Sony Employee Confirms - Blu-ray Was A Mistake

Joined
Dec 2, 2004
Messages
2,335
Reaction score
5
God of War Creator David Jaffe has admitted that if he could change something about the PS3, he would remove it's Blu-ray player and sold the console for a lot cheaper.



http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150588&page=2



"In part two of Geoff Keighley's Bonus Round with Sony Santa Monica Studio Creative Director David Jaffe over at GameTrailers.com, the God of War creator had a number of interesting things to say, but it was perhaps his comments in a teaser clip for part three that will draw the most attention.

When asked what he would change about the PlayStation 3, he responded, "I probably would have taken the Blu-ray out and sold it for less money." Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, but Sony certainly doesn't seem to view the inclusion of Blu-ray as a mistake. Jaffe didn't outright label it a mistake either, but he's the first Sony employee (to this editor's knowledge) to even question the need for Blu-ray.

SCE Worldiwide Studios President Phil Harrison and other Sony executives have repeatedly stressed the importance of the Blu-ray format, not just as a next-gen movie format, but as a game disc format that provides game developers with plenty of storage space to build highly detailed game worlds without the need for multiple discs. Microsoft has been using standard DVD-9 discs for the Xbox 360 and has thus far (in the U.S.) avoided any multiple disc scenarios through the use of highly advanced compression techniques. [Note: In Japan, Blue Dragon was released on three discs.]

Earlier on in part two of the Bonus Round, Jaffe once again commented on his love for smaller downloadable games, such as Calling All Cars. Echoing sentiments he expressed to GameDaily BIZ during a GDC interview, Jaffe commented, "I want to do games that take 10-13 months; I want to do games that aren't always story-driven, that are more gameplay-driven."

Interestingly, when Jaffe was asked about the possibility of one day starting his own independent studio, he seemed to embrace the idea as one he's already given much thought to. "I think it's a great idea and it's an idea that I've explored and will continue to explore," he said. "You never really know - Sony's been a great home for a long time and whether or not it's with an independent studio or staying within the walls of Sony, I always want to be able to contribute to Sony's [camp], but the specific way to get to that destination is under discussion right now. So whether or not that becomes a full fledged company or it becomes a more focused role within Sony, which is sort of all about these [smaller] games is sort of TBD at the moment."

For Jaffe, it's not just a matter of his enjoying creating smaller titles, but it also comes down to his realization during the God of War development period that he just can't do those big, epic titles anymore. "God of War was an eye-opener for me; all I did was live at that studio," he revealed.

"This is your life. It's the one you get, for the moment anyway, and it doesn't make sense to do things other than what makes you excited," Jaffe said. "For me now that I've gotten the 'big game' out of my system, this is what's in my system now."

And in typical outspoken Jaffe fashion, he remarked that big games aren't necessarily "better" than smaller ones and added regarding the drive to constantly create big blockbusters, "It's like, 'F**k you capitalist society that says all I need to do is work and contribute to the bottom line. F**k you up your a**.' I want a life."

Jaffe also said that while Calling All Cars, which uses the Warhawk engine, obviously doesn't maximize the PS3's power, "It's [still] a pretty advanced game under the hood; there's a lot going on." The important thing to remember, he said, is that it's $9.99 and fun to play. Of note, Jaffe did admit to a "mistake" of sorts on the development of Calling All Cars. He said that because the game is going to appeal to real gamers anyway (not "soccer moms"), it might have been a wiser marketing move to go with an "edgier or more mature" thematic on top of the same gameplay.

Go check out the full video interview on Bonus Round; it's definitely worth watching."
 
He never said it was a mistake. Blu-ray clearly wasn't ready for full production, and so leaving it out for now would mean that they could either integrate it into a new version of the PS3 or just keep the players as standalone. So you could probably say it was a mistake for the PS3, but overall it's a good idea.
 
Well, he's a games developer that's transitioning into making smaller, downloadable games. Extra storage space means **** all to him. For him, he'd be better off if there were more consoles in homes to download his games rather than be able to put 50GB of data on a disc.

It may have been a mistake to include Blu-Ray, although in the long run I think not. In addition to vastly expanding the Blu-Ray market it will also probably be very important for games down the line. Anyone who says next generation games won't need more than a DVD9 when the format wasn't even enough for certain PS2 games is delusional. If PS3 does become significantly more popular than the 360, you're probably going to see heavily gimped ports to the 360 or multiple discs. If the 360 is more popular, its' DVD9 drive will likely hold all the multiplatform games back and the BR drive wouldn't be too worthwhile then.

Regardless, PS3 exclusive games will always enjoy great advantages in terms of sound, video, and special features.
 
If the PS3 didn't come with Blueray you'd have to get one eventually and that leads devs deadlocked into DVD format like the X360 is.
 
