SCEJ president: NGP has "got to receive support from gamers"

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan president Hiroshi Kawano has told Famitsu that NGP "isn't something that's driven solely by us at SCE."

According to Kawano, not only does the device need support from developers, but "it's got to receive support from gamers."

"We visited a number of companies to discuss this because we wanted to know and care about what the creators and front-line developers thought, " he said. "This started last spring, right around when I came to SCE. We received all sorts of opinions from developers, and they liked some things and didn't like other things. That debate process was something I think was extremely important for us -- I think a lot of creators, not just the ones that spoke at our conference, really feel like they were an integral part of the NGP's hardware design process.

"When you think about how to make a platform popular and exciting, eventually it all comes down to how the users are participating in the thing. We need more than ourselves and the software companies -- we need the users, and we also need the media contributing. If we have a clear vision and drive on how to expand our platform and the industry in general, that allows us to expand our ideas and get down to the core of what we're doing. We wouldn't leave everything to the users' whims, but we can turn an eye to them, at least.

" I want to be able to absorb what users think of the things SCE and the publishers are doing, and I think we'll be establishing a project like that."

Kawano believes though that just because a company has achieved success with something, is no reason to sit back and have a good rest because there are always more challenges to face, especially in the gaming industry.

"If you hit with something, then you're reluctant to change anything later on," he said. "The game industry is no different; it's facing tough challenges partly because of the successes it's experienced in the past. Whether we can overcome those challenges or not depends on how adaptive we decide to be.

"The thing is, though, we have all the technical skills, the people, and the resources we need to manage that. That's why I think the PlayStation has a bright future ahead of it."

Thanks, 1UP.