GTA? We don't need GTA, we're Sony!

Major Nelson · 06-23-2006

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3151639
Sony: GTA? We Don't Need GTA, We're Sony
Sony exec: Battle won't be different sans GTA.
by Luke Smith, 06/21/2006

122.00 of 140 users recommend this story.
"Q: So are you saying that not having an exclusive on Grand Theft Auto doesn't hurt you at all?
A: No, I don't think it hurts us. No, I really don't."
In a piece titled, "Sony's Playing to Win," financially focused site The Street talks with Sony's co-Chief Operating Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Jack Tretton about the PS3's upcoming battle with the Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.

In the piece, Tretton discusses the diminished importance of third-party exclusives in this console cycle, as part of a discussion on Sony's loss or decision (the world may never know) to not have Grand Theft Auto 4 exclusively in 2007.

"There's no question that having the Grand Theft Auto franchise helped us a lot and helped us sell some units, but I don't think the battle would be any different with or without Grand Theft Auto.

If you look at our first-party library and the franchises that we've brought to market over the course of PlayStation 2, we have a very formidable first-party library of exclusive software that will help define us."

"The days of locking up exclusive content from a third party and having that be key to your strategy is really a dangerous road to go down because I think with the cost of development, not many developers can afford to do exclusivity. So, really what defines the uniqueness of a platform from a software standpoint are the offerings that you have from first party."

Tretton seems to be pointing at Sony's big library of first-party exclusives, as the source of Sony's future success but right now those first-party launch stables are filled with unproven horses like Resistance: Fall of Man and Warhawk (eventually we'll see PS3 versions of Gran Turismo, Ratchet & Clank and God of War, too). When asked about having a foil to Microsoft's Halo 3, Tretton responds by saying that the library of Sony Computer Entertainment has outsold Halo because Halo "was the one and only title to come out there. So, do we have a title? I don't know."

Tretton continues, "I guess I'd have to look at the numbers on Grand Turismo vs. the numbers on Halo. But I can guarantee you that Sony Computer Entertainment's first-party software far and away outsold Microsoft's first-party software."

GO

XBOX 360