Topic: What is Sony's Gameplan? Sega's Got The Scoop!!! PS2 Emu & Wand release

[BlackNMild2k1]

Apparently Sega & Sony had a meeting back on Aug. 5th. Here are the things that they discussed.

PS2 emulation, DC games & Japanese Imports through PSN and Sony Wand release Spring 2010.

Original Link: ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_News/SCEA%20Meeting%20Aug%205th%20Notes%20BH.doc

SCEA Meeting Aug 5th Notes
Aug 6 2009 – DRAFT FOR COMMENTS

Objectives of Meeting
Dyer agreed to regular quarterly meetings with SOA

Sony PS3
SCEA reiterated plans to sell 13 million PS3s this year
Big announcement back half of year they can’t talk about (potentially price cut of PS3 to reach hardware goals)
SCEA commented on indexing between PS3 and 360 SKUs, should be around 2:1 to garner most favorable treatment.

Motion Controller
Spring 2010 launch (March in JP)
No bundle/pricing details yet, should come Sept 1
Plan on selling 4-5MM units WW
SCEA agreed to provide a list of Sega IP that would work well with the motion controller, Virtua Tennis was an example
Motion Controller support allows easy way to differentiate PS3 SKU
Other differentiation opportunities include PSP/PS3 interoperability – think of features that would make users want to buy both PS3 and PSP SKUs.

Alpha Protocol
Michael Foster, product evaluator, said AP felt barely RPG. Initial level too challenging for players. “Mass Effect felt more RPG.”
Review notes sent to John Merlino a few weeks prior. After meeting Gerald mentioned AP is a high priority for his team.

Planet 51
Sell in of PS3 SKU – SCEA noted that other movie titles on PS3 had underperformed as well (inc. Transformers) this cycle.
Dyer suggests contacting Susan at Walmart and asking what she wants in the pack to sell this SKU (movie tix etc)
Other possibilities are Hybrid movie disc (BD 25 or 50 with Game and Movie on same disc).

Bayonetta
Collectors edition with Bayonetta Action Figure
Novo recommended launching PSN demo around Xmas based off a Jan 5th Ship date with 2-3 week run out to launch.
3-4 weeks is usually ideal demo timing with fresh content every week leading up to launch (trailers, insider video about PG heritage, video blogs).

Vancouver 2010
HOME, Olympic destination would garner a lot of positive attention from SCEA
Should be doing same with Bayonetta, Marvel etc. Easy to launch in all territories.
HOME merchandizing opportunities (clothes etc).

Sonic Racing
Open to DLC to differentiate PS3 SKU – not ratchet and clank but other characters
maybe characters from Rare or Fable universes

Yakuza
Could put Japanese games directly on PSN for download in a special Japanese Import
section (pricing $9.99 to $39.99 for full game).
Might need to localize menus at least with subtitles.
SCEA interested in helping on MKTG side if they can have period of exclusivity.

AVP
Another great HOME candidate
AVP avatars
Hybrid BD disc with movie

Iron Man 2
Great candidate for HOME space – explore Tony Stark’s lab etc.
Should have one for Marvel in general.

PSU2
Could do bundle at GameStop with PSP 30-35K units on UMD, Go, or both.

Valkyria 1937
Could bundle with PSP as well.

Vanquish and Aliens: CM
Opportunity for PS3/PSP interoperability (see Eidos Batman, Army of Two, Assassin’s Creed for good examples).
If we offer that SCEA would be really interested in having us at their booth next E3.

Thor
SCEA would like a look at the code soon.

Sonic Anniversary
Could put out collectors edition with all old sonic games on one BD disc.
“Best of Sonic” for around $99.
SCEA would love PSN exclusive power ups/different game modes (like Castlevania’s flip it over/backwards)

PS2 emulator for PS3 (confidential)
SCEA wants to sell all PS2 titles on PSN (GTA Vice City/Sonic/etc)
For co Marketing money show PS3 controller on TV ads – similar to EA Madden Spots, NCAA, etc…

London Olympics
Perfect opportunity for Motion Controller integration.

DC Digital Titles
If we provide a list of DC titles SCEA will let us know which ones they’re interested in having exclusively.
If we give them a long period of exclusivity they’ll give us more marketing support.

PSP Titles
For SKU differentiation it’s best to offer features that are slightly different from PS3 version.
Titles that are coming up on PSP are Assassin’s Creed II, GTA China Wars, Resident Evil, Little Big Planet – all massive franchises.
SCEA has a specific PSP deck which they can send up with their hardware director for a chat.

copy of document for your own eyes to see:
http://w697.wrzuta.pl/sr/f/6EjlFpecGCs/scea_meeting_aug_5th_notes_bh

More Stories: http://news.google.com/news/more?um=1&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=dYmhXDMAIrNNZPMT50TYYku4-w2vM

[Peachylala]

The big question is, will Sony's fanbase really care that much?

