Sega's Steinberg talks PS3, Shenmue III

Sega of America's vice president of marketing Scott Steinberg has joined the massed ranks of company execs discussing Sony's PS3 and the console's pricing, voicing opinions on the next-gen machine in an interview published yesterday (although the interview was actually conducted during E3) on website GameDaily BIZ.

So what's Steinberg got to say? Well, Sega are "staunch supporters of the PS3". Hurrah! Oh, hold on, there's a little more...

What does he think about the price label Sony's slapped on its next-gen console? Steinberg responded that he thinks it's within expectations. "I think it's an expensive device," he admitted, "but it's a very powerful device". Part of that power stems from Blu-ray, the next-gen disc format Sony is squeezing into its console and it's tech that Steinberg reckons Sony needs to convince the world has "a high utility and delivers on a promise, a value promise".

I'm sure they'll sell out", he said though.

"...we think the platform is going to be successful; they just have a job to do in selling and marketing it to not only gamers, but they've also got to play with the Blu-ray platform in the consumer electronics market as well. So they've really got to do two things with their tech to get this platform to be successful", he opined.

Touching on the price of PS3, Steinberg referenced Virtua Fighter 5's port to PS3 and said how there's going to be little, if any, degradation to the graphics: "...effectively you've got thousands of dollars worth of arcade tech in a machine that's 500 bucks, 600 bucks. So there's a lot of value in that machine."

But Steinberg described the price as 'definitely a concern', when asked whether he was worried it may slow the adoption rate of PS3 amongst more mainstream PS2 users - he weighed this up against the strength of the PlayStation brand globally, saying, "Sony has been the clear winner... in Japan, North America and Europe".

He continued: "To ignore that [global brand strength] and sort of use price - I mean PS2 was $299 for a long, long time, so there's definitely a band of consumers who, if they're fired up about a piece of software or multiple pieces of software, they'll pay it."

However, Steinberg opined that it's "super arguable" whether this will still be the case after the fifth or sixth million PS3 has been sold, and reckons - because the console is expensive - Sony will have to reasonably speedily "lifecycle price the hardware" in order to bring it to the masses. $600 for PS3? "For a lot of families that's too expensive", he said.

Leaping away from PS3, Steinberg was also asked whether Shenmue III will ever emerge into daylight. "I really can't answer that", was the response, but did add that part of Sega's mission now is to look at its intellectual properties and "be real selective and smart" about what to 'next-gen' and ensure creatively that the company brings something new to the table with those IPs. Well, that's not a 'no' at least

Via CVG