Andy House demos PSP at GDC keynote

Death Jr. Click stream for a larger view, or double-click for full-screen. SAN JOSE--Sony Computer Entertainment America senior executive Andrew House stepped on to the San Jose Civic Auditorium stage this afternoon and delivered a convincing, authoritative, and encouraging statement to developers attending the 2004 Game Developers Conference. His message was scarcely profound--most of the questions worth answering, such as when the PS3 would be released and at what price point, what games would accompany next year's PSP launch in North America, and the specifics of how Sony would support the just-released hard drive, were left conveniently out of the discussion. But what was covered kept attendees firmly planted in their seats.

The main message House conveyed was that Sony and SCEA planned on supporting developers by continuing to ratchet up the installed bases of their PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles and planned on seducing gamers, both hardcore and casual, with additional EyeToy applications and an increased number of online titles.

House referenced the installed base of 100 million PlayStation units worldwide and 70 million PS2 units worldwide, commenting on the much steeper growth curve behind the adoption of PS2 hardware--which is currently 38 percent ahead of the original PlayStation at the same time in its release cycle.

House also stressed the upcoming importance in creating community among the online gaming community (calling online console gaming "the next frontier") and the fact that Sony comes to the budding world of networked console gaming with millions of hours of experience in that area--since SOCOM II's launch in November 2003, in fact, gamers have logged 47 million hours of combined online gameplay, House said.

As far as the upcoming PSP launch goes--and after Digital Eclipse's Chris Charla demoed its in-development PSP title Death, Jr.--House said that "with consumers showing a huge demand for portable gaming, the timing could not be better" for its PSP launch. He predicted that the device would be recognized as being as revolutionary as the PlayStation when it launched and that its ability to offer music, video, games, and productivity applications would make the unit a surefire hit. "And it will have hardware cache...it's a Sony," House added. Looking even further into the future, he claimed it would be the PSP that would lead Sony in the direction of an "interconnected future."

In the single tip of his hat to the PS3 launch time frame, he did concede one strategy Sony was committed to--its own. "Competitive movement is not a factor in the PS3 launch strategy." It was a statement many in the audience suspected could not be applied to Sony's competitors.