The other downside being the ps3 Blu-ray player not currently outputting at 1080/24p - hence the number of complaints over juddering during horizontal and vertical pans. A rumoured update is meant to fix this, but nothing has been confirmed (don't hold your breath). It also seems that the BR format is being updated ('java' enabled) around October time and that there may be some incompatability issues with older (read PS3) players.

I've been offered a great deal on a PS3 recently, which i'm 99% sure i'll accept, but am still most concerned about it's capabilites as a BR player - the sole reason such a high price tag can be justified.
 
Whoa, you can't just make the assumption of "Sony Employee confirms"

First off, he couldn't make the decision if he wanted to. He's not the one who decided that.

Second, he's a really outspoken and controversial member of the community. Of course he'll say what's on his mind.

Anyways, I agree though. Too early for Blu-Ray.
 
Not only is this really being blown way out of proportion, this is all pretty misleading. Any reasonable person who saw the ****ing interview on Game Trailers knows be basically meant: Although it would have been a mistake in the long run, releasing it cheaper without the blu-ray would have been a better choice to him. While David is a sony employee, putting the title as "A Sony Employee confirms" tries to allude to a situation where a sony employee that actually had worked on the PS3 is coming out and saying it was a mistake. Stop trying create some kind of elaborate anti-sony debacle.
 
Anyone who says next generation games won't need more than a DVD9 when the format wasn't even enough for certain PS2 games is delusional.
Your stacking the deck! You completely ignore the fact about the level of compression you could pull off with the Ps2 compared to the 360,.


I would agree that in the long term putting blu-ray into the Ps3 was smart. However that long term will only be like that if the short term game is strong enough.
 
didn't one of the Gears of War programmers talk about how he wished they could have used blu-ray because fitting all the data on a disk the xbox could play was a pain in the ass?
 
Your stacking the deck! You completely ignore the fact about the level of compression you could pull off with the Ps2 compared to the 360,.

I really wasn't. Games can be compressed more with these newer consoles, but with sacrifices. Also, it won't be long before they become too big for these new compression methods (or maybe they won't get so big in the first place because of space limitations). The 360 has only been out for a little over a year and already games are knocking on the door of the 9GB limit. These high quality assets take space.

I think MGS4 may be one of the first games to showcase the advantages of Blu-Ray. The things they're doing with sound are supposed to be incredible, with tons of different effects that are entirely context sensitive. Supposedly they're going to fill up the Blu-Ray.
 
I'll take HD-DVD :eek:

Pfft to your inferior amount of storage space. The wait for cheap media/burning roms is annoying I can say that much. Heck even dual layer DVDs are still relatively expensive.
 
Blu-Ray is selling 4x more than HD-DVD discs, probably due to the PS3.
 
Most probably.

I've no problem with the PS3 having a BR player included - there are some obvious, if imo rather minor, advantages for games. However, if it doesn't do the job as a movie player acceptably (SD playback is pretty dire and it's BR performance has a problem) then i'll end up forking out for a standalone player too - which would suck!

Despite everything i've said over the months, the PS3s multimedia functionality makes it an attractive proposition to many. It's also priced alot of people out of the market. However, it won't belong untill we can pick up much better BR players for under half the price of a PS3, thus making the package considerably less attractive. Kind of ironic that it's the bluray player itself, rather than the price and games available, that are holding me back.
 
The only game that would have trouble fitting on the dual-layer DVD are those Japanese games that insist on having 50 hours of 1080i FMV in their games. Just take a look at oblivion. The game has hours of sound, a lot more content than something like gears of war or resistence, and it is still one of the better looking games out there. It has an excuse to be much larger than most of the games out there, but fits on a single dvd. The only people who will tell you that you need blu-ray or hd-dvd work at sony or are Japanese, or both.
 
The only game that would have trouble fitting on the dual-layer DVD are those Japanese games that insist on having 50 hours of 1080i FMV in their games. Just take a look at oblivion. The game has hours of sound, a lot more content than something like gears of war or resistence, and it is still one of the better looking games out there. It has an excuse to be much larger than most of the games out there, but fits on a single dvd. The only people who will tell you that you need blu-ray or hd-dvd work at sony or are Japanese, or both.

I don't know why I find this hilarious but I just do. Sorry but hi definition gaming, first person shooters mainly will use more than 9gb in the future.

Not having to compress you content alone is a huge advantage, you can just stream directly rather than having to constantly decompress your materials before streaming can begin.

I mean no one needs more than 640k of memory right?
 
I don't think thats really whats going to happen.


- If you have a large closet, you just throw shit in it, no problem - meaning that you don't use the space available efficiently.

- But if you have a small closet, you fit your stuff in it anyway.

Either way, you get your stuff put away.

Certainly, it's nice to have a big closet, or Disc, as the case may be, but if worse comes to worse, and you really can't fit your clothes (or data) in it, then you have a ton of clothes, and you will have to find somewhere else to put some of it, like the dresser, or another disc as the case may be.


