James Delahunty
18 Feb 2007 15:06
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) executive vice president, Phil Harrison, has hinted that movie downloads may be available soon for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. In an interview with 1UP, Harrison revealed the company will expand the PS3's functionality to include "not just games but movies, music, HD, standard definition TV", all part of a 10 year plan for the console.
"Well we made a very conscious decision in putting a hard drive in every machine and a minimum of 20GB, 60GB and who knows in the future, maybe that will rise -- you know, that tends to be a trend," he said, while speaking about the benefits of the included HDDs. "The ten year plan of allowing people to download all kinds of digital content to their PlayStation 3 -- not just games but movies, music, HD, standard definition TV, you name it. And that was a significant investment, but it was absolutely the right thing to do."
When asked if Sony would reveal a similar service to Microsoft's Xbox Live Video Marketplace, Harrison said, "We have a hard drive, we have a commerce engine, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we will have that on the network very shortly." Microsoft's download service for the Xbox 360 has seen strong sales, especially of high definition downloads.
Harrison also took the opportunity to address some claims that Sony may slash the price of the PS3 as early at this year. "Well, do you know what [Sony Senior VP Takao Yuhara] said was, cost reduction, not price drop, and there's a big difference between cost reduction and price drop. So, that I believe is where the confusion came from," Harrison explained. "Obviously, we are investing our money in making PlayStation 3s cheaper to manufacture -- that's part of our business plan."
Sony loses an estimated $301 on every PlayStation 3 (PS3) sold.
Source:
DailyTech