What's going on with Sony's online plans? GamePro speaks with Susan Nourai, the senior director of the PlayStation Network, for a peak at what's to come for PSP and PS3 owners.For starters, what is your role at SCEA?
SCEA created a new organization focused solely on our PlayStation Network business. The goal for this team is to create a center of excellence for online services and digital entertainment delivery. My role is to drive and oversee SCEA's network business strategy, operations, content strategy and marketing across all of our PSN services including the PS Store, playstation.com and PlayStation Home.
The PlayStation Network takes a somewhat different form than other gaming networks. How does this architecture reflect Sony's philosophies about online?
We look at PSN as an emergent entertainment network. Our goal is to take a consumer-centric approach in both user experience, and just as important, to provide the type of content that consumers expect from PlayStation. This is evident in the types of games we offer on the PlayStation Store, like Flow, and the upcoming Calling All Cars and Little Big Planet.
Are you planning to institute a weekly update or more regular update schedule for uploading new content to the Sony online store?
Currently, we post new content every Thursday. Our content offering is growing and we look forward to the fantastic slate of games and entertainment content coming down the pipe.
One complaint of the PS3 online service is that it isn't as immediately accessible as other services; for instance, you often must quit a game to access the Cross Media Bar. Will Sony tighten up the accessibility and community tools in coming months?
Yes. We've only scratched the surface and are working closely with the engineering team in Japan to improve the overall consumer experience. We stay in close touch with our consumers via communication outreach and research and have really appreciate the positive and constructive feedback. We plan to keep enhancing the things we're doing right, and will continue to evolve the service into something our PlayStation fans want. We've accomplished a lot in our four months with over 600,000 registered accounts and 3.7M downloads. It's a great start to a journey and a long-term relationship with our consumers and business partners.
Nobody's done anything like Home in the U.S. before. Why does Sony feel Home will connect with U.S. gamers?
It's made for gamers, by gamers. The initial goal for Home is to facilitate communication and enhance the game experience. Its core value is a "For the people, of the people, by the people" philosophy and we want to achieve this philosophy in the most entertaining way possible. Plus, the application is free to download, so the consumer has everything to gain in a robust, 3D community.
The Home demos showed video streaming to multiple Home users at once, allowing them to "watch" a video together. What's the basic premise behind this technology? Could I pop in a DVD and watch it with my Home friends at the same time? What about Blu-ray?
Sorry, but this is too early to talk about at this time. Stay tuned...
Similarly, how does the big-screen movie theater technology work? How high a resolution can a video be "painted" on the wall, as in the GDC demonstrations?
Again, I cannot discuss tech specs at this time.
Also, are there plans to allow users to access Home from the PSP at some point in the future?
Our goal is to have our PlayStation devices connected to all of our services in PSN to provide the user with a seamless PlayStation world they can access at anytime, from anywhere
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