Sir Howard Stringer believes that the PlayStation 3 is doing well and says that game developers have only just scratched the surface of the machine’s gaming power, according to an interview given by the Sony CEO to CNET.
Stringer was confident and upbeat on the present position of the PS3 in the market place. "We’re now very comfortable with our research program for PlayStation 3, which one researcher recently described as the Mercedes of games players, for obvious reasons. The million is more than we delivered of PlayStation 2 so, for all the anxiety, I think PlayStation 3 is well on the way to living up to that promise. That’s a good sign."
Sony has always stressed the superiority of the PS3’s Cell processor and the power it brings to the experience of gaming. However, many gamers have been underwhelmed by the launch titles, and for good reason. Stringer believes this is a result of developers failing to harness the full scope of the PS3’s abilities. "Lost in the shuffle is the fact that the current games that are out there are only using about 20 percent to 25 percent of the bandwidth. Once the publishers’ excitement reaches a level of intensity that they start using more of the bandwidth, that will create additional excitement."
Recent surveys and polls indicate that there is a decided lack of buzz concerning the next-gen DVD formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray. However, Stringer seems to have an inside track on consumer preferences and claimed that the majority of PS3 owners have adopted Blu-ray and are actively watching Blu-ray movies.
"I’d say 90 percent of the people who [have] PS3s are playing that Blu-ray disc on it or playing other Blu-ray discs on it. Contrary to some of the reports, it is an effective Blu-ray player. The people who like Blu-ray are the people who play PlayStation 3, just as people who play PS2s were the early proponents of the DVD format. It drove the DVD format."
Stringer’s assessment that an astounding 90% of PS3 owners have adopted Blu-ray as their primary DVD movie format may be vastly overstated, and if anything, proves that the practice of bundling Blu-ray movies with PS3 packages may have padded the real figures. Regardless of the Blu-ray’s success or adoption rate, Sony has one goal in mind: to make up for lost ground and dominate the market. This will only have a chance of happening once game developers begin taking advantage of the PS3 hardware and produce more high-quality titles.
