Harrison: Non-gamers see controllers as live guns

Phil Harrison, outgoing exec at Sony's worldwide studios, and Peter Molyneux, boss of Microsoft's Lionhead studio, have both agreed that home console controllers are too complex and put new users off playing videogames.

[Iamback]

I dont agree. Depend by game. God of War need ton of button combination and is geared towards hardcore gamers. But something like Buzz does not need a lot of buttons, and is for casual gamers. Case closed, move on.

[CrazedFiend]

He's talking about people new to games who are intimidated by complex controllers. My mother won't touch God of War or any of my other PS games (except for Gran Tourismo games because she knows how to work a steering wheel). Yet she's fallen in love with just about every Wii game I've brought home.

Nintendo's idea of simplicity has actually turned my moms into a gamer (^o^;)

[TrevorPhillips]

yeh same as me i either dont agree

[TrevorPhillips]

yeh of course but doesnt need alot of button its aready got x,circle,square and triangle also the back buttons thats it

[TrevorPhillips]

lets see wat happens now

[Meus Renaissance]

I've never seen Harrison this derogative.

[Iamback]

I guess he is showing his real self now that he left Sony(or was to live when said this)

[Frances-the-Mute]

he can say all he wants now that he is departing, maybe he wants to get some things off his chest...like saying controls are too complicated
:)

[ChefDejon]

did harrison originally wnat the ps3 to be the wii just a diffrent name i mean harrison is one of the best PRs in the business but if that was his orginal outlook of ps3 then i dont believe i could of followed

[name]

That's why theres a console called the PS2. Enjoy.

[ravinash]

You can see by how well the Wii is selling that people (non typical gamers)are more attracted to the Wiis controller. So I can see what Phil is getting at from a business point of view.
Problem is, how do you take buttons away?
All the games use all the buttons...you keep adding features and the devs will keep adding more things to do with them.
An example of that is the sixaxis. it has all the same buttons as previous generations of controllers, but rather that the developers using the sixaxis to replace the controls in some games they just added more things you can do.
Of course when they do try to replace the controls we're used to like in Lair, then all hell breaks loose. So you can't win.
All you can do is bring out two different types of controllers for two different types of games, and even then the extra choice will scare people away.

[Salvadore]

Has Phil "changed"?

[Qbanboi]

Man, this doesn't sound like Phil at all. For the first time, Phil, i don't agree with you. Sorry, but what the hell, it doesn't matter that not gamer things. WE gamers like it like that, and so do 50 millones of people. So...

[Scenarist]

wtf make simpler game for the casual ...like the only button they need is X?

ok the wii is a little simpler but not really just in terms of buttons
I hate how the wii didmt have alot of buttons 0.o I was like okaayyyyy
how am i going to play madden ... then it proved to be harder tham on my ps3

[PS360WII]

It's not just using one button off of the 16 button controller. The regular people still see 16 buttons and don't care if you only use one of them. He's talking of the new gamers that are starting this gen not us guys who have been playing for a good while now. We don't care how many buttons a game needs but give a person the Sixaxis and they'll just give it back to you even if it's the game flOw cuz all they see are buttons and it's threatening to them. Listen to who he is directing that statement to it's not you and me it's the new age gamer and if you look at it that way you can only agree with him.

[Rooted_Dust]

As a regular gamer I really don't care about the learning curve and how hard it is for non-gamers to get into gaming, and I don't care about casual gaming. All I care about is that the quality of the games that I enjoy stays up to par.

[Keyser]

I don't think golfers care how intimidating their hobby is to causals. Its a hobby you have to work hard to get good at.

Phil would be flirting with disaster if he created a system that had two buttons on it because hardcore gamers want more options and the game to do more. He could run the risk of alienating the early adopters and his hard core group that propel gaming. We are the group that show casuals it's not that hard. We are their teachers.

The same casual crowd that bought a Wii this gen will not be buying a Wii 2. If new games come to the Wii 2 a casual person would wonder why they couldn't just play it on their original Wii. They don't buy consoles every 5 years. They buy every 15 years.

Like I said, I know where Phil is coming from and that is why the Wii is perfect for casuals and why the PS1 and PS2 were perfect for 100M+ gamers who want more of a challenge. I know companies want a gaming system in every home like a toothbrush or toilet paper but TV is probably the only entertainment device that has appealed to such a large demographic.

[Superiorrior]

Reading his statements through the past couple days makes me think he had good intentions, but wrong direction for Sony, seems to me it's probably for the best that he resigned.

[THE_JUDGE]

part of the industry rearing its head. I don't think that the whole industry needs to be dumbing itself down just to get more people involved. If you want a simple game, play cards. If you want a simple video game, buy the original nintendo.

[Mr Tretton]

I can understand if they make a "PS3mote" for simple games, but that kind of thing would never be the basis of a Playstation. Your hardcores will drop like flys and go somewhere else.

F*ck the Wii, everything doesn't need to bend towards this FAD.

"The Wii is the 2nd console of choice, people are just buying it first."---Pachter

[xplosneer]

And guitar hero is popular because?

[ElementX]

Controllers aren't too complex. You want a lot of buttons, try a computer keyboard. How about an instrument? Guitar, Drums, Keyboard, anything is more complex than a controller. There are hundreds of millions of people in the world using computers and they don't complain that there are too many keys on a keyboard.