SCEA head Phil Harrison recently talked about Sony’s plans to infiltrate the online market, with plans to supplement the PS3’s e-Distribution Initiative (EDI) with a variety of 3D games. "We,re developing about 40 products that fit that [downloadable game] strategy right now,” Harrison said. “We showed the very first one of those, called flOw, at the Tokyo Game Show for the first time. That got a really, really good response.” Harrison also added that he feels that Sony’s method of online distribution will further inspire innovation amongst developers.
Of course, what’s an official announcement from Sony without some obligatory faux pas? Despite everyone’s allusions to the noticeable similarities between Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade, Nintendo’s Virtual Console, and Sony’s online service, Harrison has pointed out that they will ultimately surpass and set themselves apart from the competition.
"My strategy was to encourage developers to push the machine technically, creatively, artistically-to innovate in lots of different ways. But don’t be restricted by ghettoising games into a particular genre, or a particular display mechanic, because what we’ve seen on other systems tend to be retro 2D games, and we’re pushing the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation 3. Plus, the fact that every PS3 has a hard disk drive means that we’re not restricted by the size of the download, and that has a huge impact on the kind of game design that you can do."
