EXCLUSIVE: Jack Tretton talks rumble, Metal Gear, and Microsoft on Folding@Home

We ask SCEA president and CEO, Jack Tretton, all our burning questions about the PS3 at Sony's 2007 Gamer's Day.

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GamePro: So we all know you're pushing the 10-year plan with the PS3, but when do you think the PS3 is really going to explode? Is it going to be this fall, 2008?...

Jack Tretton: I'd like to think we'll made some serious headway this holiday season being the first holiday that you're able to have adequate supply and software support. We've certainly seen it on the other Sony platforms like the Psone, PS2 and more recently with the PSP. While that launch period is exciting, it is loaded with anxiety and you cannot win. First we get tortured by not having enough supply at launch, then we deliver and people take pictures at retail and say,"What are we going to do about this?"

Jack Tretton is president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Jack Tretton is president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

And regardless of how good the launch lineup is, the popular conception is that there's no such thing as a good launch game. And I look back at things like Crash and Twisted Metal or any the products we've done a launch on any platform, and it stands the test of time. I really believe that games like Resistance and MotorStorm will be looked upon fondly years down the road. Everyone just assumes that if it makes it out in the launch window, that it can't be technologically superior.

GP: What do you think has been the single best achievement on the PS3 so far?

JT: We've delivered technology that I personally couldn't have imagined a year ago, and I think we've made tremendous strives with the PlayStation from where the market was in the 80s and mid-90s. People said you can't compete with repeat with PS2...there's no way any company ever dominates two generations in a row, and we delivered another quantum leap.

I think the game that we're most excited about that we've seen from the third-party community is probably Metal Gear Solid 4."

Then we were up here in the clouds and how do you top the PS2? And quite frankly I was expecting PlaySation 2.5...an improvement on PlayStation 2, but not this huge leap. But the fact that we've got Blu-ray, Cell, RSX, Wi-Fi, memory card slots...as quiet as it is...zero problems with returns or overheating. It's that sleek and that effective, for $599, is amazing. And if you looked at it in that context, you'd think it'd be $999, not $599. At least that's the way I look at it as a consumer.

But if you live in the world of $299 platforms...wow that's double the previous platform Sony asked me to buy back in 2000. I think the technology is far and away the thing that impresses me the most, and it's just so intuitive. The fact that I can pop in memory stick and load up a slideshow with pictures I just too...heck, I don't know how to make a slideshow on a PC, but I don't need to know how to do it on a PS3. And then I load up my Ludacris CD and now I have a musical soundtrack to go with my pictures. I guess I could have figured it out on a PC, I just don't have the interest to do it, but it's made so easy on the PS3. So would I spend $600 to just make a slideshow on the PS3, no, I want it as a gaming system, but you might say, "Wow, that's cool, or this Blu-ray movie looks great." With the PS3, it delivers to me and pays me back, just as I think the PS2 did that. This multi-functionality and next-gen technology is blowing me away. And I think the longer you're in this industry, the more jaded you become and it's increasing harder to be impressed.

GP: How important is third-party support for the PS3, and what's the single most important third-party game for the PS3?

JT: I think it's extremely important. We would ideally like to have about 25-30% of the market, and we'd like third-party to occupy the rest just in sheer number of units. I think the third parties have been a tremendous key to our success, not just to one game but also about a breadth and depth of library. I think we need to do a better job of getting the tools in the hands on the third-party development community so that they can know what we know. I think they'll get there with or without us, but we're definitely working on that right now.

I think the game that we're most excited about that we've seen from the third-party community is probably Metal Gear Solid, that's the one people talk about the most. I think recently Ninja Gaiden Sigma is looking pretty cool, and Devil May Cry 4 is looking good, too. The Japanese developers are really producing some great stuff, which is evident by these games.


NEXT PAGE: PS3 getting next-gen rumble? Metal Gear 4 talk

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