday we started to paint the bigger picture, with the Moonbot partnership, with the BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs... and the tease of the unveiling of the relationship with Disney."
A new patent recently published by Sony wants to gather biometric data of gamers to track whether one is being harassed using AI tools.
I hope this is one of those patents that never comes to fruition.
I already dislike the fact you can pay a significant amount for a online service buy associated games and content on said service and get banned from that service over potentially a misunderstanding the bans are already handed out for flimsy reasons
I'd rather see money invested in a ban that simply removes the offensive players ability to communicate with unknown players allow them to continue party chats with friends but not with Joe blow on cod.
Take my social security and bank account numbers too! Here’s a picture of my wife and our address.
At this rate I feel Sony will eventually sell a room to play games in it where they can monitor your every breath
I want them to censor erotic content by measuring my groin temperature so i dont get too distracted while playing black ops 2.
Terrible idea. Not only do I not consent to providing my biometric data, the potential for mishandling biometric data is almost a certainty. Positive stress and negative stress can produce similar changes in biometrics. Interpreting the precise emotion a person is feeling is not only invasive but could be easily misconstrued. I hope this never comes to fruition.
Sony has recently published a new patent that wants to dynamically handle the games' difficulty and gameplay based on the player's emotions.
This is something I might use. Sometimes I play some good games but they don’t have difficulty option and are a little too easy.
cool idea
cool idea for horror games especially
the way it's explained here sounds like it could never be forced hopefully, so that's ok with me
Sony has recruited Bungie's head of revenue Jaremy Rich to head up its live-service gaming division, Rich has announced on social media.
Please do not put Destiny’s monetization into Sony’s first party games. The monetization is what’s driving players away from Destiny.
I mean, this person made some pretty bad decisions at Bungie. I hope they've learned from them because I definitely don't see those type of ideas as good for PlaySation in general.
Ps5 gamers in 2023 seemed to play more live service types of games, so regardless to how people feel about them, numbers don’t lie and Sony is going where the money is. I mean look at the excitement around Helldivers2, people are showing that they want live service games.
How do you kill a franchise that already been killed?
Destiny’s grind, cash-in-on-playbass-cha-Ching, and pop-culture-insertion mainstream-me-too bs totally killed any rep Bungie had. Sony/Bungie, if you are doing this to ward-off players, it’s already working.