[BranDonk Kong]

PS2 killed the Dreamcast. Playstation fans =/= Dreamcast fans. Sega has been full of great ideas for the past 20 years. I predict their hardware and software division to be #1 for a long time. Oh, wait...
So, basically Sega is like, "Remember when you put our hardware division out of business 8 years ago? Well, we don't! Le us help you increase your hardware sales."

[TJ Spyke]

"SCEA wants to sell all PS2 titles on PSN (GTA Vice City/Sonic/etc)"

This is the reason Sony refuses to put BC back in the PS3, it has nothing to do with keeping the cost of the system down. Sony would get a large large of any PS2 game sold digitally.

Brandogg, the Sega of 2009 and the Sega of 1999 are basically separate companies. Hell, Sega released a PS2 game before they even officially pulled the plug on the Dreamcast.

[broodwars]

Hopefullly we'll see a general-purpose PS2 BC fix to set the stage for the PSN downloads, rather than a game-by-game basis as is likely to happen.  It's just woefully inefficient to have to download a new copy of the emulator with every game you download.  If Sony's insane enough to believe people will buy digital copies of their PSP games for the same price when you actually get better value with the physical copy, anything's possible.  Besides, I'd like 100% of my PS2 library to work on my 80 GB, rather than 80% (take a guess what percentage of my PS2 games I really want to play right now are fully compatible. -_-' ).

[BranDonk Kong]

Sure they're a different company now, but they're still churning out crap.  broodwars - there will be no BC fix. The PS3 could emulate the PS2 perfectly if they wanted to, and you could run those pretty PS2 CDs and DVDs right in the newer models - but they won't *let* you. They'd rather resell the games. It works for Nintendo, so why not Sony?

[Stogi]

I'm glad I access to a ps3.

[Ian Sane]

there will be no BC fix. The PS3 could emulate the PS2 perfectly if they wanted to, and you could run those pretty PS2 CDs and DVDs right in the newer models - but they won't *let* you. They'd rather resell the games. It works for Nintendo, so why not Sony?

It doesn't work for Nintendo.  Nintendo doesn't sell Gamecube games on the VC and they didn't remove BC to allow them to do it.  What Nintendo does Sony is already doing by selling PS1 games on PSN.  But I don't expect Sony to figure that out.  I have a PS2 so it is not crucial for me if they do it or not.  But they really should.

The big bully tactics only work if you're the market leader.  Nintendo tried arrogant bullshit with the Gamecube and it didn't work.  What position does Sony think they're in where they can be so obvious about ripping people off?  You remove BC and then try to sell PS2 games on PSN?  Who do you think you're fooling?

Hopefully Sony will bail on any such plans WHEN the PSP Go fails.  It's the same concept - selling downloadable versions of games that the hardware used to support until the feature was intentionally removed.

However if they had both BC (and, ****, I'll even let them charge for that) and PS2 downloads that would be fine.  Best of both worlds, right?

[broodwars]

However if they had both BC (and, ****, I'll even let them charge for that) and PS2 downloads that would be fine.  Best of both worlds, right?

Exactly.  I get to play the games I already own, and they get to sell me copies of games I can't find (Ico, anyone?).  At this point, Sony can use all the PR they can get.

[Spak-Spang]

Exactly.  Nintendo's download service...the virtual console worked because it wasn't Backwards compatibility.  It was providing a new way to play old games that might be hard to find or on systems that people don't have anymore.  They were also cheap and retro. 

Nintendo doesn't want large files taking up huge bulks of memory on a hard drive that will probably play worse than the original games.  They wanted to revive classic gaming in a way that actually enhanced the experience.  (Providing a means to save your game on almost every SNES and NES game that didn't allow saving.) 

 

[NWR_insanolord]

Thanks, Sony! If you'd given me actual backwards compatibility instead that and the Dreamcast games would have made me buy a PS3, but since you're not I can spend the $300 on something else.

[BranDonk Kong]

I was referring more to the Virtual Console, and Nintendo's tag line back in the day that the Wii would be backwards compatible with every console Nintendo has ever released. You can't really call playing GameCube games on the Wii "backwards compatibility", since the Wii *is* just a faster GameCube. That would be like saying the GameBoy Color is backwards compatible with GameBoy games. I guess it was a bad comparison. The point is, Sony isn't going to let you play retail PS2 games on newer PS3 systems, ever. If they just wanted to make an emulator like Microsoft did (only Microsoft had to do it because of the hardware partners with the 360 vs the Xbox), then they would have done it 3 years ago when the system was released, and saved some money on hardware costs.

[vudu]

Um, the Game Boy Color is backwards compatible with Game Boy games. 

[Ian Sane]

You can't really call playing GameCube games on the Wii "backwards compatibility", since the Wii *is* just a faster GameCube. That would be like saying the GameBoy Color is backwards compatible with GameBoy games.

But they are backwards compatible.  They're new platforms with their own unique games and they also play game from the previous hardware.  That's what backwards compatibility is.  I would also say the DSi is backwards compatible with the DS.  Exclusive DSi games exist so it is by that nature a different videogame platform.

[BranDonk Kong]

My point is being missed.