I dont know, it sounded good.

Anyway, the DVD's are cheaper, so the 360 games can sell for pretty cheap if they want. I'm sure their will be tons of bestseller older and smaller games for only like $20 in no time, if not already. Dunno. I bet the BluRay games won't be that cheap for years and years .. and maybe some more years.


Sorry but hi definition gaming, first person shooters mainly will use more than 9gb in the future.

I mean no one needs more than 640k of memory right?

All this talk about the future. In the future games will require more space. Everyone is saying this, and I don't disagree. But we don't live in the future, we live in the present. In the future, I might need 6GB of ram on my PC, but If I were to get it now, it would be unused and useless, and a total waste of hard earned money. This is the case with the BluRay discs. The current games for PS3 don't even contain enough data to fill a dual-layer DVD.

Dual Layer DVD is still new. Why jump ship to something so expensive? Why? I'll tell you why. Because Sony wants control. Thats all. Like any corporation, they want your money. If they make the disc, they get money everytime anything is created on one of these discs.

I don't care if BluRay is successful. I'm just watching the fight. I didn't bet on it.
 
Dual Layer DVD is still new. Why jump ship to something so expensive? Why? I'll tell you why. Because Sony wants control. Thats all. Like any corporation, they want your money. If they make the disc, they get money everytime anything is created on one of these discs.

I don't care if BluRay is successful. I'm just watching the fight. I didn't bet on it.

Oh ffs give Sony a break. Do you really care if some huge corporation who doesn't give a damn who the hell you are gets your money? No you don't because you do it anyway with other companies.
 
I do care, because I like Sony games. I like Video games. But unfortunately, I can't just buy a game player, I have to buy a movie player instead.
I don't want to buy expensive technology that I won't use. I don't own a HD-TV, so what the hell good is a blu ray player to me? Expensive bluRay Discs that look like DVD's on my TV.

Do you see what I'm saying Kyo?

I don't even buy movies, I just watch TV.

Blabering:
When I was about 13, I wasn't working, I was too poor to have a Nintendo or any games. Do you know how bad I wanted Zelda (1)? and Mario Brothers? As I grew up, eventually I made up for it by being able to buy all the systems. For years, I would buy all the systems - Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, N64, etc. - but now, I don't want any (bad enough to buy). Im tired of buying 3 video game systems. Just forget it, I'm sticking with a PC.

I don't want to buy any of the systems because they have just gotten too expensive. $199 was a shit-load of money for a video game player as I was growing up. Now they have decided to charge $500 dollars and more. DO you know how many Vulking quarters that is? ;P

I like playing the Wii at my brothers house with his kids, it's kewl, but I probably won't buy a Wii either because I am too busy.
 
Warbie you're such a console whore, you love it ;P

But for the Blue Ray, the largest problem with blue ray is it's still new and the older films wont be specced to 1080p anyway. Cap this off with the awesome upscale performance of the 360 on DVDs, and you can see why people are less keep to jump to BlueRay from DVDs as they were from Video to DVD.

Blue Ray needs a few more years to get rolling. I think it'll be too late to make a difference for the PS3.
 
I do care, because I like Sony games. I like Video games. But unfortunately, I can't just buy a game player, I have to buy a movie player instead.
I don't want to buy expensive technology that I won't use. I don't own a HD-TV, so what the hell good is a blu ray player to me? Expensive bluRay Discs that look like DVD's on my TV.

Do you see what I'm saying Kyo?

I think this falls under the category of your loss. I actually agree with you though I'd rather spend 500-1000 bucks every few months on my PC (usually HDD upgrades) then a massive TV I'd rarely use. I have house mates that use my consoles and they pay for all the crap they want for it not me.
 
But for the Blue Ray, the largest problem with blue ray is it's still new and the older films wont be specced to 1080p anyway

ahem:

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/supermanthemovie.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/terminator.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/blazingsaddles.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/totalrecall.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/goodfellas.html

Old movies look superb at 1080p, better than you've ever seen them (try watching these in SD after seeing them on BR - it isn't pretty). Film can cater for this res with room to spare. There's even more available for HD DVD if you look around - Conan The Barbarian has been announced \o/


And you're right - i'm a console whore and I do love it :)
 
HD Star Wars and Indiana Jones are going to be awesome!
 
The number one problem with blue-ray is that very few developers are going to make full use of it.
No-one is going to make a game for the ps3 that cant then be ported over to the 360 (exclusives notwithstanding), and making full use of a blue-ray disk would mean making a 360 game spanning 8-10 discs.
If sony were in the drivers seat with a shed load of exclusives and microsoft two years behind, then it would make sense, but as things are now blue-ray is hindering sony more than its helping.
 
Back
Top