SCEJ President, Hiroshi Kawano, discusses the PS4 announcement

After the PS4 announcement last night, Famitsu had an interview with Hiroshi Kawano to talk to him about the specifics of the  PlayStation 4. Here he discusses the hardware, the system’s main point of difference, future announcements and, of course, the origins of that imaginative name. The following is a translation of that interview.

 

Famitsu: PlayStation 4 is big news, can we think of it as a games console.

Kawano: Yes… but more accurately it’s a next generation computer entertainment system.

 

Famitsu: Was naming the PlayStation 4 an easy decision?

Kawano: Yes it was, we did have a discussion about it of course – but in the end decided PS4 made sense.

 

Famitsu: All sorts of new elements were announced – but what do you think is the sales point of PS4?

Kawano: I would say it’s lowering the entry level.

 

 

PS4 System menu

 

Famitsu: What do you mean by that – I remember you saying ‘simple’ as a keyword throughout the presentation.

Kawano: We thought we could to a lot so that people can enjoy their games more casually. I see that possibility in PlayStation 4. We’ve also lowered the entry level for developers – developers can make things for PS4 much more easily. I understand how it’s important to address the hardcore consumer, and that’s a lot of fun, but we’ve also included lots of communication and social media functions to make playing games even more fun. There’s a lot of space for developers to experiment with the way people play on PS4. If you think of that, even games which have already been released, played on PS4 they could be even more enjoyable, bring more, different kinds of fun. The way people enjoy games is going to change.

 

Famitsu: So as one of the ways to change the way people play games, you’ve added the touch pad to the dual shock. What kinds of uses do you have in mind for this.

Kawano: We are currently exploring the possibilities – I can’t tell you anything specific now, but we will reveal this in the future.

 

Dual Shock 4

 

Famitsu: You’re saying the media will be blu ray. Can we play PS3 games on it?

Kawano: At the moment it’s not possible to play packaged software on the PS4.

 

Famitsu: Will you put PS3 games on the archives and release via PSN?

Kawano: As a concept, we are thinking of that – but we have to investigate that more thoroughly. It is an important part of our strategy. Besides, Gaikai has joined the company…

 

Famitsu: What will the price be? Will it be a console price?

Kawano: What’s a console price? We’ll release the price in the future. We have yet to show the console hardware itself – something we plan to do in stages…

 

PS4 System menu 2

 

Famitsu: Since you didn’t announce the design, does this mean it’s not finalised.

Kawanao: It’s decided, but we’re just and refining the details.

 

Famitsu: We have E3 and TGS coming up…

Kawano: yes we’re planning announcements for those… there’s still much we haven’t told you.

 

Famitsu: There’s still a lot of PS4 secrets? Are there any future events planned in Japan?

Kawano: We’re currently discussing this. There’s not point to do the same announcement we did today again.

 

The original interview can be found HERE

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