Hirai: PS3 Home Delay Could be a Positive
Date: Thursday, November 08 @ 09:12:21 UTC
Topic: Playstation 3
PlayStation president Kaz Hirai has admitted to being unsatisfied with the present build of Home, the PlayStation 3’s virtual online space. He’s also addressed the company's PS3 pricing strategy and the defection of Monster Hunter 3 to Wii.
Speaking in an interview with Famitsu, translated by 1UP, Hirai indicated that launching social networking service Home before it was completed would be detrimental to the PlayStation business.
“If anything, we believe the delay would have a positive effect. I personally am not satisfied with the current version of Home. This is a very big project for the PS3 and we want to make sure that we deliver to our hearts content. We hope everyone will look forward to its spring release next year.”
Hirai also noted that the company’s long-term PS3 pricing strategy is to likely match that adopted for its predecessor, with price cuts brought into effect throughout the system’s lifetime, but price reductions won’t occur again until the next-gen console becomes firmly established as a mass-market system with a strong software portfolio.
“When there are more games on the console and the unit itself has also shipped a fair number, one trend is that we are able to reduce the costs. When games of different genres have been released, some of these will appeal to the masses and this is when we have to consider a pricing which would appeal to these types of audiences. This is a common trend so the PS3 doesn't need to go against such trends.”
Hirai went on to put on a brave face in light of Capcom’s recently announced decision to release the previously PlayStation 3-bound title Monster Hunter 3 exclusively on Wii.
“It is my understanding that it is up to the game companies to make business decisions on which platform to release their titles. The series has helped in the success of PS2 and PSP. Capcom has plans to release Monster Hunter Portable 2G for the PSP in March '08 [in Japan] so we hope to continue our partnership with the company.”
News-Source: Next-Gen
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