Jack Tretton Explains Why No BC in 40 GB PS3, Says PS3 is still “Relevant”

Jack Tretton, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, had to do a lot of dodging and backtracking on statement previously made by Sony about the PlayStation 3 during an interview with N’Gai Croal. Frequently referring to the PS3 as still being relevant, he also “explains” why the newly announced 40 GB PlayStation 3 doesn’t contain backwards compatibility – in other words, he provides us with some nice PR fluff to make it seem like a reasonable thing.

When was the decision made to remove backwards compatibility entirely and why?

Well, I think we have long consternated over the issue of bringing tremendous technology to the consumer, something that’s really going to be ahead of its time and carry this industry for the next decade, and the challenge that presented in terms of the retail price point we had to offer. So the goal was trying to reduce the price point of the Playstation 3, but keep all the features that we thought were incredibly relevant to the future going forward. We feel like we’ve been able to accomplish both at $399. We’ve got a price point that I think can finally attract the masses, and we’ve kept all of the features that we think are incredibly relevant to the Playstation 3 in there.

I know that it’s only coming up on a year since the launch. But PS3 was in development for several years, yet developers are still complaining about the hardware. You’ve got games like Madden that are running at half the framerate that they do on 360. You’ve got several multiplatform game titles like Medal of Honor and Stranglehold that are shipping later on PS3 than on 360. There’s still no unified online community features. There’s still no media store for movies and TV shows. And here in North America, the flow of downloadable PS1 titles is a trickle, compared to Japan, which gets a regular stream of releases. What I’m wondering is, why does the PS3 still seem like a moving target a year after its launch?

You’re asking several questions there, so I’ll attempt to answer them one at a time, and if I miss one, feel free to go back to ‘em. I’ll start at the end first. As far as PS1 games being offered in Japan versus a trickle in North America, we’ve proven that every market operates differently. Consumers have different needs and the regions have different approaches to the business. I certainly stand on our success in each of those markets when I say a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work and that’s why our machines have been so relevant on a worldwide basis, because we’ve been able to strategize for each market in terms of what works best.

The other thing you need to do, with anybody who follows this industry, is remember that people have selective memories. You pointed out the fact that Madden is only running at thirty frames per second. The machine hasn’t been out there a year yet. I think a lot of people forget that. The second thing is that we’ve heard that our machines are hard to develop for, because the technology is fairly forward thinking. We’ve heard that on the original PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 and the Playstation 3. If you contrast the fact that Madden is running at 30 frames per second less than a year after the introduction, EA didn’t even launch Madden on the original PlayStation. So we’ve certainly dealt with this before, we’ve heard the same criticisms of the PlayStation 1 and the PlayStation 2, but at the end of the day, the developers got up to speed, the consoles enjoyed an extremely successful long ten-year roadmap.

There are other machines that may have been easier to develop for early on, but certainly didn’t have the staying power, based on what happened historically. Certainly that’s our hope and expectation with Playstation 3. If it’s put in a perspective of ten years, the first 8-10 months is taken relative to getting out the gate quickly and potentially fizzling out in less than ten years. That’s certainly never been our intention. We sacrificed short-term challenges for long-term wins.

Read the full interview here.